Cougars finally finish off St. Charles East for regional title

 

CONANT VS. ST. CHARLES EAST PHOTO GALLERY
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By Gary Larsen

Conant figured out its potential this year with a 9-0 start to the season that included a 4-2 win over MSL rival Fremd.

The Cougars lost 2-1 to Neuqua Valley but proved themselves again by becoming only the second team all year to take a lead on the nationally No. 1-ranked Wildcats, in one of the best high school soccer games played at this year’s Naperville Invitational.

Sure, the regular season ended a little bumpier than Conant would have liked, but it was nothing a regional title wouldn’t cure.

The Cougars returned to the ground possession game they love to play and used it well throughout a 2-0 win over St. Charles East, in a 3A regional title game played at Wheaton North on Friday.

“It was pretty relentless pressure by us and one of our better games in a while,” Conant coach Jason Franco said.

Coaches can tell by their team’s pre-game approach if its players are ready to play, and the Cougars got mentally prepared during the drive from Hoffman Estates to Wheaton.

“We were focused from the beginning of the game and before that – on the bus and in warm-ups,” Conant senior Paige Wentzel said. “We knew we had to play like it was our last game. We didn’t want our season to be over and I feel like that was one of the best games we’ve had. We really brought our focus today.”

St. Charles East (9-9-3) pushed hard from the opening whistle but Conant (17-4) began to find its attacking groove early in the first half. Courtney Raetzman forced a tip-save over the crossbar at 34 minutes to cap a handful of quality shots taken by Conant through 40 minutes.

The Cougars left the first half behind with confidence that a goal would eventually present itself.

“We knew it at halftime. We were pumped because we played a really good half and we were ready for a goal. We knew it was coming,” Conant forward Kaitlin Chiero said. “We picked up the momentum, found feet, and found our rhythm. We were communicating, moving for each other, and we were pumped.”

Conant defenders Kelly Lomas, Kim Trinco, Drew Wentzel, Kelsey Foss, and goalkeeper Lindsay Fillingim have given up 13 goals in 21 games, and they defied the Saints’ attack from finding quality scoring chances throughout.

The girls in the middle of the pitch were also shining for Conant on Friday.

“I thought Chrissy (Rosales), Paige (Wentzel) and Alyssa (Altosino) – our three center mids that we rotated in there – all played really well,” Franco said. “But it was a pretty good team effort. Everyone played pretty well.”

Paige Wentzel pointed to one of the universal truths about midfield play, and one that she and her running mates in the middle rose to meet the challenge of against the Saints.

“Sometimes you expect the ball to come to you but you’re not really moving. Today, I went and got the ball,” Wentzel said. “I felt like I contributed.”

Still, with three-quarters of the game gone scoreless despite their side’s solid attacking play, folks on Conant’s side were starting to get a little nervous.

“It was fun to watch but it was one of those games where the goal wasn’t coming," Franco said. "I was starting to wonder if it was going to be one of those games where we don’t finish and it burns us. And right when I thought maybe the goal wasn’t going to come for us, there it was.”

The game went scoreless all the way to the 66th minute, when Sammi van de Linde sent a ball ahead to Chiero. With the Saints’ keeper charging her, Chiero sent a head shot over her from beyond the top of the penalty area. The header had enough on it to roll calmly over the goal line as a pair of Saints raced back after it to no avail.

“I saw (the keeper) running out and I was kind of shocked because I didn’t think she was coming out,” Chiero said. “So I just headed it and hoped.”

Raetzman’s game-long relentlessness in the attack was finally rewarded with a goal that essentially iced the game at 73 minutes, when she poked a ball up, over, and inside the far post from the right side.

And with Conant’s back line keeping a tight lid, two goals proved one more than necessary as the Cougars posted their 13th shutout of the season.

“We knew they were kind of possession-oriented and liked to pass the ball around, and they’re athletic and scrappy,” Franco said of the Saints. “Our challenge to our girls was to match their energy. Make them turn their game around and play different than they’re used to playing. If they didn’t have the ball that much and they weren’t able to knock it around like usual, we thought they’d get frustrated and that’s what happened.”

Friday’s win set up a sectional semifinal game on Tuesday against top-seeded Conant and 7th-seeded Lake Park. The grass field of sectional host St. Charles East won’t be as conducive to the Cougars’ style of play as an artificial surface, but at least it’s a grass field with which their coach is familiar.

Franco was a player on the St. Charles team that won back-to-back state titles in 1995 and 1996 for coach Paul Keenan.

“It’s a wide field and it’s about the right size. It’s just that the surface isn’t great, so we’ll see. Hopefully it will rain a little bit and keep that surface soft because when it’s rock-hard, it’s tough,” Franco said.

The Cougars suffered a pair of losses to MSL foes Barrington and Hersey before regional play began, but they didn’t let those losses get inside their heads.

Conant won 8-0 in a regional opener against Hoffman Estates before facing St. Charles East, and the Cougars believe they’re back on track.

“At practice we talked about how we needed to get out of this mood, and how we can’t let two losses keep us down,” Wentzel said. “And (Franco) pushes us to go hard in practice and not just go through the motions, and to do things at game speed so that when we get into the game, we’re ready.”

“We’ll need to play well, obviously, from here on out,” Franco said. “This is what we need going forward. We had a couple of hiccups but we’re healthy and we’re hitting our stride a little bit. Hopefully we can keep this rolling."