Climo gets a foot on a reginal title for Naperville North

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By Bill Scheibe

A cross by sophomore forward Zoe Swift created a rugby-like scrum to the left of sprawled Metea Valley goalkeeper Megan Geldernick. Naperville North’s Cora Climo would not, or rather could not, be denied.

Only 8:17 into Friday afternoon’s Class 3A regional championship game, Swift lived up to her last name – dribbling deep to the end line before spinning across a pass the skipped past Geldernick’s gloves and into a pile of players. And Climo, plugging away near the far post, found what she was looking for.

Something. Anything. An-y-thing.

“I just wanted to get any piece of my body on it,” Climo confirmed. “Zoe had the ball going up the line and I wanted to get it in, and I stuck my foot out. Definitely, definitely, I had a girl on each side of me, but I was trying to get any part of my body on it that I possibly could there and, luckily, it went in.”

That’s how it went for the second-seeded host Huskies and seventh-seeded Metea Valley. A sophomore outside midfielder, Climo scored the early winner on pure willpower. Swift set up the quick goal. And senior goalkeeper Abby Green notched the shutout with eight saves for the fortuitous 1-0 victory.

It was the seventh regional title for Naperville North (14-5-1) since 2002 and the Huskies’ 11th shutout this spring. Metea Valley (12-10-1), a first-year varsity program fresh off a 2-1 overtime win in the first round against Lockport, also dropped a 1-0 decision to North in a regular-season game on April 25.

The Huskies were helped by a flip-flop of that earlier script, when Swift scored with only 2:25 remaining in regulation to thwart the Mustangs. This time, Swift struck early, her pass eluding dynamic sophomore Geldernick (12 saves) before Climo climbed a mountaintop of defenders to score into the right corner.

Again, something. An-y-thing.

“Anything can happen in soccer,” Swift said. “Cora was waiting for the ball and I made sure she got it. I was looking for her because I knew she was making her run, and she doesn’t get the ball a lot. We try to get the ball to her and it never quite gets there, so I wanted to make sure she got it and got the goal.”

“To get that first one in the playoffs is huge,” Naperville North coach Brent Terada said. “It takes a lot of pressure off. But just because we got that first one, we still knew they would keep coming at us. We had to stay organized, keep working hard, and match their intensity to do the things we wanted to do.”

Thus, the Huskies earned what they wanted, advancing into Tuesday night’s 6:30 sectional semifinal at Waubonsie Valley against the winner of Saturday’s regional final between third-seeded Naperville Central (13-6-3) and sixth-seeded Plainfield North (17-2-2). The two teams tied 1-1 on March 19.

For a while, Metea Valley made waves as being bound for the sectional. After Climo scored, the Mustangs peppered Green for the remainder of the first half with their best scoring opportunities, particularly on shots by sophomore forward Alyssa Fox and freshman midfielder Jenna Kentgen.

“We did everything we wanted to do,” Metea Valley coach Pat Feulner said. “We knew they had the long thrown-in and they would bang the ball to No. 4 (Swift), and I was proud of our kids. They played very well. We controlled the ball, we had good chances, and the ball just didn’t go in the net for us.”

In that regard, Naperville North can thank Green and senior defender Jamie Meno, who tracked back with speed and bodied Fox on a breakaway with 25:25 left in the first half. Green also stopped a shot by Kentgen that bounced away to Fox, who was stymied by Green on the point-blank rebound attempt.

And, yes, there’s more.

Freshman midfielder Tyler Proszowski fed Fox for a shot that Green saved on the far-right post with 20:31 left in the first half. And while Fox credited the passing of Proszowski, Kentgen, junior midfielder Kristina Tomaras and sophomore midfielder McKenzie Sheesley, another close call loomed for Metea.

The closing minutes of the first half saw, by far, the Mustangs’ best chance as Kentgen dribbled up the sideline, cut across the field toward the top of the box and unleashed a dangerous, curving shot that Green punched over the crossbar at the last second to effectively preserve the 1-0 halftime edge.

“I thought we had the momentum during the first half and we had a ton of chances,” Kentgen said. “I don’t think I would call it unlucky. We were right there to get our shots, but we just didn’t finish.”

“We had so many chances,” Fox nodded in agreement. “We just couldn’t finish, and we were so close all game. Tyler had some good crosses, Jenna had some good crosses, Kristina and McKenzie had some good crosses. We were making the right runs and delivering the ball, but we couldn’t score the goal.”

It’s a goal that Metea Valley will look to score in 2012. As Feulner noted afterward, “we will be back.

We have a good group of kids who played hard and things just didn’t go our way.” Naperville North will lose nine players on its roster to graduation, while the Mustangs will return to the pitch firmly intact.

“We’re not losing anyone from this team,” Fox said. “We’re just going to get better and better.”

“Next year,” Kentgen said, “we know for sure we definitely want to make it farther than we are now.”

But now, that honor belongs to Naperville North, which features the aforementioned, and fabled, throw-in weapon of senior defender Kirsten Anderson. The Huskies held on for the 1-0 win, nearly making it 2-0 in the second half on Climo’s pass to Swift for a breakaway shot that went wide right.

“I was close to scoring some goals, but I got off balance on my shot,” Swift said. “I’ll save them for the next game, I guess. It’s a game of luck sometimes, and I’m glad for Cora that she got her shot to go in.”

“It was definitely an even-matched game,” Terada said. “In this area, you’re going to get a game every round of the playoffs that is a challenge. We knew that coming in. There’s not a big difference between us and them, and you expect games to go back and forth like that. We figured that would happen.”

Few would have figured Climo, playing the oft-overlooked position of outside mid, scoring the biggie. Timing, however, is everything, and anything is possible for players who cultivate net presence.

Good? Great?

“It feels amazing,” Climo said of taking the regional title. “We’re ready to play whomever we have to on Tuesday, and it was important for us to score early. We knew coming in that Metea Valley is a great team and we wanted to get that goal as early as we could to build momentum and get things going.”