Mustangs' second half buries Addison Trail

By Jonathan Jones
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Day two of the St. Francis Springfest Classic continued Tuesday morning in Schaumburg as Metea Valley faced off against Addison Trail.

Metea Valley went 1-1 in the tournament Monday. After defeating Benet 2-0 earlier that day, the Mustangs fell to Jacobs 1-0.

On Tuesday, Metea Valley took out their vengeance on Addison Trail, shutting them out 6-0 in impressive fashion.

The Mustangs jumped to an early lead as their hero against Benet (where she sunk both goals in the 2-0 win), freshman forward Jenna Kentgen netted her first goal midway through the first half. Kentgen ultimately finished with a hat trick.

“I haven’t done that in a long time,” Kentgen said of her three goal day. “Since we lost yesterday, we came with a different set up so we could get up more to score. If we want to make the (tournament) championship, we have to play hard.”

And hard is exactly how Metea Valley played against Addison Trail.

It seemed as though every throw-in, free kick or punt was intercepted by a Metea Valley midfielder. With this occurring, Addison Trail did not attempt a single shot in the first half, while Metea Valley had 11 shots on net.

The first half ended with Addison Trail trailing 1-0 before Metea broke the game open in the second half.

“The kids were disappointed about the loss yesterday,” Metea Valley head coach Pat Feulner said of the Game Two loss on Monday. “We switched some formations to an attack formation. We had some switches off the bench and pushed another player forward.”

The second half began with a strong lead pass from Metea Valley sophomore forward Alyssa Fox on the wing. As she dribbled and juked defenders up the field, she sent a pass to freshman midfielder Tyler Proszowski for the goal.

Fox finished with two assists on the day.

“We had problems with attacking in the first half,” Fox said. “The pressure wasn’t a problem, we just couldn’t score. In the second half, everything fell into place.”

Metea Valley never looked back, scoring five second-half goals.

The next two Metea Valley goals were scored by Kentgen to complete the hat trick. There were assists on both scores from sophomore forward Abby Adams and junior midfielder Kristin Tomaras.

Other Metea Valley scorers were defender Katrina Dovalovsky and midfielder Caleigh Purcell.

“We really picked up the intensity in the second half,” Proszowski said. “We changed our field position from 2-5-2 instead of 4-5-1, and it worked.”

Metea Valley now has a 5-1-1 record in its inaugural soccer season. “Our chemistry has been a lot better,” Fox said. “We’ve been working hard in practice and it has been showing in the game.”

“It’s a matter of being a young team,” Feulner said. “In the second game yesterday we look great in practice. We know Marian (Central) is good. Hopefully we can keep the same play in the second game (Tuesday).”