West Suburban Sports

Panthers can't hold off Wildcat comeback

By Darryl Mellema

As they headed to the press box to get warm and discuss their first half performance in Tuesday's match with Oswego, West Chicago's players weren't exactly the happiest bunch.

The Wildcats trailed 2-1, felt the goals they surrendered had been as much due to defensive lapses as solid play by the visitors and knew there were things they had to sort out.

But there was also no panic and definitely no anger. There was, instead, a measured conversation, focusing mainly on how to sort out things.

And the focus came to which player would take the sweeper's role for the second 40 minutes?

The role fell to a junior-varsity player, Shanda Maldonado, and her presence as the final line of defense helped solidify things.

The Wildcats did not allow any goals in the second half and got a pair of Meagan Radloff tallies of their own to win the nonconference contest 3-2.

"Our sweeper isn't with us because it's Spring Break," West Chicago coach Cesar Gomez said.

"We had Jessica (Quinn) there in the first half and she was not comfortable in the position. She's an outside back. So in the second half, we said 'who is going to do it?’ (Maldonado) said ‘I’ll do it.'"

Through the first half, West Chicago (3-2) gave Oswego (0-3) possession frequently just after winning it, and the resulting lack of time to build an attack hampered the Wildcats.

On the occasions they did hold the ball long enough to build an attack, they showed they were dangerous, especially with speedy frontrunners like Radloff and Andie Lazzerini.

"Our game is a possession game," Gomez said. "We were not doing that. At halftime, I gave them the option to critique their own half, and they all hit it on the nail.

"They all said 'we're not possessing from the back and we're playing over our midfield's heads to the forward. So we adjusted. We said that even if we did not score a goal, we had to possess from the back."

At the time of that talk, the Wildcats had seen an early lead disappear into a halftime deficit.

Early breaks by Radloff and Lazzerini showed the team's attacking potential – but Oswego scored first on a quick move six minutes into the match when Cathy Tram passed to the right to Erin Apolzan, who scored.

Two minutes later, West Chicago drew level with Bianca Navejas moved in free of the defense and sent her shot off the right post and into the net.

The final moments moved from end-to-end with both teams having solid chances.

Five minutes before, Oswego's Lisa Bajkowski curled a shot just wide. Moments later, Lazzerini hit the post for West Chicago.

Then in the last minute of the half, Oswego took the lead when Amy Annala shot home a ball West Chicago was having difficulty clearing.

"I'm not unhappy with what I saw tonight," Oswego coach Jamie Bartkowiak said. "There are so many improvements.

"This showing was so much better than what we saw against Naperville Central. We've got nothing but good things to see from here."

Through the match, Oswego found spaces in which to attack. Tram, especially, found room to operate in front of the sweeper and between the center backs.

She combined frequently with Apolzan and especially Trisha Carr, whose work on the right wing created a number of crossing chances.

"We were definitely putting some things together offensively that we didn't see in our first two games," Bartkowiak said.

"It was the first time we were putting that movement together. We weren't necessarily getting on the end of it yet. But I think that's the final piece of the puzzle that we'll finally end up putting together in the next couple of games."

But those chances failed to produce any goals in the second half. Meanwhile, West Chicago leveled the score less than 60 seconds from the second half kickoff when Radloff scored with a crisp, low shot.

"When we give a ball to (Radloff) on her feet, she is going to be able to do more damage," Gomez said. "I thought that's what did it for us."

Oswego used a different goalie in each half. Laura Gallardo played the first half and Amy Annala took over in the second half. Annala was marginally busier and had to make a number of saves while the match was 2-2.

"(Annala) did a great job," Bartkowiak said. "(Gallardo) saw some good stuff in the first half and did really well. (Annala), in the second half, she's got great instincts and she's really athletic."

There was nothing Annala – or any goalkeeper in the state – could have done with Radloff's second scoring shot, a long-range effort that flew into the net with 13 minutes to play.

"We were just trying to possess the ball," Radloff said. "It got a little crazy in the first half. I think the second half, we settled down and got control of it."

In one sense, West Chicago's realization that it could build without relying on its speed was one of the keys to the second half.

"Our game is possession," Radloff said. "We try to build it with possession and then we can try to play it through the defense with speed."

Radloff said she was happy her shots finally started to find the back of the net.

"I hit the post on that free kick and there was another that their goalie got," Radloff said. "I was just trying to make up for that. It was a good feeling."

And the second goal was the kind forwards love to hit from time to time.

"I always try to get one of those, from time to time," Radloff said. "I love to take shots from out far."

Although they allowed two second-half goals, Oswego's own halftime adjustments worked to slow down West Chicago's quick-breaking attack.

"We made some adjustments in the middle of our field to shut them down," Bartkowiak said. "We wanted to shut down the middle a little bit better so they couldn't send it through and attack us through the middle of the field."

After five matches, Gomez said he is pleased with the way his team is playing.

"It's a good feeling," he said. "We trust them and we tell them that they are going to have to be the ones to get it done.

"It's good, especially that we came back and won. Sometimes, when you play this well and lose, it hurts double."

Bartkowiak said her team is sorting things out early in the season, and the squad's 0-3 mark doesn't yet reflect the positive things she is seeing in her team's performances.

"We played really well today and we made a lot of improvements from the first two games into this third game," she said. "We're going to focus on those positive things.

"We caught some unlucky breaks, both in not finishing some off offensively and then in getting scored on defensively. But I think we actually played really well."