Tigers roar past Wildcats behind passing fancy of O’Donnell

 

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By Bill Scheibe

Artists paint on a canvas. Poets use paper. Composers sit at a piano. Plainfield North's Callie O’Donnell puts on a soccer uniform and passes as fancy as LeBron 'King' James on a basketball court.

A junior forward, O'Donnell became the assist queen Thursday morning at Wildcat Stadium against host Plainfield Central – pouring it on from the flank in fueling the fire of a frenetic five-goal first half.

Indeed, it was artistry in deed.

"What I like to do is be creative," O'Donnell said, standing in the sun after 80 minutes of personal fun that featured a goal and three assists. "I like to score different goals, and Ashley is a lot of help because I know I can give her the ball and she is going to put it in the net. It's really good."

In this case, in both teams' Southwest Prairie Conference opener, "Ashley" would be sophomore forward Ashley Handwork, who was really, really good in scoring three goals as Plainfield North simply overpowered Plainfield Central in the offensive third for a 5-0 victory.

Senior forward Katie Cox contributed a goal and a pair of assists and sophomore stopper Carlie Corrigan added an assist for two-time defending SPC champion North (3-0-1, 1-0-0). Junior goalkeepers Paige Polonus and Emily Brodict shared the shutout, combining for three saves.

Winners of the five previous SPC titles before the Tigers' emergence, Central (0-2-1, 0-1-0) relied on the highlight-reel goalkeeping of senior Janna Pascente (12 saves) for a scoreless second half. But the damage was done by the physicality of players like O'Donnell in the opening 18 minutes.

"I think part of that is we have a lot of quickness," North coach Jane Crowe said. "We were able to get our bodies into position to do that. We knew the first 10-15 minutes were going to be huge, that it was going to decide the way the game was going to go, so we definitely came out the way we wanted to."

"We basically made a few mental mistakes on the back line and they capitalized," Central coach Ken Schoen said. "We got pushed off the ball a little too much in the first half, more than I would like, but for the most part it was a few mistakes in back and they capitalized on every one we made."

Playing a new 4-3-3, stationing O'Donnell and Handwork on the wings and Cox in the center, North dominated with a power forward-style game. O'Donnell set up Handwork for the first two goals, Cox fed O'Donnell and Handwork for the following two and Cox scored her this-is-nice capper.

So, how do you like it now?

"We've never played with three forwards before this season," said Cox, a four-year varsity standout. "But having the speed on the outside with both Ashley and Callie, we know that we can move the ball around really well, and I just try my best to get the ball up to them and go for the net."

"We've been working the ball pretty well together up top," Handwork nodded. "With three forwards up there, we have to make sure that we stay wide so we're not crowding each other. But it also gives us the space out wide to do things with the ball."

That ball belonged to the Tigers in the first half with the exception of a pass from junior midfielder Julie Tamayo to dangerous senior forward Bailey Wysocki that North sophomore sweeper Angie Dziedzic cleared away and a shot by sophomore midfielder Melissa Del Sarto that sailed through the goal posts.

The bulk of Central's work went instead to Pascente, who made point-blank saves on Cox and O'Donnell in the closing 3:50 of the first half. Cox and sophomore midfielder Nikki Auble blasted shots off the post and crossbar, respectively, but that was about the extent of the defensive help provided.

"There was not much she could do on a lot of them," Schoen said. "When you leave someone wide open on top of the six and it's one-on-one with the goalie – even in the second half she did a nice job. We just didn't get any quality chances and we definitely need to improve in that area of our game."

The game-winning goal came in the ninth minute. Freshman midfielder Heather Handwork, Ashley's sister, sent a ball ahead that Cox barely missed converting toward the far-left corner. However, O'Donnell corralled the rebound and fed Handwork for the one-timer.

"I can rely on Callie to cross the ball to me because she's a really good player," Ashley Handwork said. "It's exciting and it's fun to play with her."

Again, O'Donnell and Handwork hooked up for a dash of excitement 9:23 later, with O'Donnell winning a battle on the left wing and dribbling aggressively across the top of the box before dishing over to Handwork for a bullet-like shot into the lower-left corner.

"The last two practices, we've actually worked on switching the ball faster because we have the forwards to do that," O'Donnell said. "And we knew they were going to keep their best players in the middle, so we wanted to stand our ground and pass the ball around, and we did that."

O'Donnell next did the honors, converting a long ball from Corrigan that Cox ran down and touched over for the 3-0 lead with 18:09 left. Handwork then floated the carom of Cox's shot into the upper-right corner, and mere minutes after her post, Cox closed the scoring on a pretty give-and-go with O'Donnell.

"I just told myself to keep going," Cox said. "I really wanted to score badly because this is my senior year and Plainfield Central always has been our biggest conference rival. I'm glad I finally got one."

Afterward, North was just as happy to pass the credit around from Handwork to Cox to O'Donnell, the latter playing a part in four of the five goals. O'Donnell even played some midfield after junior Ashley Auble needed a breather due to a head-to-head collision, but overall it was forward progress.

For No. 1, it was making it happen.

"She does," Crowe said of O'Donnell. "She's so active; she's all over the place. She starts so many things for us, and if we take one of them out of forward, we're wasting them. We want to find a way to get all three of them involved, and it has been working well for us."