Tigers disappointed after earning a draw with WW South

By Matt Le Cren
Photos courtesy of Diana Fowee

CLICK HERE FOR PLAINFIELD NORTH'S' TEAM PAGE

To Wheaton Warrenville South, it felt like a win while to Plainfield North, it felt like a loss.

But to everyone else who watched the two sets of Tigers play to a 2-2 tie Tuesday night at Red Grange Field in Wheaton, it felt exhilarating.

In a nonconference match played at an entertaining and unusually high level of play for such an early-season contest, Plainfield North (1-1-1) dominated the match for long stretches with an impressive display of offensive skill.

But WW South (0-0-2) showed tenaciousness in twice rallying from a goal down in the second half to secure the draw.

“It’s disappointing but we expect to win,” said North senior midfielder Kelsey Gill, one of at least seven Tigers who will play college soccer. “That’s our philosophy, but if it doesn’t happen, it doesn’t happen. We learn from it.

“I think starting off this year we’ve had a little drama, a [few] problems, but we work it out and I think we’ve pulled through. We have a lot of talent.”

That talent had the hosts on their heels in the first half. The visitors repeatedly made strong runs up the middle of the field to pressure WW South.

But despite outshooting the hosts 9-0 in the first half, they had nothing to show for it because sophomore goalie Abby Fuster made six of her nine saves, including great diving stops on Ashley Handwork, Ashley Auble and Callie O’Donnell, all of whom are future Division I players.

“Abby was amazing,” said South forward Kate Fowee, who scored one goal and set up the other for the Tigers. “Abby should have confidence after that.”

“It’s very nerve-wracking,” Fuster said of facing such a high-powered offense. “However, my defense worked really well to get back and try and help break those down as much as they can and hopefully get them a little bit wider so I can work on my angles and cut it down.”

But North finally solved Fuster just 20 seconds into the second half when Gill stole a pass and, before anyone could react, ripped a 15-yard shot that was too hot for Fuster to handle. The ball went through her arms and into the net for a 1-0 North lead.

“[The shot] was pretty hard,” Gill said. “I don’t think it was the greatest goal in the world but it went in and that’s what counts. The goalie was good. She did well.”

Fuster said she wasn’t expecting the turnover at that time.

“It was a little surprising,” Fuster said. “I was looking wide for my defenders. They were in the right positioning, it’s just I didn’t see the girl who was running on so I was shifting across and I didn’t set correctly, so I didn’t get my hands right up in time. It was pretty hard. I didn’t have enough time to react.”

Rather than sulk, South came right back and nearly equalized just 30 seconds later when Dana Miller unleashed an 18-yard free kick that had so much pace on it the crossbar rattled when the ball struck it.

The wicked shot appeared ticketed for the underside of the bar, but instead hit it flush. The ball caromed out to Fowee, whose long header was saved by North goalie Emily Brodict.

However, the hosts did tie it 10 minutes later when Miller’s pass from the left midfield found Fowee in stride splitting two defenders. The Purdue-bound Fowee raced into the left side of the penalty area and rolled a 15-yard shot past the charging Brodict and off the inside of the right post with 29:04 remaining.

“That’s something we’ve been working on since the beginning of the season,” Fowee said. “At halftime we had talked about working on possession through the midfield and working with the defense because [the South defenders] had been dropping back a lot because [Plainfield] has one really fast player up top [O’Donnell] who can just run right through you, so we were trying to figure out how to deal with that.

“I think the defense, they were playing really well in the first half but they stepped it up even more in the second half because [giving up] transitions was an issue for us in the first half.”

O’Donnell, who became her school’s first Division I signee when she committed to Wisconsin-Milwaukee, put North back in front when she ripped a 28-yard bullet into the lower left corner of the net at the 23:47 mark.

But that turned out to be the visitors’ last good scoring chance and South again rallied. After two long free kicks from junior Natalie Jensen were off-target and a 17-yard shot by Fowee barely missed wide with 15:40 to go, Miller capped the scoring by lofting a 15-yard shot over the head of Brodict with 8:55 left. Fowee got the assist on the play, which was a result of sheer determination against a superior number of defenders.

“It was great to see Dana get on the board because I know she’s been a little frustrated with her fitness and to be able to get in behind and net one, that’s good for her,” South coach Guy Callipari said. “I’m sure that inspired her and for Kate too. She’ll get a lot of chances.”

Callipari was especially pleased with the result because it was achieved without the services of senior striker Lexi Peterson. The Wisconsin-bound Peterson was held out of the lineup as a precaution after being shaken up in a collision during Monday’s 3-3 tie with Batavia, in which she scored two goals.

“Playing a team like this is perfect for us,” Callipari said. “We weathered the test. Whereas yesterday I thought it was perhaps a bad tie if there is such a thing, tonight I felt it was a worthy tie and a good tie because we finished on an up note. For us that was important. Everybody is starting to find their way and contribute.”

With Peterson, who led the Tigers in scoring her freshman and sophomore seasons before sitting out last year with a torn ACL, teaming with Fowee and Miller, South should have a potent offense. Add six freshmen into the mix, including starting forward Victoria Adomshick and starting defender Nikki Molino, who scored the other goal against Batavia, and there is plenty of promise.

“Once we have Lexi back we should have a very, very strong offensive force going forward,” Fowee said. “We have a lot of freshmen on the team this year but all of them are really strong. They all have great endurance.

“I think our youth is a good thing because it’s a fresh start. We only have half the team coming back. It’s difficult for us to figure out how to play with each other especially with the freshmen not having had this level of high intensity games but they’re handling it really well and I think going forward once they get a few more games under their belt they’re going to be phenomenal.”

North, which returns 18 players from last year’s 17-3-2 squad, figures to be plenty good as well once it adjusts to its new defense, which features three converted forwards and is missing junior starting center back Abbie Kightly, who suffered a torn ACL in the season opener and is out for the season.

“We’re very inexperienced in the back,” North coach Jane Crowe said. “Right now that’s kind of our issue. They’re doing a good job; they’re just inexperienced. [Those forwards] are all playing in the back because we are so loaded with offensive players. And we knew it would be like this at the beginning of the year.”

Still, not closing out this game stung a little.

“We finished two chances; that should be enough,” Crowe said. “You score two goals you should at least be able to hold a team to one, but we got a couple of unlucky breaks. We had two leads and it’s frustrating that we weren’t able to hold those leads.”