Tigers find each other in loss to Naperville North
By Matt Le Cren
Photos courtesy of Diana Fowee


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Abbie Boswell calls it her “tick-tock” move, and when she executes it to perfection, it is time for Naperville North to get the party started.

Boswell, a freshman forward, used the skill with devastating effect Thursday night, enabling teammate Zoe Swift to score against the run of play late in the first half against Wheaton Warrenville South. That kick-started the Huskies’ 3-1 DuPage Valley Conference victory in Naperville.

“I always have my signature move which is my tick-tock,” Boswell said. “I basically do it every time.”

In this case, Boswell found herself just outside of the WW South penalty area on the left wing. She deftly switched the ball from her right foot onto her left, sprinted past two defenders into the box and sent a cross from the end line in front to Swift, who buried a 10-yard shot that gave Naperville North a 1-0 lead with 2:02 left in the first half.

The score completely changed the momentum of the game, which until then was going the way of the visiting Tigers, who had outshot the Huskies 9-4.

“I was looking for Zoe running in behind,” Boswell said. “I was looking for the little cross ball and she hit perfectly and scored.”

Swift could not have asked for a better pass.

“That was her tick-tock thing,” Swift said. “It’s her move. We make fun of her at practice for it, but it’s awesome.

“I was happy she gave me a good pass. I don’t know how she got around two defenders, but I was like, ‘yeah, Boz!’ Even though she’s a freshman she’s still a great contributor to the team.”

Boswell, who has two goals thus far, is thrilled to be starting for such a highly regarded squad.

“It’s really fun,” she said. “I love it. I’m really fortunate to be on this team. Everyone is so nice.”

Naperville North coach Steve Goletz feels fortunate to have someone like Boswell to pair with the all-stater Swift up top.

“Abbie’s got a great mentality and Abbie’s mentality always is every time she gets it she looks to go to goal,” Goletz said. “That’s something that you can’t teach as a coach and that’s something that she’s learned as she’s grown up.

“She is somebody that we feel any time the ball is on her foot, she’s dangerous, and to have her and Zoe up top is a great thing.”

The play seemed to energize the Huskies (6-0, 2-0), who scored twice in a 40-second span early in the second half to increase their lead to 3-0.

Swift did the honors on the first goal, her sixth of the season, when she ran onto a long ball from midfielder Cora Climo and chipped a shot high over the head of onrushing Tigers goalie Abby Fuster. Swift and Fuster both raced back toward the goal as the ball bounced into the net with 31:34 remaining.

“You know it is coming and you can prepare for it all you want, but you can’t afford to make a mistake, and we did,” WW South coach Guy Callipari said. “We got hung out in no-man’s land. The goalie and the defense weren’t in sync.

“I said to the goalie, ‘I’d rather you come and challenge and make her make a great play, than sit on your line and go, Now what?’ Because Zoe was going to win the ball first, so that was a good move.

“You’ve got to give Zoe credit. She’s a national pool-type player and you’ve always got to be aware of where she is and she certainly had her way tonight a little bit in finding areas where she can find goals.”

Swift, who recently made a verbal commitment to play for the University of Kentucky, set up Naperville North’s third goal, making a run into the right side of the box and crossing to Climo, who toe-poked a shot past the diving Fuster and inside the left post.

Callipari had only praise for the Huskies, who were outshot 10-4 in the second half and 18-9 for the game but came through when they needed to.

“They’re very efficient at what they do,” Callipari noted. “It’s predictable but it’s efficient. You’ve got to give them credit for that. They go to their bread-and-butter time and time again and it works.”

Goletz was disappointed that it didn’t work more often, but blamed some of that on the Tigers’ effective midfield play and willingness to attack in force.

“You know what you’re going to get from Wheaton South. They’re always going to play hard and they’re always going to be well-coached and they were well-coached,” Goletz said. “They do a great job of getting numbers forward and I think what we struggled with today was we tried to force a lot of passes and when we did that we played into turning it over and then they’re great at counterattacking, so we were playing to their strength a lot of times.

“I thought when we played direct and we played to Abbey and Zoe we were pretty successful.”

The Tigers (1-2-2, 1-1) had their share of success as well, forcing Naperville North keeper Allison Hitchcock to make nine saves. They became the first team to score on the Huskies when junior Dana Miller fired a 15-yard blast inside the left post with 14:30 remaining. Senior Kate Fowee got the assist on the play with an accurate throw-in from the left side.

“I think that was really important,” Miller said of her second goal of the season. “We just needed that to get our heads back in it and know what we can still win this game. We worked hard the whole time.”

WW South had started the season slowly but had picked up its first win of the season by beating West Aurora 6-2 on Tuesday. The Tigers continued their strong offensive play against the Huskies as the trio of Miller, Fowee and Lexi Peterson created several chances that could have closed the gap even further. The best came when they to close the gap even further when they forced a corner kick shortly after Miller’s goal. But a shot by senior Katrina Geannopoulos was saved by Hitchcock.

“We played West Aurora on Tuesday and that was a good game because we got a lot of shots off,” Miller said. “We were able to score and put things in the back of the net and that helped us because we weren’t scoring as much before that.

“But I think this game helped us [even further]. Even though we lost, I think we learned how to play together a lot better and complete more passes. We still didn’t score that much but we were in it the whole time. And we never gave up so I think that was really important.”

Callipari agreed.

“I’m very proud of the girls. We’ve come a long way,” he said. “Tonight I think we took a big step in the right direction. We want to build confidence in our young kids so they know that they can play at this level and we took a major stride in doing that tonight. A lot of girls stepped up.

“I’m a little disappointed we didn’t hit the net a couple more times, especially in the first half when we had all that pressure, but it was a great game.”

The Tigers are off until Tuesday, when they host Huntley in the opening round of the Pepsi Showdown. The Huskies have a showdown of their own on Saturday, when they host Downers Grove South (4-1-3), which played Neuqua Valley to a 2-2 last Saturday.

“I don’t think we played our best game, but we played okay enough to win this time,” Swift said. “But Saturday against Downers South has to be a better game.”