Huskies win first Pepsi Showdown game vs. Hinsdale South
By Gary Larsen

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The difference between the place Hinsdale South coach Pat Wolf wants his girls to be and where they are came to light in the Hornets’ 3-1 loss to Oak Park and River Forest on Monday.

“Oak Park did a great job of getting the ball from one side of the field across, consistently,” Wolf said. “We’re not at the point yet where we’re  playing together in groups of four or five like that. We’re playing in groups of two, and sometimes three.”

While the Huskies' side wasn't completely satisfied with the energy it brought into Monday's game, at no point in coach Ignacio Ponce's substitution pattern did the quality of OPRF's play drop off.

"That's the thing I really like about this team," Ponce said. "We don't have a go-to person but every player I put in there is getting the job done for us. We're a young team but everybody is stepping it up."

OPRF possessed on its attacking side of midfield for much of the game against a South team that provided plenty of threat on set pieces, but it wasn’t until the Huskies’ Wren Osler blistered a free kick to the upper ninety with less than 10 minutes to play that OPRF was able to truly finalize the deal.

In fact, South tied that game at 1-1, 10 minutes into the second half on a Betta Bifero goal. Was it enough to make the Huskies nervous?

“A little bit because we usually play with a lot more energy than we did in this game,” Huskies senior Katherine Skrine said. “We usually step in front and we were letting them step in front of us. We didn’t have our usual pre-game spark. There just wasn’t the energy that we had in our last two games.”

The Huskies (5-3) went into Monday’s Pepsi Showdown opener on the heels of a pair of shutout victories over West Suburban Conference rivals Glenbard West and Downers Grove North.

OPRF quickly established a presence on Hinsdale South’s end while the Hornets found several potentially dangerous free kick chances through 30 scoreless minutes of soccer.

South sophomore Maggie Nicosia returned to the field on Monday and her leg on restarts can only bode well for the Hornets’ scoring potential.

“Maggie has been hurt and this was her first game back,” Wolf said. “She played the whole game, which is good for her conditioning. Her shots had power today but it will take some time before she gets the accuracy back. But part of that was the wind, too.”

Hornets keeper Vanessa Niestrom tipped a Huskies’ shot from distance over the crossbar and the Huskies sent a good chance wide of frame early in the first half.

The game’s first goal came in the final minute before halftime, when OPRF senior Joy Dennis used a lunchbucket effort in traffic at the Hornets’ goalmouth to poke a shot inside the post, on a play set up by a Ruby Gonzalez corner kick.

Gonzalez’s feed hit the carpet at the near post and Dennis capitalized.

“We have to mark better on that play,” South senior Carolanne Pilch said. “Vanessa’s a really good goalie and we played with intensity. We just had a couple of bad breaks  in this game.”

Niestrom dove our from the near post to snare a pass centered from the endline by the Huskies’ Merideth Blatner at 41 minutes, but Blatner wasn’t finished.

The Huskies’ sophomore ran onto a Lauren Wilkes pass sent to the weak side from left to right at 50 minutes, beating Niestrom to the ball and tapping it home from six yards out. The goal stood as the game-winner but South stayed within one goal of equalizing until Osler’s fine free kick goal at 71 minutes.

Even if Niestrom had cheated more towards the far post, it would have been tough to stop Osler's beauty of a shot from 30 yards out.

"That was probably as good a goal as I've seen since I've been coaching here at Oak Park," Ponce said. "Ana Agboola is out with an injury and she usually takes our free kicks, but Wren Osler did a great job all day with those, and that goal really sparked us to the win."

Skrine played a strong, physical game throughout for the Huskies and senior Katy Oldach was solid in making five saves and commanding the back line in the win for the Huskies. OPRF will take its three-game winning streak into Tuesday’s tournament matchup against a state-ranked team in New Trier.

“We would have liked to play it on the ground more and take more shots today,” OPRF senior Mikaela Gillman said. “We’ll have a tough game tomorrow but I think we’ll have the spark we need.”

Hinsdale South (1-6) will continue to recover from early-season injuries with two Pepsi games ahead this week before a match against West Suburban Gold foe Willowbrook on April 10.

“We’re coming back but we’re still just a little understaffed, you might say,” Wolf said. “We had some young kids out there who looked pretty good, especially in the first half, and I liked our energy. I thought Mary Claire (Ladd) had a nice game and Beta (Bifero) was all over the place today.”