Falcons play well in loss to WW South
By Chris Walker
Photos courtesy of Diana Fowee

 

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Nikki Molino hasn't been a high school student for a year yet, but she's quickly learned a lot about life as a varsity girls’ soccer player.

Molino and the rest of the Wheaton Warrenville South team were in action on Tuesday night at Red Grange Field in Wheaton as the Tigers hosted Wheaton North in the annual crosstown clash/DuPage Valley Conference contest.

Thanks to the efforts of Molino and fellow freshman Tori Adomshick in support of sophomore keeper Abby Fuster, the Tigers were able to shutout the Falcons, 1-0, behind a late goal from senior Kate Fowee.

"We usually have 10 parents in the stands here if we're lucky," Molino. "This was a great experience. You could feel the support all night and it was such a great event."

It was also senior night as the Tigers bid farewell to seniors Katrina Geannopoulous, Jenna Schultz, Katie Sampalis, Lexi Peterson and Fowee.

"We've been talking all season about everything leading up to this on senior night," Molino said. "We had a good game, but not our best. We had to fight to pull it out and we got the result that we needed and that's all we wanted. This is big. We had about 20 times as many fans as we usually have."

The fans weren't wowed by the offensive display by either side, but the know-how of a future Boilermaker certainly pleased the hometown faithful with 18:24 left.

Fowee, who has signed to play at Purdue, brought in a Lexi Peterson pass in the final third and used her speed to find the back of the net.

"She made a great run and a heads up play," Tigers coach Guy Callipari said. "The keeper does what she had to do to force the offensive player and Kate was able to come through tonight which is probably worthy of a 1-0 victory."

Wheaton North appeared to control the game at different times, but was unable to convert any of its chances into goals.

"I thought we dominated the game throughout," Falcons coach Tim McEvilly. "We played very well and organized defensively up top."

The Falcons certainly made things difficult on the Tigers, namely by minimizing opportunities for Peterson and Fowee to spread out and get the Falcons to chase.

"We closed the space and met their physical challenge," McEvilly said. "So I'm far from disappointed. I thought we deserved a better result but our message to the girls is to not let this disappoint your quality of play, but burn a fire in you to recognize the state tournament is our next game. Let's take advantage of the next opportunity."

The Falcons left several scoring chances out on the field so it wasn't as if they weren't finding ways to develop opportunities. On the other hand, they certainly were unable to finish.

"They gave us a really great challenge and fortunately our defense was strong enough to stop them," Peterson said. "A great win for us."

Linnae Giuliano had one of the Falcons best chances in the first half when she fired a bullet off of Fuster's hands with 12:06 left before halftime. She also nearly deadlocked the squads at 1-all with only 6:33 left, but Fuster was able to reject her shot attempt once again. Junior Kelsey Sorensen had her fair share of corner kicks and free kicks, but nothing panned out.

"We were very physical and strong in the midfield and we won 50/50 balls consistently throughout the 80 minutes," McEvilly said. "We found targets up top, we beat them on the width. and we created scoring opportunities with restarts, dangerous direct kicks, corner kicks. I thought we played an outstanding game of soccer tonight. I was very proud with the way we played, but sometimes the game isn't fair in the result."

In addition to it being Senior Night, dozens of youth soccer players, clad in their uniforms, populated the stands. It's likely many of those same kids will have their own Senior Night several years down the road.

"To be home against Wheaton North in front of the largest crowd of the year on a nice night and with all the kids out of Wheaton to watch you as mentors is pretty special," Callipari said. "I think the emotions caught up to us early on because there was some finality to it. Our minds were elsewhere and you could see we were discombobulated for 10 to 15 minutes. They eventually got in the perfect mindset and I'm proud of them."

Wheaton Warrenville South improved to 11-6-3 and 5-2 in the DVC. Wheaton North dropped to 9-9-1 and 2-5 in the DVC.

The Tigers seniors were able to get a little revenge against a Falcons team they lost to 1-0 last year.

"It doesn't matter what the record is coming in because everybody's level of play seems to rise to the occasion," Callipari said. "I can't even count the number of times where it's been one way or the other."