Positive season ends on down note in regionals for Hawks

By Darryl Mellema

After all the good things that happened for Bartlett's soccer team this year, it's certainly cruel that the season ended with a 6-1 defeat at the hands of Batavia in the opening round of the IHSA tournament.

While phrases like 'growing pains' don't really serve to mask the discomfort the Hawks felt after they dropped the contest to the Bulldogs, there is some sense that the team is building for a successful future.

"We're really young," Bartlett coach Heather Thomas said. "That's part of it. The majority of our team is freshmen and sophomores.

"So yeah, a part of it is growing pains. But I think, mentally, we need to overcome that."

That also takes nothing away from the year the team had this spring. After an opening day loss, the Hawks were never below the .500 mark.

They finished 15-8, only once dropped back-to-back contests and closed the regular season by winning seven of eight contests.

"We had some ups and downs, some good games and some bad games," Thomas said. "I'm happy with the girls.

"They're a great group of girls and we had a great group of seniors. But this was kind of an up-and-down season."

Batavia remains a tough opponent for Heather Thomas' teams. This year, Bartlett lost twice to the Bulldogs, a 3-0 setback on April 10 and then Wednesday's playoff defeat.

"We did not play well," Thomas said. "I don't know what to say. I'm at a loss for words. We do not and have not played well against Batavia in four years.

"I don't know why. I don't know what it is that they have over us. But we do not play well against them. And we did not play well tonight."

Although Bartlett has many returning players, the Hawks are also saying farewell to a core of graduating seniors.

One of those is Erin Zaideman, who returned in goal after missing much of the seasonal run-in with a knee injury.

"It's nice, but Natalia (Grodzki) did a great job filling her shoes in the games that we needed her for," Thomas said.

"It is absolutely nice to see (Zaideman) come back and 6-1 isn't indicative of the way she played."

Sam Barone, the scorer of Bartlett's only goal on Wednesday, is another who graduates.

Barone's goal came 13 minutes into the second half and sparked a brief revival for the Hawks.

Two minutes later, Bartlett received a penalty kick after a foul in the penalty area.

That kick missed, though the Hawks continued to press for a second goal in the moments afterward.

"That would have made the game 3-2," Thomas said. "Those hurt. Those need to be put away and I think that took the wind out of our sails."

But that momentum suffered a body blow when Liz Barnes scored with 19 minutes to play.

Tory Kinniard scored on a Batavia penalty kick and Abby Gray completed a hat trick when she scored with 2:34 left. Hillary Cooper scored the Bulldogs other goal.

"I don't know that they were ready," Thomas said. "I don't know that we came into this game mentally prepared that if we lose, we go home.

"I don't know that that sunk in tonight. A couple, maybe. But there's 20 of them on the team. And if 20 of them aren't ready to play, we're not going to get it done."

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