Wolves battle in season-ending loss to Naperville North

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By Gary Larsen

A good team will expose whatever current vulnerability you might be suffering through, and Naperville North learned something from a good team in Oswego East on Tuesday.

“Give all the credit in the world to Oswego East,” North coach Brent Terada said, after his fifth-seeded squad’s 4-0 regional-opening win.

“They put us under pressure at every part of the field, they took away the middle third – it’s a real shame that they have to be a number twelve seed. That’s a joke, and that’s a good team.”

East only trailed 1-0 thanks to a superior first-half effort by the Wolves, against a North team with a long and proud tradition in girls’ soccer.

“In the first half, a hundred percent we competed,” Wolves coach Lauren Anderson said. “We started to break down a little after the goal, and in the second half they took over.

(Naperville North) is obviously a very strong, skilled, competitive team but it’s good for us to see this level. In the first half we did compete, so it’s insight.”

East’s young soccer program fought tooth-and-nail all over the pitch through 40 minutes, before a trio of North goals from point-blank range in the second half spelled doom.

The Wolves (9-6-2) battled well at midfield but struggled to find space in the final third from which they could manage a truly dangerous shot.

“The few opportunities we had, we held onto it too long and the shots we did get off really weren’t dangerous shots,” Anderson said. “They were just kind of at goal, with nothing really behind them.”

Naperville North (13-6-2) struck first in the game’s 22nd minute when Hunter Drendel sent a ball ahead, and Zoe Swift ran onto it went in alone on net.

North’s three-goal outburst in the second half came courtesy of Rycke Guiney, Shannon Bushman, and Tori Novak, and a four-goal deficit against a North team that only gave up 14 goals all year made the mountain too high to climb for East.

The Wolves will lose seniors Jessica Alvarez, Lauren Hoppensteadt, Theresa Grandenitti, Lauryn Marchert, Samantha Adams, and Elizabeth Perez to graduation.

“We’re losing six on the roster and seven all together,” Anderson said. “Hoppensteadt, Marchert, Alvarez is a big loss – it’s a big group that we’re losing but we lost a big group last year, too. We’re used to it. We got a big group of freshmen in this year, and over a third of my team is starting freshmen.

We’re consistently getting good freshmen and that’s how we’re becoming a good program.”

One of the main hurdles for any young program is that first postseason win against a traditionally powerful program. Anderson hopes her younger players will take a valuable lesson away from Tuesday’s loss.

“To go out there and realize that you can compete. Just because you’re playing a big-time school doesn’t mean you can’t compete,” Anderson said. “We did that in the first half. So we need to learn to come out with confidence and be excited in a game like this, and not be nervous. We should be excited to play the better teams.”

The Wolves had a solid conference season and and reeled off seven consecutive wins to finish the regular season.

“All in all, we ended on a good note,” Anderson said. “A seven-game winning streak for a young team, finished second in conference, so we had a successful season. We’re growing as a program. Every year we’re getting better and better.”

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