McCormack's goal enough to top DG North

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By Gary Larsen

If a ball is cleared with enough force from the southwest corner of Oak Park-River Forest’s home stadium, that ball can end up in Lake Street’s rush hour traffic.

They need to start paying the ball girls over at OPRF.

One such ball was retrieved from traffic on Tuesday, and it may well have been the same ball that the Huskies’ Sydney McCormack chipped into net for the game’s lone goal. The Huskies won 1-0 on McCormack’s shot, beating Downers Grove North in a heated West Suburban Silver contest from start to finish.

“I liked the way we responded to the physical nature of the game. We didn’t back down,” Huskies coach Paul Wright said. “We kept at it. When there were some (yellow) cards given we still played our game. We stayed at them and we weren’t timid.”

Good rivalry games have always been the best games to watch, and there’s no shortage of those games in the WSS.

“All of these conference games are equally balanced out,” Huskies midfielder Jessica Luttrell said. “Each game is a battle and we know that going in. We’ve fought really hard so far and we’re going to keep fighting.”

The Huskies have scored 31 goals and given up 10 in 15 games this season. Sophomore keeper Katie Oldach posted her 8th shutout of the year on Tuesday, and the Huskies have been shut out of net 5 times.

With veteran forward Emily Gullo and junior Shelby Cozzette up top on Tuesday, and a midfield featuring McCormack, Jessica Luttrell, Sara McCall, Victoria Gullo, Alex Neumann, the Huskies put in another day’s work in search of dangerous shots.

Wright would like to see a few more shots put on frame, and the Huskies’ midfield worked hard to make that happen.

“Our midfield has gotten a lot stronger,” Luttrell said. “We’ve gotten a lot stronger at one-two touch, a lot more give-and-go’s and overlaps, and we’re having a lot more connections with the forwards.”

McCormack’s goal came just 17 minutes into the game, as the Huskies attacked into a stiff wind. A throw-in from the right side led to a ball popped to the left side of the penalty area.

McCormack looked up and saw her chance. “Alex (Neumann) headed it to around where the goalie was and I was just kind of there to tap it in,” she said. “I think we play it well in our offensive half, and we just need to keep working to get it to our forwards’ feet.”

While the Huskies would have liked to send a few more shots on frame with a second-half wind at their back, Downers Grove North goalkeeper Maddie Fitzpatrick showed yet again on Monday how a warrior plays in net. Fitzpatrick was her usual aggressive and fearless self throughout, before exiting after falling hard on her side late in the contest.

Defensively, the Huskies protected Oldach well. Maggie Tansey, Renata Voci, Stephanie Sullivan, Rachel Durbin, and Dorothe Franklin all contributed in back.

After starting the season on the sophomore team, the sophomore Voci was called up to the varsity two weeks ago and has shined as a central defender.

As a keeper and a sweeper, respectively, both Oldach and Voci have had to acclimate to shouting instructions at upperclassmen.

“As a team we have really good communication. Off the field they have seniority, of course, but on the field we’re all just players. It’s not ‘you’re a sophomore, you’re a senior’. It’s ‘you’re a stopper, you’re a sweeper’.”

The level of physicality and the speed of play have always been the main differences between lower level and varsity play, and Voci has some good advice for young players in the process of making that leap.

“You have to always try your hardest, every game, and every practice is important,” Voci said. “And you have to treat every game like it’s a rivalry game. That’s how you have to play.”

Tuesday’s win upped the Huskies’ record to 9-5-1 overall and 3-1 in WSS play. “It wasn’t pretty,” Wright said. “The wind took away a lot of our ball control and we were lucky to get past the first half without having a goal put in against us.”

The Huskies’ lone conference loss this year came 1-0 to York on April 13, while wins have come over Hinsdale Central and Proviso West.

OPRF hosts Lyons Township on Thursday and finishes conference play against Glenbard West next week. Lyons is unbeaten in the WSS, with York and OPRF left to play, and York is also unbeaten in the conference.

A Huskies’ win over Lyons and a Lyons win over York could put OPRF in a three-way tie for the WSS crown.

“The game against Lyons could give us a preview of the sectional final,” Wright said. “That game will be a huge measuring stick.”

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