Wildcats' late comeback falls short against DG North

By Matt Le Cren

After an entertaining but scoreless first half in which each team's goalies made some big saves, Downers Grove North scored three goals on West Chicago in an 11-minute span early in the second half Monday night in Downers Grove.

Earlier this season, the Wildcats would have folded in the face of such a deficit. They had done that in their previous two outings, during which they were outscored 13-2 in losses to Batavia and Wheaton Warrenville South.

Not this time. West Chicago rallied behind junior forward Megan Radloff and threw a scare into the host Trojans before falling by a 3-2 score.

Downers North coach Jason Hunter pulled many of his starters with 20 minutes left in order to rest them for Tuesday's conference game with Oak Park and the Wildcats made him pay.

Radloff scored twice in the final 10 minutes. She took a left-footed pass from Sarah Opel and scored on a breakaway with 8:49 remaining to get West Chicago (6-11-1) on the board.

Then she added her 19th goal of the season at the 2:59 mark with a beautiful strike that beat Downers North goalie Maddi Fitzpatrick into the upper right corner of the net and cut the gap to one goal.

"They thought they had it," Radloff said. "We came back. It just stunk that it was the last 10 minutes is when we finally started playing. I think if we play like that the whole time it could have been totally different."

It may have been different without the play of Fitzpatrick, who made six of her eight saves during a first half that was filled with action but no goals.

Fitzpatrick saved a hard header from Cassie Thill with 14:00 left but her greatest stop came with 6:35 to go before the break when she thwarted Radloff.

Thill got free on the right wing and crossed in front to Radloff, who volleyed it right on. But the ball was in the air for barely a yard before the charging Fitzpatrick caught it.

"She made a lot of great saves today," Radloff said. "I had one [in the first half] and she was in the right spot at the right time. I thought she might have [stopped my second goal] because she got a hand on it, but it went in."

West Chicago keeper Kelsey Myers was just as good in the first 40 minutes, recording all of her seven saves.

The junior turned away two attempts from Allison Gilbert in the early going, then leaped to tip a 20-yard blast from Kierstyn Harrington into the underside of the crossbar in the 21st minute. Gilbert's rebound sailed harmlessly over the frame.

"We counted 18 shots on goal [in the first half] and for none of them to go in, she did really good," Radloff said of Myers. "She was doing a really good job today."

But in the second half the floodgates opened and Downers North (9-4) took a 1-0 lead with 36:46 left.

Myers made a diving save on Marissa Koszewski's 15-yard rocket but Amanda Fear pounced on the rebound at the right post and finished.

Just 1:22 later, the Trojans made it 2-0 when Wesley took a pass from Koszewski and scored from 17 yards out. Harrington's breakaway 10 minutes later made it a 3-0 game.

After pulling to within one score, the Wildcats kept up the pressure but were not able to get any more shots off.

"Someone turned something on," Radloff said of the second-half explosion. "I think we just both wanted it really bad and then you can never assume that you're going to win a game and I think that's what they did.

"I was just glad that we came back. We've been on a losing streak and we don't want it to keep going and going."

"During halftime Coach [Jason Hunter] was saying if we scored one goal and kept it up they would eventually lose their hope," Fitzpatrick said.

"At the end, one bad breakthrough led to them getting their confidence back up so that led to another goal. Thankfully they didn't score a third time."

Confidence is something the Wildcats, who have just three wins in their last 14 matches, have been lacking.

"I think we can play," West Chicago coach Cesar Gomez said. "We're still working on confidence and them believing in themselves. We as coaches believe.

"[The Trojans] are a good team to play against. We had a couple moments where we kind of messed it up and that's usually when we [go downhill]."

Gomez is more concerned with getting ready for the playoffs than with wins and losses.

He is resting starting midfielder Bianca Navejas, who has tendinitis in both knees, for the remainder of the regular season and playing some players out of position.

"Right now we're just focusing on having fun," he said.

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