Tigers healthy and happy in win over Huskies

By Matt LeCren

Watch out for Wheaton Warrenville South.

The Tigers are fully healthy for the first time this spring and that’s bad news for their opponents.

“They’re a good team,” Naperville North coach Brent Terada said. “Now that they’re healthy, I think they’re one of the most dangerous attacking teams in our sectional.”

Terada got an up-close view of the Tigers Tuesday night when his injury-depleted team battled hard but dropped a 1-0 DuPage Valley Conference decision in Naperville.

WW South (13-2-2, 4-0-1) now is in sole possession of first place in the DVC, a half-game ahead of Naperville Central. The Tigers can clinch at least a share of the league title by beating West Aurora next Tuesday.

Freshman midfielder McKenna Kiple scored the only goal of the game with 3:45 left in the second half. It was the fourth goal of her career and first game-winner.

The play, which came against the run of play, started in the Tigers’ end as senior Liz Ciesielski carried the ball across midfield on a counterattack and passed up the right wing to sophomore Kate Fowee. Fowee’s cross found the streaking Kiple alone on the back post but the rookie misplayed the first touch.

Kiple, however, didn’t give up and with her second touch blasted an eight-yard shot by a defender and past Huskies goalie Ellie Flessner.

“I remember yelling for it when Liz had it,” Kiple said. “I was screaming at the top of my lungs and it’s like a huge joke because my voice cracks. So then she passed it to Kate and Kate hit an amazing cross.

“The first touch I just bobbled it and the second one I just brought it down and tried to hit it as hard as I could at the net and hope for something and it went in. It was amazing.”

Kiple’s play came as no surprise to Ciesielski, who helped carry Kiple off the field after the final whistle.

“You can always depend on McKenna,” Ciesielski said. “She’s always in the spot she’s supposed to be in. She was there to clean it up and it was a great placement.”

“We just didn’t cover the back post,” Terada said. “That’s what happens when you’re trying to win a game. You open yourself up to counter balls. For them to be alive in conference they had to win this game.”

The Tigers played for nearly a month without speedy sophomore striker Lexi Peterson, who returned from a concussion last week. Since then, WW South is 4-0-1 and Peterson’s presence opens up opportunities for other fleet attackers such as Kiple.

“McKenna does a good job of getting forward and made a terrific run,” Tigers coach Guy Callipari said. “She has the speed and quickness to get there. As a freshman would, she probably lost her mind a little bit on the initial touch. But they hesitated a little bit and she was quick to get to it and by that time it was in the goal.

They don’t get much bigger than that at this point of her career. I’m very happy for her and happy for the side. We did a nice job of staying within the game plan and really trying to maintain a style and rhythm to the game. It was a good battle.”

It certainly was. Despite being outshot 19-8, Naperville North (8-5-2, 3-2) nearly took the lead during a sustained offensive effort in the second half. Between freshman Christa Szalach’s long flip throws and senior Rycke Guiney’s hard shots from long range, the Huskies put plenty of pressure on the Tigers, but could not get by defenders Bridget Shrigley, Laine Jackson and Dana Miller.

“We’re going to play to win,” Callipari said. “We’re not going to hold people back. We’re going to go forward with numbers and we risk a lot in back. We ask a lot of our back three in a 1-vee-1 environment but they’re capable.”

That doesn’t mean Callipari was exactly comfortable with what he saw in the second half.

“Naperville North put on a tremendous effort,” he said. “They carried at least 15 minutes there. They were pressing and pushing and they made some adjustments to get numbers forward and actually were trying to push to win the game.

The long throw-in was creating a lot of headaches in our direction, but we knew in transition they were fatigued in the back so we tried to break them down and find some space, which we did.”

“We kind of lost our composure for a little bit and then we realized that we had to step it up,” Ciesielski said. “We got it back together and started playing more to feet and looking up field.”

“[The season has been] so fun,” Kiple said. “The team is awesome. Everybody’s attitude is so positive and it’s awesome winning, so it’s like icing on the cake.”

As the Tigers have gotten healthier, the Huskies have become more banged up. North has lost three straight and is just 4-5 since starting the year 4-0-2.

Freshman phenom Zoe Swift – the team’s main scoring threat – is out indefinitely after being spiked in the back last Thursday. Starting goalie Allison Hitchcock left the game after being cut on the knee and kneed in the head in a collision with Ciesielski with 6:52 left in the first half.

Fellow sophomore Flessner came in and made three saves in the second half, including two tough diving stops on shots by Ciesielski.

“[Coming off the bench suddenly] wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be,” Flessner said. “We got a little bit of time to warm up and Coach Terada made sure I was ready. It’s a little bit easier, actually, to know that you’re right in the middle of the action as opposed to waiting for a long amount of time.”

Flessner started the season in net for the Huskies, and proved she is ready if Hitchcock should have to miss a game.

“It’s always a challenge,” Flessner said of the change. “You just work hard. Soccer, all in all, is really just a game. It’s a competition between [you and] the person on the other team or the person on the bench sitting next to you. You work as hard as you can and hope that [you get a chance].”

Despite the loss, Flessner was encouraged by her team’s play.

“I think, honestly, that it was just bad luck,” she said. “I think that we really put in the effort. I think we did a good job.”

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