Bartlett finds its footing in Game Two

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By Gary Larsen

Apples and oranges, night and day, kick-ball and good soccer.

There was a stark difference between the way Bartlett played in a season-opening, 1-0 loss to Schaumburg and the way the Hawks played throughout a 2-0 win against Oswego on Thursday.

For Hawks coach Heather Thomas, the difference came in a gratifying way. “We made some serious adjustments in practice since Monday’s game, and fixed some things that needed to be fixed,” she said. “It’s good to see that they’re coachable. They took what we did in practice and applied it to the game.

It was a good second game. We definitely have things to work on but it was a good effort on everybody’s part.”

Bartlett rode goals from Nicole Gobbo and Lisa Palmer and got a shutout from starting goalkeeper Erin Zaideman, substitute keeper Natalia Grodzki, and a solid effort from the girls in back at Millenium Field.

Veteran varsity keeper Zaideman was happy to see a better effort put forth from her side on Thursday.

“Last year we were pretty consistent, but after our first game this year it was like ‘whoa, what just happened?” she said. “But our second game, we improved. I think we’ll be improving every game.”

The 2-0 win upped Bartlett’s season record to 1-1, with Glenbard North on the schedule for Saturday and the South Elgin Invitational taking up all of next week.

After playing a bit too much kick-ball on Monday, the Hawks spent a few days of practice getting back in the swing of playing good soccer.

The work was evident on Thursday, as the Hawks went hard to every ball, played to feet, and showed a cohesive mix of skill, speed, and smartly physical play that you might not normally expect to see in the second game of the season.

The Hawks had a fine season last year and appear poised to do the same again in 2010 with a mix of veterans and newcomers.

“We’ve got some young players and I could tell that a lot of them were nervous (vs. Schaumburg). It was their first time out on the field. There was a major difference between this game and our first game.”

Gobbo’s goal was a long-range missile from 25 yards out that soared under the crossbar to the back netting in the first half. Palmer’s goal came in the second half, when she located a corner kick and buried it near the far post.

Bartlett withstood a strong attacking effort down the stretch from Oswego to secure the shutout.

Protecting Zaideman in back on Thursday were sweeper Rachel Irwin, outside defenders Sam Fairbanks and Ashley Johnson, and stopper Jesse Cosentino.

Thomas was pleased with her back line’s play throughout Thursday’s contest, “and we’ve got some subs coming in off the bench that are doing well, too,” she said. “We’ve got a good, solid back line. I liked their aggressiveness tonight.”

Sam Barone also had a fine attacking game for the Hawks, Palmer and Trisha Donlon were prominent throughout, and Nicki Noreen and Amanda Zindel rounded out a starting 11 that included 3 sophomores and a freshman.

“Hopefully we’ll be pretty balanced this year,” Thomas said. “Defensively I think we’re strong and offensively we just need to take a few less touches up top and get the ball in the back of the net.”