Naperville North grinds one
out against Naperville Central
Huskies knock Redhawks out of race on Boswell header
By Matt Le Cren
NAPERVILLE – Naperville North’s Fiona Baenziger is regarded as one of the top goalkeepers in DuPage County.
The senior backstopped the Huskies to a state championship in 2013 and is in her third season as the starter. But it is hard to tell how good she is because she hasn’t had to make many tough saves this spring.
If there was any doubt about her ability, it was erased Tuesday night. Baenziger made three saves, including two important stops – one brilliant and one a tad lucky – in the first half and Abbie Boswell scored a personally historic goal in the second half to lift the host Huskies to a 2-1 DuPage Valley Conference win over Naperville Central.
It was Naperville North’s fourth-straight victory over its crosstown rival, which was knocked out of the DVC race.
“Obviously the win is really important,” Boswell said. “I’m exciting that we won, even though it was kind of a hard game.
“I think we should have played a little better. Our performance wasn’t that good, but we battled, they battled.”
Baenziger has faced only a handful of tough shots so far, which speaks to the quality of the defenders in front of her. It also can breed rust.
“I don’t know if (the lack of work) is a good thing or a bad thing,” Baenziger said. “I’m kind of prepared (for sudden challenges) because that’s kind of the job of a goalkeeper: stop and start. We do a lot of work in practice.
“So you’ve just got to get after it. That’s just the nature of the goalkeeping position.”
The Huskies (9-1, 3-0), who won their ninth-consecutive match, led 1-0 when the Redhawks began to tilt the field and created two great scoring chances within a three-minute period.
With 18:15 remaining in the first half, Kayla Burke sent a long ball into the box to Kirsten Dorgan, who aimed a strong header toward the top shelf, only to see Baenziger make a leaping effort to tip the ball over the crossbar.
The Redhawks’ next bid for the equalizer was one of the prettiest plays of the match. Taylor Stenmark’s lead pass sprang Burke to the right end line, and Burke rolled a pass to Kathleen Conforti about 10 yards in front of the near post.
Conforti’s one-timer appeared to get under the diving Baenziger, who managed to reflexively trap it under her hip.
“I’m not exactly sure what happened, but it didn’t go in the goal, so I’m happy,” said Baenziger, who was named Chicagoland Soccer MVP of the Match.
Naperville Central coach Ed Watson couldn’t believe the Huskies’ good fortune on the play.
“The first one was a real nice save,” Watson said. “The second one was a reaction. She didn’t even know where the ball was. It just happened to be underneath her.”
Though they were outshot 7-3 before intermission, the Redhawks (9-5-1, 1-2) felt unlucky to be scoreless at the break.
“I didn’t expect we would have as many quality opportunities as we did in the first half,” Watson said. “They’ve only given up three goals for the season, but there were some goals out there that we left out there. I’ll give our kids credit, though, they create opportunities.”
Too many for Naperville North coach Steve Goletz’s liking.
“They kind of took it to us in the first half,” Goletz said. “They were the tougher team in winning 50-50 balls, and they did a better job of linking passes. I thought they were the better team. They knocked us on our heels, and we were lucky to run a great restart. That was a great goal.”
The goal came on a corner kick at the 33:59 mark. Morgan Krause sent a low liner from the left side to the near post, where fellow sophomore Morgan Lockridge slid and poked the ball into the net for her second career goal.
“We didn’t do a good job on their first goal,” Watson said. “We talked yesterday about not letting anybody get in front of us and beating us to the ball, and they did. That’s shame on us.”
But there was no shame in either side’s effort. The Redhawks tied it 1-1 with 30:47 left in the second half on Meredith Tunney’s 27-yard free kick. It was Tunney’s team-high sixth goal of the season and just the third given up by the Huskies, who saw their shutout streak snapped at four games.
Tunney had a great all-around performance. She was a workhorse at both ends of the field, teaming with Caitlin Reice to hold Boswell in check for the first 70 minutes.
Boswell came up empty on her first five shots, though she was her typically dangerous self, requiring Redhawks goalkeeper Kinzly Dressler to make two diving saves, poking one shot just over the crossbar and heading another off the top of the pipe.
But Boswell found the mark with her sixth and final shot. The Ball State signee tallied the eventual game winner with 10:05 left on a 12-yard header off an Emily Wilhelm cross.
The goal was the 66th of Boswell’s storied career but the first on a header.
“It was probably the most exciting goal I’ve ever scored,” Boswell said. “It’s my first header goal so I’m really excited about it.”
No one was more surprised than Boswell to see the shot go in. The ball floated toward the upper right corner as Dressler chased after it. Then it bounced off the inside of the post and back toward Dressler, who tried to grab it before it crossed the goal line.
“The ball came to me, my back was to the goal and I just headed it and it just went in the top corner,” Boswell said. “It was crazy. I thought it was going to be going way out so I’m really excited about that.”
Watson questioned whether the entire ball crossed the line.
“It will be interesting to look at the film and see if it was actually in or not,” Watson said. “(Dressler) pinned it up against the post, and I don’t know if it actually was in and she pulled it back out. It doesn’t matter.”
Dressler made six saves to keep the Redhawks in contention. She stymied Alexis Dandridge on a breakaway with 4:15 remaining, which nearly wound up as a game-saving denial when Tunney came close to tying it again in the final minute.
Tunney had a good look at the equalizer with a 21-yard free kick with 45 seconds remaining but missed the upper right corner by about a foot.
“We needed to score on restarts, and we needed one of the field of play,” Watson said. “We didn’t find it, but I thought we had some really good looks.”
In the end, the Redhawks were denied thanks to another solid effort from Naperville North defenders Krause, Wilhelm, Ashley Santos and Jen Fortman.
“It was a little rough there, but I think ultimately we pulled through,” Baenziger said. “Central was on a little bit of motivation because it was 1-1, but I think ultimately we did great.”
But not great enough for Goletz to be completely satisfied.
“The second half was just your classic knock-down, grind-them-out crosstown game,” Goletz said. “I told our kids it was not our best game, but I'm obviously happy they found a way to get a win. But we’ve got to keep getting better performance-wise because it’s only going to get tougher as the season goes on.”
Despite the loss, Watson was optimistic that his team is getting tougher.
“I really like the way we played today,” Watson said. “That’s a team I’m comfortable going forward with. [The Huskies] are as good as anybody we’ve played, and I thought we matched up pretty well against them.”
Starting lineups
Naperville Central
GK: Kinzly Dressler
D: Amanda Murphy
D: Kayla Rowan
D: Taylor Stenmark
D: Caitlin Reice
M: Alison Kincaide
M: Meredith Tunney
M: Kirsten Dorgan
M: Mackenzie Sisko
F: Meridith Hannan
F: Ryan Dudycha
Naperville North
GK: Fiona Baenziger
D: Jen Fortma
D: Ashley Santos
D: Morgan Krause
D: Emily Wilhelm
M: Maddie Krecji
M: Olivia Stapleton
M: Morgan Lockridge
M: Allison Svoboda
F: Abbie Boswell
F: Shaina Dudas
MVP of the Match: Fiona Baenziger, GK, Naperville North
out against Naperville Central
Huskies knock Redhawks out of race on Boswell header
By Matt Le Cren
NAPERVILLE – Naperville North’s Fiona Baenziger is regarded as one of the top goalkeepers in DuPage County.
The senior backstopped the Huskies to a state championship in 2013 and is in her third season as the starter. But it is hard to tell how good she is because she hasn’t had to make many tough saves this spring.
If there was any doubt about her ability, it was erased Tuesday night. Baenziger made three saves, including two important stops – one brilliant and one a tad lucky – in the first half and Abbie Boswell scored a personally historic goal in the second half to lift the host Huskies to a 2-1 DuPage Valley Conference win over Naperville Central.
It was Naperville North’s fourth-straight victory over its crosstown rival, which was knocked out of the DVC race.
“Obviously the win is really important,” Boswell said. “I’m exciting that we won, even though it was kind of a hard game.
“I think we should have played a little better. Our performance wasn’t that good, but we battled, they battled.”
Baenziger has faced only a handful of tough shots so far, which speaks to the quality of the defenders in front of her. It also can breed rust.
“I don’t know if (the lack of work) is a good thing or a bad thing,” Baenziger said. “I’m kind of prepared (for sudden challenges) because that’s kind of the job of a goalkeeper: stop and start. We do a lot of work in practice.
“So you’ve just got to get after it. That’s just the nature of the goalkeeping position.”
The Huskies (9-1, 3-0), who won their ninth-consecutive match, led 1-0 when the Redhawks began to tilt the field and created two great scoring chances within a three-minute period.
With 18:15 remaining in the first half, Kayla Burke sent a long ball into the box to Kirsten Dorgan, who aimed a strong header toward the top shelf, only to see Baenziger make a leaping effort to tip the ball over the crossbar.
The Redhawks’ next bid for the equalizer was one of the prettiest plays of the match. Taylor Stenmark’s lead pass sprang Burke to the right end line, and Burke rolled a pass to Kathleen Conforti about 10 yards in front of the near post.
Conforti’s one-timer appeared to get under the diving Baenziger, who managed to reflexively trap it under her hip.
“I’m not exactly sure what happened, but it didn’t go in the goal, so I’m happy,” said Baenziger, who was named Chicagoland Soccer MVP of the Match.
Naperville Central coach Ed Watson couldn’t believe the Huskies’ good fortune on the play.
“The first one was a real nice save,” Watson said. “The second one was a reaction. She didn’t even know where the ball was. It just happened to be underneath her.”
Though they were outshot 7-3 before intermission, the Redhawks (9-5-1, 1-2) felt unlucky to be scoreless at the break.
“I didn’t expect we would have as many quality opportunities as we did in the first half,” Watson said. “They’ve only given up three goals for the season, but there were some goals out there that we left out there. I’ll give our kids credit, though, they create opportunities.”
Too many for Naperville North coach Steve Goletz’s liking.
“They kind of took it to us in the first half,” Goletz said. “They were the tougher team in winning 50-50 balls, and they did a better job of linking passes. I thought they were the better team. They knocked us on our heels, and we were lucky to run a great restart. That was a great goal.”
The goal came on a corner kick at the 33:59 mark. Morgan Krause sent a low liner from the left side to the near post, where fellow sophomore Morgan Lockridge slid and poked the ball into the net for her second career goal.
“We didn’t do a good job on their first goal,” Watson said. “We talked yesterday about not letting anybody get in front of us and beating us to the ball, and they did. That’s shame on us.”
But there was no shame in either side’s effort. The Redhawks tied it 1-1 with 30:47 left in the second half on Meredith Tunney’s 27-yard free kick. It was Tunney’s team-high sixth goal of the season and just the third given up by the Huskies, who saw their shutout streak snapped at four games.
Tunney had a great all-around performance. She was a workhorse at both ends of the field, teaming with Caitlin Reice to hold Boswell in check for the first 70 minutes.
Boswell came up empty on her first five shots, though she was her typically dangerous self, requiring Redhawks goalkeeper Kinzly Dressler to make two diving saves, poking one shot just over the crossbar and heading another off the top of the pipe.
But Boswell found the mark with her sixth and final shot. The Ball State signee tallied the eventual game winner with 10:05 left on a 12-yard header off an Emily Wilhelm cross.
The goal was the 66th of Boswell’s storied career but the first on a header.
“It was probably the most exciting goal I’ve ever scored,” Boswell said. “It’s my first header goal so I’m really excited about it.”
No one was more surprised than Boswell to see the shot go in. The ball floated toward the upper right corner as Dressler chased after it. Then it bounced off the inside of the post and back toward Dressler, who tried to grab it before it crossed the goal line.
“The ball came to me, my back was to the goal and I just headed it and it just went in the top corner,” Boswell said. “It was crazy. I thought it was going to be going way out so I’m really excited about that.”
Watson questioned whether the entire ball crossed the line.
“It will be interesting to look at the film and see if it was actually in or not,” Watson said. “(Dressler) pinned it up against the post, and I don’t know if it actually was in and she pulled it back out. It doesn’t matter.”
Dressler made six saves to keep the Redhawks in contention. She stymied Alexis Dandridge on a breakaway with 4:15 remaining, which nearly wound up as a game-saving denial when Tunney came close to tying it again in the final minute.
Tunney had a good look at the equalizer with a 21-yard free kick with 45 seconds remaining but missed the upper right corner by about a foot.
“We needed to score on restarts, and we needed one of the field of play,” Watson said. “We didn’t find it, but I thought we had some really good looks.”
In the end, the Redhawks were denied thanks to another solid effort from Naperville North defenders Krause, Wilhelm, Ashley Santos and Jen Fortman.
“It was a little rough there, but I think ultimately we pulled through,” Baenziger said. “Central was on a little bit of motivation because it was 1-1, but I think ultimately we did great.”
But not great enough for Goletz to be completely satisfied.
“The second half was just your classic knock-down, grind-them-out crosstown game,” Goletz said. “I told our kids it was not our best game, but I'm obviously happy they found a way to get a win. But we’ve got to keep getting better performance-wise because it’s only going to get tougher as the season goes on.”
Despite the loss, Watson was optimistic that his team is getting tougher.
“I really like the way we played today,” Watson said. “That’s a team I’m comfortable going forward with. [The Huskies] are as good as anybody we’ve played, and I thought we matched up pretty well against them.”
Starting lineups
Naperville Central
GK: Kinzly Dressler
D: Amanda Murphy
D: Kayla Rowan
D: Taylor Stenmark
D: Caitlin Reice
M: Alison Kincaide
M: Meredith Tunney
M: Kirsten Dorgan
M: Mackenzie Sisko
F: Meridith Hannan
F: Ryan Dudycha
Naperville North
GK: Fiona Baenziger
D: Jen Fortma
D: Ashley Santos
D: Morgan Krause
D: Emily Wilhelm
M: Maddie Krecji
M: Olivia Stapleton
M: Morgan Lockridge
M: Allison Svoboda
F: Abbie Boswell
F: Shaina Dudas
MVP of the Match: Fiona Baenziger, GK, Naperville North