Plainfield North's sharp corner
kicks round off Plainfield South
Tigers shut out rival Cougars to regain momentum
By Derek Wolff
PLAINFIELD -- Coming off its first loss of the season in Sunday’s finale of the PepsiCo Showcase, Plainfield North responded in the right fashion on Tuesday night, besting rival Plainfield South 4-0 to improve to 4-0-0 in Southwest Prairie Conference play.
The Tigers (12-1-2) scored twice in each half and converted on three of six corner kicks to down the Cougars (6-5-0, 3-1-0).
“This was a big game for us right now,” Tigers coach Jane Crowe said. “We have one loss, and this was our first opportunity after a loss to see how we were going to come back, so I’m happy we came back and got the win ... got the shutout. It wasn’t pretty, but we got the shutout and hopefully moving forward we can get back on that winning track.”
Victimized by set plays Sunday against New Trier, the Tigers went back to work on corner kicks and were rewarded big time in the first half against Plainfield South.
Plainfield North potted a goal off its first corner kick in the ninth minute when midfielder and Chicagoland Soccer’s MVP of the Match Sam Elster played a driving wind to perfection. Elster spun a kick in from the right side that redirected off South midfielder Shelby Bishop and into the net for the own goal.
Megan Breier earned a corner for the Tigers in the 34th minute, with Elster’s ball handcuffing South goalkeeper Samantha Hlavac, who redirected it off the crossbar.
Breier’s attempt off the rebound redirected off a South player and set up Elster for another corner from the right flag.
This time, Elster’s curling ball went off Hlavac’s hands, pausing for a moment on the line before rolling in for the 2-0 Tigers lead.
“We worked on them yesterday. After Sunday we said we needed to work on them,” Crowe said. “We worked more on defending them since that’s where we struggled but at the same time you’re working on attacking. We did say that before the game, we said, ‘We need to start scoring on those plays.’ That’s where all year we’ve given up most of our goals; almost all the goals we’ve given up have been set plays, so we said we need to turn it around, and the first three goals were all on corner kicks. It’s good to be on the other end of that.”
The Tigers earned another pair of back-to-back corners in the 44th minute, with Elster setting up senior defender Brooke Polonus on the second attempt.
Elster’s ball in from the right flag skipped through a line of players to find an open Polonus at the goal line.
“It kind of fell to my feet or knees, and I just had to knee it in,” Polonus said. “It was a really ugly, awkward goal, but a goal’s a goal.”
Elster’s efforts may have been aided by the wind, but her precision strikes were able to help deflate Plainfield South. The Cougars struggled to find a rhythm offensively after falling behind early in the game.
“I think in the first half we had the wind, and I was able to get a little bit of a curve on it,” Elster said. “We just got fortunate that we put it in a dangerous area. On the third one, Brooke got in a good spot and put it in.”
With the game already out of reach in the 74th minute, North midfielder Jessica Christmas floated a nice strike in for the 4-0 lead on a ball from 25 yards out.
With the season winding down and important conference games still to be played, the Cougars found positives knowing that mental errors and beating themselves -- fixable things -- helped North to the 4-0 victory.
“It’s obvious that Plainfield North has a good team,” said South coach Lauren DeWolf. “In all honesty, they scored off three corner kicks, so those are mental lapses on our part. Field of play, it was 1-0. In my eyes it was 1-0, really one goal that they kind of earned. We weren’t ready for those corner kicks, so if we take those away ... I’m pretty proud of how we played. (Plainfield) Central, Oswego, we’ve got those games coming up, and our goal is still to be one of the top teams in the conference. We’ve still got the playoffs to prepare for. The girls learn a lot from playing good teams.”
The Cougars had a few chances in the early going and had the better possession for the first five minutes but were unable to finish runs after through balls and seemed hesitant to shoot at times throughout the match.
“I think our girls were trying to possess a little bit, and when we should have sent it we were trying to hang on to the ball a little bit too much,” DeWolf said. “Maybe we should have shot or maybe we should have sent it. On through balls we were trying to dribble or connect one more pass, so we just couldn’t get that last piece together.”
Plainfield North earned its ninth shutout of the season.
“We’ve been really strong this year on defense, but I think we just need to keep our composure back there,” Polonus said. “We started off kind of frantic but once we regained our composure we were able to settle down and just play out of the back easy and find feet quickly.”
While the Tigers were happy with the result, a grueling late-season schedule before the playoffs will demand better play in the open field than Plainfield North displayed on Tuesday, Crowe said.
“It wasn’t a pretty game, it really wasn’t,” Crowe said. “We did not play our best game at all, but if you can get away with maybe not playing your best game but finishing when you get opportunities, that’s going to help. I think we kind of came out flat; it’s hard to come off a loss against a really good team and keep that momentum up, and I think getting that first goal helped us a lot.”
The Tigers will take on Naperville North on Thursday and on May 11, and could potentially play New Trier again Friday, albeit without its full roster because of the prom.
“It will be a nice experience for the younger players,” Crowe said.
Starting lineups
Plainfield South
GK-Samantha Hlavac
D-Madison Ourada
D-Kaylee DeVivo
D-Peyton Marmoll
M-Angie Corcoran
M-Shelby Bishop
M-Michele Govern
M-Isabel Cerda
M-Lexus Rose
M-Ciara Coneset
F-Taylor Metcalf
Plainfield North
GK-Emma Veselsky
D-Brooke Polonus
D-Emily Devaux
D-Abby Gustafson
D-Karsyn Stirrett
M-Reyse Stirrett
M-Jessica Christmas
M-Sam Elster
M-Renae Blevins
M-Megan Breier
F-Erin Chynoweth
MVP of the Match: Sam Elster, M, Plainfield North
kicks round off Plainfield South
Tigers shut out rival Cougars to regain momentum
By Derek Wolff
PLAINFIELD -- Coming off its first loss of the season in Sunday’s finale of the PepsiCo Showcase, Plainfield North responded in the right fashion on Tuesday night, besting rival Plainfield South 4-0 to improve to 4-0-0 in Southwest Prairie Conference play.
The Tigers (12-1-2) scored twice in each half and converted on three of six corner kicks to down the Cougars (6-5-0, 3-1-0).
“This was a big game for us right now,” Tigers coach Jane Crowe said. “We have one loss, and this was our first opportunity after a loss to see how we were going to come back, so I’m happy we came back and got the win ... got the shutout. It wasn’t pretty, but we got the shutout and hopefully moving forward we can get back on that winning track.”
Victimized by set plays Sunday against New Trier, the Tigers went back to work on corner kicks and were rewarded big time in the first half against Plainfield South.
Plainfield North potted a goal off its first corner kick in the ninth minute when midfielder and Chicagoland Soccer’s MVP of the Match Sam Elster played a driving wind to perfection. Elster spun a kick in from the right side that redirected off South midfielder Shelby Bishop and into the net for the own goal.
Megan Breier earned a corner for the Tigers in the 34th minute, with Elster’s ball handcuffing South goalkeeper Samantha Hlavac, who redirected it off the crossbar.
Breier’s attempt off the rebound redirected off a South player and set up Elster for another corner from the right flag.
This time, Elster’s curling ball went off Hlavac’s hands, pausing for a moment on the line before rolling in for the 2-0 Tigers lead.
“We worked on them yesterday. After Sunday we said we needed to work on them,” Crowe said. “We worked more on defending them since that’s where we struggled but at the same time you’re working on attacking. We did say that before the game, we said, ‘We need to start scoring on those plays.’ That’s where all year we’ve given up most of our goals; almost all the goals we’ve given up have been set plays, so we said we need to turn it around, and the first three goals were all on corner kicks. It’s good to be on the other end of that.”
The Tigers earned another pair of back-to-back corners in the 44th minute, with Elster setting up senior defender Brooke Polonus on the second attempt.
Elster’s ball in from the right flag skipped through a line of players to find an open Polonus at the goal line.
“It kind of fell to my feet or knees, and I just had to knee it in,” Polonus said. “It was a really ugly, awkward goal, but a goal’s a goal.”
Elster’s efforts may have been aided by the wind, but her precision strikes were able to help deflate Plainfield South. The Cougars struggled to find a rhythm offensively after falling behind early in the game.
“I think in the first half we had the wind, and I was able to get a little bit of a curve on it,” Elster said. “We just got fortunate that we put it in a dangerous area. On the third one, Brooke got in a good spot and put it in.”
With the game already out of reach in the 74th minute, North midfielder Jessica Christmas floated a nice strike in for the 4-0 lead on a ball from 25 yards out.
With the season winding down and important conference games still to be played, the Cougars found positives knowing that mental errors and beating themselves -- fixable things -- helped North to the 4-0 victory.
“It’s obvious that Plainfield North has a good team,” said South coach Lauren DeWolf. “In all honesty, they scored off three corner kicks, so those are mental lapses on our part. Field of play, it was 1-0. In my eyes it was 1-0, really one goal that they kind of earned. We weren’t ready for those corner kicks, so if we take those away ... I’m pretty proud of how we played. (Plainfield) Central, Oswego, we’ve got those games coming up, and our goal is still to be one of the top teams in the conference. We’ve still got the playoffs to prepare for. The girls learn a lot from playing good teams.”
The Cougars had a few chances in the early going and had the better possession for the first five minutes but were unable to finish runs after through balls and seemed hesitant to shoot at times throughout the match.
“I think our girls were trying to possess a little bit, and when we should have sent it we were trying to hang on to the ball a little bit too much,” DeWolf said. “Maybe we should have shot or maybe we should have sent it. On through balls we were trying to dribble or connect one more pass, so we just couldn’t get that last piece together.”
Plainfield North earned its ninth shutout of the season.
“We’ve been really strong this year on defense, but I think we just need to keep our composure back there,” Polonus said. “We started off kind of frantic but once we regained our composure we were able to settle down and just play out of the back easy and find feet quickly.”
While the Tigers were happy with the result, a grueling late-season schedule before the playoffs will demand better play in the open field than Plainfield North displayed on Tuesday, Crowe said.
“It wasn’t a pretty game, it really wasn’t,” Crowe said. “We did not play our best game at all, but if you can get away with maybe not playing your best game but finishing when you get opportunities, that’s going to help. I think we kind of came out flat; it’s hard to come off a loss against a really good team and keep that momentum up, and I think getting that first goal helped us a lot.”
The Tigers will take on Naperville North on Thursday and on May 11, and could potentially play New Trier again Friday, albeit without its full roster because of the prom.
“It will be a nice experience for the younger players,” Crowe said.
Starting lineups
Plainfield South
GK-Samantha Hlavac
D-Madison Ourada
D-Kaylee DeVivo
D-Peyton Marmoll
M-Angie Corcoran
M-Shelby Bishop
M-Michele Govern
M-Isabel Cerda
M-Lexus Rose
M-Ciara Coneset
F-Taylor Metcalf
Plainfield North
GK-Emma Veselsky
D-Brooke Polonus
D-Emily Devaux
D-Abby Gustafson
D-Karsyn Stirrett
M-Reyse Stirrett
M-Jessica Christmas
M-Sam Elster
M-Renae Blevins
M-Megan Breier
F-Erin Chynoweth
MVP of the Match: Sam Elster, M, Plainfield North