Libertyville tops St. Francis, stays unbeaten
3 goals in first 12 minutes set tone for Wildcats
By Michael Wojtychiw
EVANSTON -- Libertyville, ranked no. 1 in the Chicagoland Soccer Top 25, had an issue entering its first round game in the Lou Malnati’s Deep Dish Classic on Saturday at Evanston. But it dealt with it with ease and delivered a 7-1 victory over St. Francis.
“We have a number of players out, so we weren’t sure what to expect. We had only two subs for the game, so we had to put some players in different positions,” Libertyville manager Daniel DePaz said. “Overall, this is a positive game for us, especially for the adversity we had to go through today.”
The Wildcats scored in the second minute when Sally Grace Rogers lofted a ball from about 30 yards that went over St. Francis keeper Kennedy Karl’s arms for a 1-0 edge.
“I saw that the goalie had come out of her box and wanted to shoot it past her,” Rogers said about her goal. “I’ve been wanting to get that all season; so it’s nice to get it.”
Libertyville hadn't allowed a goal in its first three games, but its lead didn’t hold for long. Ellie Bielenda’s cross into the box found the foot of Elle Wainscott and all of the sudden the St. Francis had tied the game in the fifth minute.
“I loved our response,” St. Francis manager Jim Winslow said. “That was really important for us.”
The deadlock was short-lived, however. Libertyville senior Lauren Rocco scored her first of the game two minutes later to give the Wildcats a lead they wouldn’t relinquish.
The top-ranked team was characteristically unfazed.
“The way we practice, we lose the ball in practice, we lose the ball in games, yes, but it’s all about how we respond to it,” DePaz said. “This is a team with players returning from last year. Almost every time we were scored on last year, we scored again within the next five minutes.
"So, this is a team that won’t put their heads down and get disappointed. They know that ‘Alright, we made a mistake. How do we move forward?’”
Rogers scored her second goal of the game in the 12th minute when she headed in a ball off of a Jenna Krakowski corner kick.
“I like to start back like I’m going back post, but I’m usually going around the PK spot and just find the direction of the ball and play it from there,” Rogers said. “I tried to be really aggressive in the box with that one today and play off of the ball and finish it.”
Sydney Dulak scored for the Wildcats 33 seconds before the half ended, giving them a 4-1 lead at the break.
From then on out it was all Wildcats.
Libertyville didn’t allow the Spartans to get off a shot in the second half. Most of the game was played in the St. Francis defensive zone as the Wildcats peppered the Spartans defense.
“The biggest thing we did was we fixed the spacing of our own team,” DePaz said. “The first half we had a lot of gaps from the forwards to the midfield, midfield to the defense, which made our midfielders have to cover a lot of ground. So fixing those gaps, fixing that spacing that we had, that was the biggest thing we corrected and stopped them from having those counters they had earlier.”
“We really wanted to settle down and support each other,” Rogers said. “One full step, one recover, we’ve practiced it a lot, and it’s finally all coming together and allowing us to play better.”
“Libertyville is a good team,” Winslow said. “We showed some things we can take advantage of that we didn’t enough, but that’s part of our youth.
“They play like how we like to play, like pass and move. When we run up against some of these other teams, what’s it going to look like? We just try to be constant with these teams here.”
The Libertyville offense was relentless. St. Francis keeper Karl made six saves in the second half and 11 for the game.
Libertyville’s Paige Gleason picked up her first of the day when she knocked one home 17 minutes into the second half.
Rocco got back into the scoring column seven minutes later when she put in her second to extend the lead to 6-1. Gleason rounded out the scoring and completed her brace with 14:05 remaining.
Now the Wildcats (4-0-0), who are making their Lou Malnati’s Deep Dish Classic debut, face their toughest test of the season in the second game of pool play when they face currently fourth-ranked Naperville North on the road Monday (April 11).
DePaz and his team know that they can’t worry about the teams in front of them.
“One thing we talk about is let’s not focus on who exactly we’re playing and what we can’t control, but what we can control,” DePaz said. “We can control how we play; we can control our warmup; we can control intensity, our work. That’s our focus now.
“Hopefully Monday we play our game and come out and represent well against a good team.”
St. Francis (1-3-1), which is the smallest team by enrollment in the tournament by a wide margin, gets ready for another tough test Monday in eighth-ranked Evanston. The Wildkits come off of their first loss of the year, a 4-0 Malnati's defeat to Naperville North.
“We’ve just got to stay positive,” Winslow said. “We’re not going to play these type of teams when we go into the state series. These schools are all three or four thousand kids, and we normally don’t go up against that.
“But it’s a learning experience and can just help us.”
Starting lineups
Libertyville
GK: Kate Hopma
D: Riley Brennan
D: Stella Bechtold
D: Sally Grace Rogers
MF: Cara Stratton
MF: Audrey Brua
MF: Paige Gleason
MF: Abby Gordon
MF: Jenna Krakowski
F: Avery Gleason
F: Lauren Rocco
St. Francis
GK: Kennedy Karl
D: Alyssa Suriano
D: Elle Wainscott
D: Ada Suriano
D: Ella Schroeder
MF: Shannon Brown
MF: Claire Reinke
MF: Sara Dziengel
F: Ellie Bielenda
F: Ella Wozniak
F: Lauren Bruce
Chicagoland Soccer MVP of the Match: Sally Grace Rogers, sr., defender, Libertyville
Scoring summary
First half
Libertyville - Sally Grace Rogers, second minute
St. Francis - Elle Wainscott (Ellie Bielenda), fifth minute
Libertyville - Lauren Rocco (Paige Gleason), eighth minute
Libertyville - Rogers (Jenna Krakowski), 12th minute
Libertyville - Sydney Dulak, 40th minute
Second half
Libertyville - Paige Gleason, 56th minute
Libertyville - Rocco, 64th minute
Libertyville - Gleason, 67th minute
3 goals in first 12 minutes set tone for Wildcats
By Michael Wojtychiw
EVANSTON -- Libertyville, ranked no. 1 in the Chicagoland Soccer Top 25, had an issue entering its first round game in the Lou Malnati’s Deep Dish Classic on Saturday at Evanston. But it dealt with it with ease and delivered a 7-1 victory over St. Francis.
“We have a number of players out, so we weren’t sure what to expect. We had only two subs for the game, so we had to put some players in different positions,” Libertyville manager Daniel DePaz said. “Overall, this is a positive game for us, especially for the adversity we had to go through today.”
The Wildcats scored in the second minute when Sally Grace Rogers lofted a ball from about 30 yards that went over St. Francis keeper Kennedy Karl’s arms for a 1-0 edge.
“I saw that the goalie had come out of her box and wanted to shoot it past her,” Rogers said about her goal. “I’ve been wanting to get that all season; so it’s nice to get it.”
Libertyville hadn't allowed a goal in its first three games, but its lead didn’t hold for long. Ellie Bielenda’s cross into the box found the foot of Elle Wainscott and all of the sudden the St. Francis had tied the game in the fifth minute.
“I loved our response,” St. Francis manager Jim Winslow said. “That was really important for us.”
The deadlock was short-lived, however. Libertyville senior Lauren Rocco scored her first of the game two minutes later to give the Wildcats a lead they wouldn’t relinquish.
The top-ranked team was characteristically unfazed.
“The way we practice, we lose the ball in practice, we lose the ball in games, yes, but it’s all about how we respond to it,” DePaz said. “This is a team with players returning from last year. Almost every time we were scored on last year, we scored again within the next five minutes.
"So, this is a team that won’t put their heads down and get disappointed. They know that ‘Alright, we made a mistake. How do we move forward?’”
Rogers scored her second goal of the game in the 12th minute when she headed in a ball off of a Jenna Krakowski corner kick.
“I like to start back like I’m going back post, but I’m usually going around the PK spot and just find the direction of the ball and play it from there,” Rogers said. “I tried to be really aggressive in the box with that one today and play off of the ball and finish it.”
Sydney Dulak scored for the Wildcats 33 seconds before the half ended, giving them a 4-1 lead at the break.
From then on out it was all Wildcats.
Libertyville didn’t allow the Spartans to get off a shot in the second half. Most of the game was played in the St. Francis defensive zone as the Wildcats peppered the Spartans defense.
“The biggest thing we did was we fixed the spacing of our own team,” DePaz said. “The first half we had a lot of gaps from the forwards to the midfield, midfield to the defense, which made our midfielders have to cover a lot of ground. So fixing those gaps, fixing that spacing that we had, that was the biggest thing we corrected and stopped them from having those counters they had earlier.”
“We really wanted to settle down and support each other,” Rogers said. “One full step, one recover, we’ve practiced it a lot, and it’s finally all coming together and allowing us to play better.”
“Libertyville is a good team,” Winslow said. “We showed some things we can take advantage of that we didn’t enough, but that’s part of our youth.
“They play like how we like to play, like pass and move. When we run up against some of these other teams, what’s it going to look like? We just try to be constant with these teams here.”
The Libertyville offense was relentless. St. Francis keeper Karl made six saves in the second half and 11 for the game.
Libertyville’s Paige Gleason picked up her first of the day when she knocked one home 17 minutes into the second half.
Rocco got back into the scoring column seven minutes later when she put in her second to extend the lead to 6-1. Gleason rounded out the scoring and completed her brace with 14:05 remaining.
Now the Wildcats (4-0-0), who are making their Lou Malnati’s Deep Dish Classic debut, face their toughest test of the season in the second game of pool play when they face currently fourth-ranked Naperville North on the road Monday (April 11).
DePaz and his team know that they can’t worry about the teams in front of them.
“One thing we talk about is let’s not focus on who exactly we’re playing and what we can’t control, but what we can control,” DePaz said. “We can control how we play; we can control our warmup; we can control intensity, our work. That’s our focus now.
“Hopefully Monday we play our game and come out and represent well against a good team.”
St. Francis (1-3-1), which is the smallest team by enrollment in the tournament by a wide margin, gets ready for another tough test Monday in eighth-ranked Evanston. The Wildkits come off of their first loss of the year, a 4-0 Malnati's defeat to Naperville North.
“We’ve just got to stay positive,” Winslow said. “We’re not going to play these type of teams when we go into the state series. These schools are all three or four thousand kids, and we normally don’t go up against that.
“But it’s a learning experience and can just help us.”
Starting lineups
Libertyville
GK: Kate Hopma
D: Riley Brennan
D: Stella Bechtold
D: Sally Grace Rogers
MF: Cara Stratton
MF: Audrey Brua
MF: Paige Gleason
MF: Abby Gordon
MF: Jenna Krakowski
F: Avery Gleason
F: Lauren Rocco
St. Francis
GK: Kennedy Karl
D: Alyssa Suriano
D: Elle Wainscott
D: Ada Suriano
D: Ella Schroeder
MF: Shannon Brown
MF: Claire Reinke
MF: Sara Dziengel
F: Ellie Bielenda
F: Ella Wozniak
F: Lauren Bruce
Chicagoland Soccer MVP of the Match: Sally Grace Rogers, sr., defender, Libertyville
Scoring summary
First half
Libertyville - Sally Grace Rogers, second minute
St. Francis - Elle Wainscott (Ellie Bielenda), fifth minute
Libertyville - Lauren Rocco (Paige Gleason), eighth minute
Libertyville - Rogers (Jenna Krakowski), 12th minute
Libertyville - Sydney Dulak, 40th minute
Second half
Libertyville - Paige Gleason, 56th minute
Libertyville - Rocco, 64th minute
Libertyville - Gleason, 67th minute