Barrington battles past Naperville North
Fillies win 2-0 on Raynor, Shomaker goals
By Gary Larsen
BARRiNGTON -- Two-time defending Class 3A state champion Barrington is trapped -- stuck between the nearly impossible task of living up to preseason hype and the danger of actually believing it.
The Fillies’ best approach to staying grounded likely lies in the words of junior Rebecca Shomaker, who on Tuesday uttered the most ancient but also the most fitting of sports cliches.
“One game at a time,” she said.
Barrington enters the 2019 season ranked no. 1 in the country by Top Drawer Soccer, and no. 1 in Illinois in Chicagoland Soccer’s preseason First 50. The Fillies won 2-0 over visiting Naperville North on Tuesday in the season-opener for both perennial state power programs.
But when preseason hype meets the reality of early-season soccer, coaches aren’t overly concerned with results.
“I told the girls that it doesn’t matter if we win or lose the first two games. It doesn’t make any difference,” Barrington coach Ryan Stengren said. “It’s more about seeing if we’re trying to execute things that we work on in practice. I saw moments, just moments, of good stuff but we obviously need to be a lot more consistent with what we’re doing. We have a long ways to go.”
Soccer played in March is never as pretty as soccer played in June and Tuesday’s game saw the Huskies and Fillies largely slug it out up and down the field. Barrington got a first-half goal from Riley Raynor and a goal late in the second half from Shomaker to secure the win.
Like Stengren, Naperville North coach Steve Goletz was less concerned about the result than he was about his girls’ performance.
“The encouraging thing for me is that outside of two small breakdowns that (Barrington) capitalized on, it showed that these kids can hang with the best team in the state of Illinois right now,” Goletz said.
“In our program we’re never going to be content with a loss, but I am content with the way that we played.”
The Fillies (1-0-0) earned a handful of corner kicks to the fourth minute but the Huskies (0-1-0) got a clearance from defender Reilly Riggs and a punch-out from keeper Amanda Johnson to stifle threats sent into the box.
Barrington’s Caroline Kilayko sent a shot high of frame at six minutes and North’s Paige Sylvester blistered a knuckling shot to the post from 18 yards at nine minutes that Fillies keeper Coast Liapis snared cleanly.
Naperville North had a few corner kicks to the 10th minute that the Fillies handled. The hosts' Kilayko sent in a long ball in transition that Johnson handled easily a minute later. At 13 minutes, Liapis fielded a one-hopper from distance sent in from Naperville North's Emily Dulik.
Barrington's first score came at 16 minutes when Raynor located a cross from the right side sent by Ashley Armando. Raynor is the lone freshman on Barrington’s roster, and she buried the first goal of her varsity career from eight yards at the far post.
“She has a very good ability in front of the net. I just didn’t know if we’d be able to find her in front of the net,” Stengren said of Raynor. “But for her to get her first goal in her first game for us was nice to see.”
Keepers Johnson and Liapis each left their lines to pounce on dangerous balls sent to their goalmouths through 30 minutes. Liapis elevated to swat a Naperville North corner kick away from the crossbar taken by Leah Shumate at 32 minutes. At 34 minutes Johnson saved a hard shot at the post taken by Barrington's Armando from 10 yards.
After a half, Naperville North had showed that even with a bevy of new starters it was up to the challenge. Naperville North is ranked third in Chicagoland Soccer’s First 50.
“We put up a battle. We always do that,” Huskies defender Riggs said. “Especially considering that we have seven new people starting for us, it was awesome to see how we were working for each other. What we need to work on the most is where their two goals came from, which was in the box. We were just too soft on those.”
Barrington's Shomaker was pleased with the flashes of attacking promise her side showed against one of the best teams the Fillies will face all year.
“As a team we’ve really been working on passing and moving, and high pressure, and I feel like that showed tonight,” Shomaker said. “As a team we were all picking each other up and trying to get a result.
“This game gives us a challenge right off the bat. It showed us that as a team we can still work harder and be stronger, and contribute all together to get a result.”
Johnson cut off a Madi Rosen cross one minute into the second half, and Barrington defender Juliana Moreno cleared out a through-ball with North’s Hannah Martin running on at 42 minutes.
Barrington returned its entire backline of Rosen, Moreno, Kate McGreevy and Christine Batliner and the foursome played rock-solid defense throughout Tuesday’s game.
“Hannah (Martin) up-top battles so hard, but the problem is you’re going up against four (defenders) that are returning from a state championship team,” Goletz said.
Long crosses, corner kicks, and long free kicks played a major role for both teams throughout the second half, with neither defense breaking until the 72nd minute. That’s when Barrington’s Tina Teik got her foot on a ball that hit the turf in front of the Huskies’ net. She sent a square pass to Shomaker, who scored easily from point-blank range.
Eight minutes later, Barrington had its first win of the season.
“Alexis Armando came off the bench and played really well for us,” Stengren said. “She played center midfield, and she’s not used to playing there. And I was really happy with (keeper Liapis). She played well. She didn’t have to do a lot, but she directed a lot and made a lot of good decisions. Ashley Rocco was really good in the midfield, too.”
Rocco was named Chicagoland Soccer's MVP of the Match for her effort Tuesday.
Barrington's win came despite the loss of two-time Chicagoland Soccer All-Stater Ashley Prell, who will miss the season due to injury. But the Fillies return a ton of talented players that Prell had a message for.
“She said she was still going to be here for the team, still going to push us, and that it wasn’t going to be the end for us,” Shomaker said. “We still have so many players willing to work together and keep pushing each other.”
Goletz was happy with his entire midfield rotation, and he left Barrington more pleased than dissatisfied.
“Defensively there are some things we can work on, that (Barrington) did a good job of exposing on us, but I thought Reilly Riggs was fantastic as our captain back there,” Goletz said. “But we expect that from her. She’s going to have to be great.
“To go toe-to-toe with that team is encouraging. I know 2-0 is 2-0, but when you look at how the game went it wasn’t like they dominated us. They took advantage of the chances they got, and that’s just a credit to a team that knows how to win. We’ll get to that point where we figure that out.”
Starting lineups
Naperville North
GK Amanda Johnson
D Reilly Riggs
D Emily Magee
D Paige Sylvester
D Jordan Leonard
M Leah Shumate
M Emily Dulik
M Grace Archbold
M Maddie Schlecht
F Hannah Martin
F Katie Murphy
Barrington
GK Coast Liapis
D Christine Batliner
D Madi Rose
D Kate McGreevy
D Juliana Moreno
M Ashley Rocco
M Ellie McAuley
M Rebecca Shomaker
M Jen Devona
M Tina Teik
F Caroline Kilayko
Chicagoland Soccer MVP of the Match: Ashley Rocco, MF, Barrington
Fillies win 2-0 on Raynor, Shomaker goals
By Gary Larsen
BARRiNGTON -- Two-time defending Class 3A state champion Barrington is trapped -- stuck between the nearly impossible task of living up to preseason hype and the danger of actually believing it.
The Fillies’ best approach to staying grounded likely lies in the words of junior Rebecca Shomaker, who on Tuesday uttered the most ancient but also the most fitting of sports cliches.
“One game at a time,” she said.
Barrington enters the 2019 season ranked no. 1 in the country by Top Drawer Soccer, and no. 1 in Illinois in Chicagoland Soccer’s preseason First 50. The Fillies won 2-0 over visiting Naperville North on Tuesday in the season-opener for both perennial state power programs.
But when preseason hype meets the reality of early-season soccer, coaches aren’t overly concerned with results.
“I told the girls that it doesn’t matter if we win or lose the first two games. It doesn’t make any difference,” Barrington coach Ryan Stengren said. “It’s more about seeing if we’re trying to execute things that we work on in practice. I saw moments, just moments, of good stuff but we obviously need to be a lot more consistent with what we’re doing. We have a long ways to go.”
Soccer played in March is never as pretty as soccer played in June and Tuesday’s game saw the Huskies and Fillies largely slug it out up and down the field. Barrington got a first-half goal from Riley Raynor and a goal late in the second half from Shomaker to secure the win.
Like Stengren, Naperville North coach Steve Goletz was less concerned about the result than he was about his girls’ performance.
“The encouraging thing for me is that outside of two small breakdowns that (Barrington) capitalized on, it showed that these kids can hang with the best team in the state of Illinois right now,” Goletz said.
“In our program we’re never going to be content with a loss, but I am content with the way that we played.”
The Fillies (1-0-0) earned a handful of corner kicks to the fourth minute but the Huskies (0-1-0) got a clearance from defender Reilly Riggs and a punch-out from keeper Amanda Johnson to stifle threats sent into the box.
Barrington’s Caroline Kilayko sent a shot high of frame at six minutes and North’s Paige Sylvester blistered a knuckling shot to the post from 18 yards at nine minutes that Fillies keeper Coast Liapis snared cleanly.
Naperville North had a few corner kicks to the 10th minute that the Fillies handled. The hosts' Kilayko sent in a long ball in transition that Johnson handled easily a minute later. At 13 minutes, Liapis fielded a one-hopper from distance sent in from Naperville North's Emily Dulik.
Barrington's first score came at 16 minutes when Raynor located a cross from the right side sent by Ashley Armando. Raynor is the lone freshman on Barrington’s roster, and she buried the first goal of her varsity career from eight yards at the far post.
“She has a very good ability in front of the net. I just didn’t know if we’d be able to find her in front of the net,” Stengren said of Raynor. “But for her to get her first goal in her first game for us was nice to see.”
Keepers Johnson and Liapis each left their lines to pounce on dangerous balls sent to their goalmouths through 30 minutes. Liapis elevated to swat a Naperville North corner kick away from the crossbar taken by Leah Shumate at 32 minutes. At 34 minutes Johnson saved a hard shot at the post taken by Barrington's Armando from 10 yards.
After a half, Naperville North had showed that even with a bevy of new starters it was up to the challenge. Naperville North is ranked third in Chicagoland Soccer’s First 50.
“We put up a battle. We always do that,” Huskies defender Riggs said. “Especially considering that we have seven new people starting for us, it was awesome to see how we were working for each other. What we need to work on the most is where their two goals came from, which was in the box. We were just too soft on those.”
Barrington's Shomaker was pleased with the flashes of attacking promise her side showed against one of the best teams the Fillies will face all year.
“As a team we’ve really been working on passing and moving, and high pressure, and I feel like that showed tonight,” Shomaker said. “As a team we were all picking each other up and trying to get a result.
“This game gives us a challenge right off the bat. It showed us that as a team we can still work harder and be stronger, and contribute all together to get a result.”
Johnson cut off a Madi Rosen cross one minute into the second half, and Barrington defender Juliana Moreno cleared out a through-ball with North’s Hannah Martin running on at 42 minutes.
Barrington returned its entire backline of Rosen, Moreno, Kate McGreevy and Christine Batliner and the foursome played rock-solid defense throughout Tuesday’s game.
“Hannah (Martin) up-top battles so hard, but the problem is you’re going up against four (defenders) that are returning from a state championship team,” Goletz said.
Long crosses, corner kicks, and long free kicks played a major role for both teams throughout the second half, with neither defense breaking until the 72nd minute. That’s when Barrington’s Tina Teik got her foot on a ball that hit the turf in front of the Huskies’ net. She sent a square pass to Shomaker, who scored easily from point-blank range.
Eight minutes later, Barrington had its first win of the season.
“Alexis Armando came off the bench and played really well for us,” Stengren said. “She played center midfield, and she’s not used to playing there. And I was really happy with (keeper Liapis). She played well. She didn’t have to do a lot, but she directed a lot and made a lot of good decisions. Ashley Rocco was really good in the midfield, too.”
Rocco was named Chicagoland Soccer's MVP of the Match for her effort Tuesday.
Barrington's win came despite the loss of two-time Chicagoland Soccer All-Stater Ashley Prell, who will miss the season due to injury. But the Fillies return a ton of talented players that Prell had a message for.
“She said she was still going to be here for the team, still going to push us, and that it wasn’t going to be the end for us,” Shomaker said. “We still have so many players willing to work together and keep pushing each other.”
Goletz was happy with his entire midfield rotation, and he left Barrington more pleased than dissatisfied.
“Defensively there are some things we can work on, that (Barrington) did a good job of exposing on us, but I thought Reilly Riggs was fantastic as our captain back there,” Goletz said. “But we expect that from her. She’s going to have to be great.
“To go toe-to-toe with that team is encouraging. I know 2-0 is 2-0, but when you look at how the game went it wasn’t like they dominated us. They took advantage of the chances they got, and that’s just a credit to a team that knows how to win. We’ll get to that point where we figure that out.”
Starting lineups
Naperville North
GK Amanda Johnson
D Reilly Riggs
D Emily Magee
D Paige Sylvester
D Jordan Leonard
M Leah Shumate
M Emily Dulik
M Grace Archbold
M Maddie Schlecht
F Hannah Martin
F Katie Murphy
Barrington
GK Coast Liapis
D Christine Batliner
D Madi Rose
D Kate McGreevy
D Juliana Moreno
M Ashley Rocco
M Ellie McAuley
M Rebecca Shomaker
M Jen Devona
M Tina Teik
F Caroline Kilayko
Chicagoland Soccer MVP of the Match: Ashley Rocco, MF, Barrington