Naperville North asserts
itself against Evanston
Fitzgerald scores 1st varsity goals in 4-minute span in 4-0 win
By Michael Wojtychiw
EVANSTON -- Naperville North has had quite the start to its season. With wins over Barrington, Neuqua Valley, St. Charles East and Batavia, among others, the Huskies have played tough competition early in the season and have come away with wins over multiple ranked teams.
The schedule didn’t get any easier in the opening round of the 4th annual Lou Malnati’s Deep Dish Classic on Saturday at eighth-ranked Evanston.
Naperville North did what it’s done to six other opponents this season, bringing home a clean-sheet in a 4-0 win over the Wildkits 4-0 in Group B play.
“Today was really the first time this year we’ve put it all together I feel like,” Naperville North manager Steve Goletz said. “I told the girls at halftime, we have to remember this feeling and why we feel this way. We feel this way, because we did the little things.”
After playing in the midfield for a majority of the first 20 minutes of the first half, the Huskies (8-0-0) used a couple set pieces to start the scoring.
With just under 20 minutes remaining, Maggie Fitzgerald streaked toward the goal off of a throw-in. The toss was headed perfectly by Lucy Iverson, which allowed Fitzgerald to score her first varsity goal for a 1-0 lead.
Not even three minutes later, the three players connected yet again on the same play to give the Huskies a 2-0 lead.
“For the throw-ins, I’m the back-post runner, anything that Lucy flicks on, which she does a great job with, anything she flicks on, that’s my job to be there at the back post,” Fitzgerald said. “On the first ball … off of Lucy’s header, I was there to tap it in.
“And the second one, Lucy’s header was a perfect header and I was able to volley it in. So it was a matter of being in the right spot at the right time to be there for our teammates.”
The art of the set play can help decide whether a team wins or loses. The Huskies painted masterpieces that the Wildkits (5-1-1) couldn’t stop.
“They scored off the same way with two of their goals, and the third one was a really nice shot,” Evanston manager Stacy Salgado said. “For the first two, we didn’t adjust quick enough. That’s a great teaching tool, because if we see it again we know how to deal with it.
“The problem was they were back-to-back and unlike some other sports, it’s not something where you can call a timeout and talk about it. It’s part of the game and going forward we’ll learn from it.”
“We spend a lot of time on restarts, we really do,” Goletz said. “We’ve got a great weapon in Lucy (Iverson), who is able to get to a lot of balls in the air, and she flicked two perfect balls.
“We believe that restarts are a piece that can make or break games. You can do everything right, and it’s really hard to run plays and score a goal. When you’re organized and have kids committed to getting to the right spots, to communicating … obviously the throw was perfect, the flick was perfect. I think our girls take pride in that and see how useful our restarts can be.”
For Fitzgerald, the two tallies were not only her first varsity goals, but also marked her new assignment during set plays.
“A lot of what we do is stressing being in the right spots,” she said. “You never know if a ball can get loose and just practicing those runs and being accountable for where you’re supposed to be at all times, knowing when you take someone off, where they should be on the field. Today it just happened to come that way off of those headers.”
The fourth-ranked Huskies added their third goal with 11 minutes, 17 seconds remaining in the half to end a three-goal spurt in only eight-and-a-half minutes. Cameron DeCook’s first goal of the season gave the Huskies the same amount of goals in one game as the Wildkits had given up all season.
“I thought they (Evanston) came at us pretty good there at the beginning, and we absorbed that pressure pretty well,” Goletz said. “Defensively, we know how special they are in the attack. Our girls were so locked in. Once we were able to get our feet under us, I thought our midfield of Cameron Dinkla, Ellie Gerner and Madison Korosec were unbelievable in connecting passes. We got the ball forward and, our forwards were dangerous.”
Evanston competed without several players for a variety of reasons. Midfielder Nahla Dominguez is currently playing with the Mexican U20 National Team. That meant that some players had to play in some areas they weren’t accustomed to.
After halftime, the Wildkits started to play more of their game, possessing the ball and putting pressure on the Naperville North goal, but they couldn’t break through.
“We were focusing on playing more to our strengths in the second half,” Salgado said. “At that point, already down by three, we wanted to go out there and play creatively and freely and to have fun.
“Typically, that leads to better soccer.”
Dinkla’s third goal of the season closed out the scoring midway through the second half.
“They’re a great team,” Fitzgerald said of Evanston. “We were super organized in the back and just talked through their runners, because they have a lot of talent up-top. Sorting through those runs, making sure we know how to cover for each other and being in the right spots as a defensive backline was really important, as was tracking in the midfield.
“Our midfield did a fantastic job of staying on top of their very talented midfield. Our forwards tracked back too. Everyone on the team took a big responsibility to make sure we were in the right spots, and we were working hard as a defensive unit.”
The schedule doesn’t get any easier for Naperville North. Monday (April 11), they face the top-ranked team in the Chicagoland Soccer Top 25 rankings, Libertyville, in a battle that will most likely determine the team that moves on to the semifinals of the tournament.
“That’s the great part about this tournament,” Goletz said. “When you get to the playoffs, when you win a big game, how do you recover and win another? There’s a lot of adrenaline dump when you play a game like today.
“But I know our girls, and our program, are built on focusing on our performance and not so much the result. Today we were good on the ball, we ran our restarts well and if we can continue to do that, we can compete with anybody on any day.
“We’re going to get a great chance to test ourselves against the top team in the state. That’s what makes this such a great event. Our girls are up for the challenge.”
The Wildkits will face St. Francis on Monday without a day of training to prepare.
“I think the biggest message for our girls was recovery,” Salgado said. “The most important thing is how we take care of ourselves to get ready for next weekend.”
Starting lineups
Naperville North
GK: Abby Haskell
D: Maggie Fitzgerald
D: Lucy Iverson
D: Norah Berry
MF: Cameron Dinkla
MF: Madison Korosec
MF: Peyton Hegner
MF: Ellie Gerner
F: Olivia Anderson
F: Taylor Korosec
F: Cameron DeCook
Evanston
GK: Ariel Kite
D: Anna Bergmann
D: Ellie Oif
D: Carly Menocal
D: Lucinda Lindland
D: Sarah Sollinger
MF: Tate Lucas
MF: Adriana Merriam
MF: Sydney Ross
F: Brealyn Viamille
F: Jocelyn Leigh
Chicagoland Soccer MVP of the Match: Maggie Fitzgerald, jr., D, Naperville North
Scoring summary
First half
Naperville North - Maggie Fitzgerald (Lucy Iverson), 21st minute
Naperville North - Fitzgerald (Iverson), 24th minute
Naperville North - Cameron DeCook (unassisted), 29th minute
Second half
Naperville North - Cameron Dinkla (unassisted)
itself against Evanston
Fitzgerald scores 1st varsity goals in 4-minute span in 4-0 win
By Michael Wojtychiw
EVANSTON -- Naperville North has had quite the start to its season. With wins over Barrington, Neuqua Valley, St. Charles East and Batavia, among others, the Huskies have played tough competition early in the season and have come away with wins over multiple ranked teams.
The schedule didn’t get any easier in the opening round of the 4th annual Lou Malnati’s Deep Dish Classic on Saturday at eighth-ranked Evanston.
Naperville North did what it’s done to six other opponents this season, bringing home a clean-sheet in a 4-0 win over the Wildkits 4-0 in Group B play.
“Today was really the first time this year we’ve put it all together I feel like,” Naperville North manager Steve Goletz said. “I told the girls at halftime, we have to remember this feeling and why we feel this way. We feel this way, because we did the little things.”
After playing in the midfield for a majority of the first 20 minutes of the first half, the Huskies (8-0-0) used a couple set pieces to start the scoring.
With just under 20 minutes remaining, Maggie Fitzgerald streaked toward the goal off of a throw-in. The toss was headed perfectly by Lucy Iverson, which allowed Fitzgerald to score her first varsity goal for a 1-0 lead.
Not even three minutes later, the three players connected yet again on the same play to give the Huskies a 2-0 lead.
“For the throw-ins, I’m the back-post runner, anything that Lucy flicks on, which she does a great job with, anything she flicks on, that’s my job to be there at the back post,” Fitzgerald said. “On the first ball … off of Lucy’s header, I was there to tap it in.
“And the second one, Lucy’s header was a perfect header and I was able to volley it in. So it was a matter of being in the right spot at the right time to be there for our teammates.”
The art of the set play can help decide whether a team wins or loses. The Huskies painted masterpieces that the Wildkits (5-1-1) couldn’t stop.
“They scored off the same way with two of their goals, and the third one was a really nice shot,” Evanston manager Stacy Salgado said. “For the first two, we didn’t adjust quick enough. That’s a great teaching tool, because if we see it again we know how to deal with it.
“The problem was they were back-to-back and unlike some other sports, it’s not something where you can call a timeout and talk about it. It’s part of the game and going forward we’ll learn from it.”
“We spend a lot of time on restarts, we really do,” Goletz said. “We’ve got a great weapon in Lucy (Iverson), who is able to get to a lot of balls in the air, and she flicked two perfect balls.
“We believe that restarts are a piece that can make or break games. You can do everything right, and it’s really hard to run plays and score a goal. When you’re organized and have kids committed to getting to the right spots, to communicating … obviously the throw was perfect, the flick was perfect. I think our girls take pride in that and see how useful our restarts can be.”
For Fitzgerald, the two tallies were not only her first varsity goals, but also marked her new assignment during set plays.
“A lot of what we do is stressing being in the right spots,” she said. “You never know if a ball can get loose and just practicing those runs and being accountable for where you’re supposed to be at all times, knowing when you take someone off, where they should be on the field. Today it just happened to come that way off of those headers.”
The fourth-ranked Huskies added their third goal with 11 minutes, 17 seconds remaining in the half to end a three-goal spurt in only eight-and-a-half minutes. Cameron DeCook’s first goal of the season gave the Huskies the same amount of goals in one game as the Wildkits had given up all season.
“I thought they (Evanston) came at us pretty good there at the beginning, and we absorbed that pressure pretty well,” Goletz said. “Defensively, we know how special they are in the attack. Our girls were so locked in. Once we were able to get our feet under us, I thought our midfield of Cameron Dinkla, Ellie Gerner and Madison Korosec were unbelievable in connecting passes. We got the ball forward and, our forwards were dangerous.”
Evanston competed without several players for a variety of reasons. Midfielder Nahla Dominguez is currently playing with the Mexican U20 National Team. That meant that some players had to play in some areas they weren’t accustomed to.
After halftime, the Wildkits started to play more of their game, possessing the ball and putting pressure on the Naperville North goal, but they couldn’t break through.
“We were focusing on playing more to our strengths in the second half,” Salgado said. “At that point, already down by three, we wanted to go out there and play creatively and freely and to have fun.
“Typically, that leads to better soccer.”
Dinkla’s third goal of the season closed out the scoring midway through the second half.
“They’re a great team,” Fitzgerald said of Evanston. “We were super organized in the back and just talked through their runners, because they have a lot of talent up-top. Sorting through those runs, making sure we know how to cover for each other and being in the right spots as a defensive backline was really important, as was tracking in the midfield.
“Our midfield did a fantastic job of staying on top of their very talented midfield. Our forwards tracked back too. Everyone on the team took a big responsibility to make sure we were in the right spots, and we were working hard as a defensive unit.”
The schedule doesn’t get any easier for Naperville North. Monday (April 11), they face the top-ranked team in the Chicagoland Soccer Top 25 rankings, Libertyville, in a battle that will most likely determine the team that moves on to the semifinals of the tournament.
“That’s the great part about this tournament,” Goletz said. “When you get to the playoffs, when you win a big game, how do you recover and win another? There’s a lot of adrenaline dump when you play a game like today.
“But I know our girls, and our program, are built on focusing on our performance and not so much the result. Today we were good on the ball, we ran our restarts well and if we can continue to do that, we can compete with anybody on any day.
“We’re going to get a great chance to test ourselves against the top team in the state. That’s what makes this such a great event. Our girls are up for the challenge.”
The Wildkits will face St. Francis on Monday without a day of training to prepare.
“I think the biggest message for our girls was recovery,” Salgado said. “The most important thing is how we take care of ourselves to get ready for next weekend.”
Starting lineups
Naperville North
GK: Abby Haskell
D: Maggie Fitzgerald
D: Lucy Iverson
D: Norah Berry
MF: Cameron Dinkla
MF: Madison Korosec
MF: Peyton Hegner
MF: Ellie Gerner
F: Olivia Anderson
F: Taylor Korosec
F: Cameron DeCook
Evanston
GK: Ariel Kite
D: Anna Bergmann
D: Ellie Oif
D: Carly Menocal
D: Lucinda Lindland
D: Sarah Sollinger
MF: Tate Lucas
MF: Adriana Merriam
MF: Sydney Ross
F: Brealyn Viamille
F: Jocelyn Leigh
Chicagoland Soccer MVP of the Match: Maggie Fitzgerald, jr., D, Naperville North
Scoring summary
First half
Naperville North - Maggie Fitzgerald (Lucy Iverson), 21st minute
Naperville North - Fitzgerald (Iverson), 24th minute
Naperville North - Cameron DeCook (unassisted), 29th minute
Second half
Naperville North - Cameron Dinkla (unassisted)