West Aurora's 5 seniors bid a fine farewell
Blackhawks post solid 3-1 win over West Chicago on Senior Night
By Gary Larsen
AURORA -- The final buzzer sounded on West Aurora’s 3-1 win over visiting West Chicago, and the Blackhawks five seniors quickly found each other on the field. The group hug that ensued marked the last time they’d ever play together on their home turf.
Senior Riley O’Brien will play college soccer at Illinois State University next year. With the clock about to strike midnight on her days as a high school student, the midfielder expressed what high school soccer players from the Class of 2018 throughout Illinois are likely feeling right now.
“I’ll miss having fun practices. We have serious ones, for sure, but I know when I get to college there probably won’t be many fun practices,” O’Brien said. “Here, sometimes we’ll have a little fun game first and then get serious and get into our business. So I’ll miss being a kid still.”
One final spring day at home saw O’Brien, Marlene Sanchez, Itzel Ochoa, Sofia Papoutsis, and Angela Johnson cavorting around in the Blackhawks’ red and blue.
Sanchez and Papoutsis scored goals that O’Brien assisted. She also set up the Blackhawks’ first goal with a shot on frame that led to teammate Olivia McPherson's score on the deflection.
After losing 1-0 to Bartlett and then bouncing back strong in a 1-0 win over Metea Valley, West Aurora (8-6-2, 3-1-1) finished third in the Upstate Eight Conference Valley division with Wednesday’s win.
“They came out strong on Senior Night, and we were ready to play,” West Aurora coach Laura Wagley said. “We didn’t win conference, but it was still a conference game, and we played strong. I built our schedule around playing good teams, our record is what it is.”
For the first time in her coaching career at West Aurora, Wagley is sending all of her seniors off to play college soccer. Midfielder Sanchez will play at Waubonsee Community College, forward Johnson will wear Aurora University colors next year, and defender Ochoa will lace up her cleats for Dominican University.
Central defender Papoutsis will play at Illinois Wesleyan next year. As a high school parting gift on Wednesday, Papoutsis presented her team with her first goal of the season.
With West Aurora leading 2-0 early in the second half, O’Brien sent a corner kick away from goal and instead up the touchline to Papoutsis. From 25 yards out on the right side, the four-year varsity defender didn’t hesitate.
“I got the ball, turned my hips, and it hit the upper left ninety,” Papoutsis said.
“I didn’t know it had a chance until it actually went in. I thought it was going over or that it would hit the post. It went in, and at first I didn’t even process it. I turned back to (O’Brien) and her face was ecstatic. It was nice to get one on my Senior Night.”
West Aurora’s opening goal didn’t come until the 32nd minute, when O’Brien fired from distance and McPherson followed it up and buried it from point-blank range.
O’Brien set up the second goal when she drove towards the corner on the left side at 42 minutes and lofted a serve to the middle of the box. Sanchez rose to get it, heading a shot inside the near post from 10 yards.
O’Brien’s distribution skills earned her Chicagoland Soccer’s MVP of the Match honors.
“She’s workhorse for us in the middle. I think she has led us in assists ever since she was a freshman,” Wagley said of O’Brien, who was quick to spread the credit around after the win.
“Our sophomore class is unbelievable, and they have really helped,” O’Brien said. “(Sophomore mid) Sarai Munoz has been working really hard on the wing and doing really well.
“And obviously Sofia played well. She kicks butt back there every game.”
By any metric, West Chicago (12-11-2, 2-3-0) has had a fine season. The Wildcats won 12 regular-season games and improved their sectional seed from 13th last year to 9th this year.
Coach Cesar Gomez’s girls have found success despite having only one senior currently in their starting lineup -- center mid Genesis Garcia. The Wildcats started four juniors, four sophomores, and two freshmen against West Aurora.
The Wildcats also played without starting forward and captain Barbie Castellanos. The junior sat out for a red card infraction from Tuesday’s 4-3 win over Streamwood. Fellow captain and defender Odalis Martinez also played sparingly against West Aurora due to her recent return from injury.
Still, despite playing with a short bench against a West Aurora team with five college-bound players, Gomez quickly rejected the notion that the hill on Wednesday might have been too steep to climb. “
We knew West Aurora was a good squad,” he said. “But no, no excuses.”
West Chicago’s win over Streamwood on Wednesday was a comeback for the ages. Streamwood held a 3-0 lead with 16 minutes remaining, and some Wildcats fans might have been holding their car keys. But they put them back in their pockets when two goals from Castellanos and two from Giselle Navejas turned a highly probable loss into an improbable win.
Navejas scored West Chicago’s lone goal Wednesday. Teammate Garcia had a ball on her foot at the top of the West Aurora penalty area and laid it off to Navejas, whose shot from 21 yards settled under the crossbar in the 68th minute.
“I was rushing in the first half. On the goal I knew I had space and time,” Navejas said. "I was just trying to get it to the crossbar. I was just trying to place it.
“Yesterday we started slow, and we were down almost the whole game. Today we wanted to prove that’s not how we play. We wanted to come out and play hard and battle. And even after we were losing, we never gave up.”
Gomez likes the evolution his sophomore striker has shown. “She has to have 18 or 20 goals,” Gomez said. “She’s getting smarter now, and she’s trusting herself.”
After missing eight games due to injury, Martinez returned but played sparingly against Streamwood. The sophomore defender played a few more minutes against West Aurora, but Gomez stayed cautious with her playing time in back-to-back games.
“Having Odalis back is big for us,” Gomez said. “When she’s healthy and playing well, she cuts off everything. (Keeper) Haley Rich doesn’t have anything to do when Odalis is back there. She wins balls in the air, she talks, and she doesn’t hesitate.”
Martinez said she’s feeling stronger every day.
“I wanted to play more today. (Gomez) took me out, and I was like ‘What?’. He said I was done, and I can’t argue. My conditioning has to come around. I used to be able to sprint side-to-side.
“Sitting out was really hard. I felt like I failed the team because I got hurt, but they kept working really hard. So that made me happy.”
Gomez applauded the play of Garcia, defender Alex Alcantar, and freshman striker Rubi Lebo. As part of the Class 3A Geneva Sectional, West Chicago opens regional play at St. Charles North on May 15 against eighth-seeded Bartlett, which won 4-0 over West Chicago on May 1.
“We need to win the ball in the air and follow our mark a little better, and there’s a chance,” Gomez said. “I’m looking forward to this one. I think it will be a good one.
“We’ve played a lot of games and out of our 11 losses, we could have easily won five of them. But it’s a young team and that’s the game.”
Navejas is looking forward to postseason play.
“I’ve been mentally preparing myself,” she said. “We started the year great and towards the end of the year we (struggled) so with the playoffs coming we're trying to rebuild that energy.”
West Aurora is the ninth seed of the Class 3A Plainfield North Sectional. The Blackhawks open regional play at no. 8-seed Lockport.
West Aurora is playing well at the right time of year. The Blackhawks lost a hard-fought 1-0 game to UEC Valley co-champion Bartlett but won six of their last seven regular-season games.
“We used that loss not as a defeat but more as a learning experience,” Papoutsis said. “We played pretty well against Bartlett, and things just didn’t go our way. You make one mistake in the back sometimes and that will happen. That’s just the way the cards fell, but we recovered from it quickly.
“It would have been really nice to beat Bartlett, but we recovered really well from that loss. We flushed the toilet and kept going.”
Starting lineups
West Chicago
GK Haley Rich
D Odalis Martinez
D Alex Alcantar
D Vanessa Montenegro
D Luciana Balzer
M Genesis Garcia
M Jimena Padilla
M Vivis Martinez
M Evelyn Hernandez
F Emily Ayala
F Giselle Navejas
West Aurora
GK Hannah Gove
D Sofia Papoutsis
D Itzel Ochoa
D Mackenzie Thompson
D Isela Chavez
M Riley O’Brien
M Marlene Sanchez
M Olivia McPherson
M Kiara McPherson
F Angela Johnson
F Audrey Stephens
Chicagoland Soccer MVP of the Match: Riley O’Brien, sr., M, West Aurora
Scoring summary
First half
West Aurora - O. McPherson (UA) 32nd minute
Second half
West Aurora - Sanchez (O’Brien) 42nd minute
West Aurora - Papoutsis (O’Brien) 45th minute
West Chicago - Navejas (Garcia) 68th minute
Blackhawks post solid 3-1 win over West Chicago on Senior Night
By Gary Larsen
AURORA -- The final buzzer sounded on West Aurora’s 3-1 win over visiting West Chicago, and the Blackhawks five seniors quickly found each other on the field. The group hug that ensued marked the last time they’d ever play together on their home turf.
Senior Riley O’Brien will play college soccer at Illinois State University next year. With the clock about to strike midnight on her days as a high school student, the midfielder expressed what high school soccer players from the Class of 2018 throughout Illinois are likely feeling right now.
“I’ll miss having fun practices. We have serious ones, for sure, but I know when I get to college there probably won’t be many fun practices,” O’Brien said. “Here, sometimes we’ll have a little fun game first and then get serious and get into our business. So I’ll miss being a kid still.”
One final spring day at home saw O’Brien, Marlene Sanchez, Itzel Ochoa, Sofia Papoutsis, and Angela Johnson cavorting around in the Blackhawks’ red and blue.
Sanchez and Papoutsis scored goals that O’Brien assisted. She also set up the Blackhawks’ first goal with a shot on frame that led to teammate Olivia McPherson's score on the deflection.
After losing 1-0 to Bartlett and then bouncing back strong in a 1-0 win over Metea Valley, West Aurora (8-6-2, 3-1-1) finished third in the Upstate Eight Conference Valley division with Wednesday’s win.
“They came out strong on Senior Night, and we were ready to play,” West Aurora coach Laura Wagley said. “We didn’t win conference, but it was still a conference game, and we played strong. I built our schedule around playing good teams, our record is what it is.”
For the first time in her coaching career at West Aurora, Wagley is sending all of her seniors off to play college soccer. Midfielder Sanchez will play at Waubonsee Community College, forward Johnson will wear Aurora University colors next year, and defender Ochoa will lace up her cleats for Dominican University.
Central defender Papoutsis will play at Illinois Wesleyan next year. As a high school parting gift on Wednesday, Papoutsis presented her team with her first goal of the season.
With West Aurora leading 2-0 early in the second half, O’Brien sent a corner kick away from goal and instead up the touchline to Papoutsis. From 25 yards out on the right side, the four-year varsity defender didn’t hesitate.
“I got the ball, turned my hips, and it hit the upper left ninety,” Papoutsis said.
“I didn’t know it had a chance until it actually went in. I thought it was going over or that it would hit the post. It went in, and at first I didn’t even process it. I turned back to (O’Brien) and her face was ecstatic. It was nice to get one on my Senior Night.”
West Aurora’s opening goal didn’t come until the 32nd minute, when O’Brien fired from distance and McPherson followed it up and buried it from point-blank range.
O’Brien set up the second goal when she drove towards the corner on the left side at 42 minutes and lofted a serve to the middle of the box. Sanchez rose to get it, heading a shot inside the near post from 10 yards.
O’Brien’s distribution skills earned her Chicagoland Soccer’s MVP of the Match honors.
“She’s workhorse for us in the middle. I think she has led us in assists ever since she was a freshman,” Wagley said of O’Brien, who was quick to spread the credit around after the win.
“Our sophomore class is unbelievable, and they have really helped,” O’Brien said. “(Sophomore mid) Sarai Munoz has been working really hard on the wing and doing really well.
“And obviously Sofia played well. She kicks butt back there every game.”
By any metric, West Chicago (12-11-2, 2-3-0) has had a fine season. The Wildcats won 12 regular-season games and improved their sectional seed from 13th last year to 9th this year.
Coach Cesar Gomez’s girls have found success despite having only one senior currently in their starting lineup -- center mid Genesis Garcia. The Wildcats started four juniors, four sophomores, and two freshmen against West Aurora.
The Wildcats also played without starting forward and captain Barbie Castellanos. The junior sat out for a red card infraction from Tuesday’s 4-3 win over Streamwood. Fellow captain and defender Odalis Martinez also played sparingly against West Aurora due to her recent return from injury.
Still, despite playing with a short bench against a West Aurora team with five college-bound players, Gomez quickly rejected the notion that the hill on Wednesday might have been too steep to climb. “
We knew West Aurora was a good squad,” he said. “But no, no excuses.”
West Chicago’s win over Streamwood on Wednesday was a comeback for the ages. Streamwood held a 3-0 lead with 16 minutes remaining, and some Wildcats fans might have been holding their car keys. But they put them back in their pockets when two goals from Castellanos and two from Giselle Navejas turned a highly probable loss into an improbable win.
Navejas scored West Chicago’s lone goal Wednesday. Teammate Garcia had a ball on her foot at the top of the West Aurora penalty area and laid it off to Navejas, whose shot from 21 yards settled under the crossbar in the 68th minute.
“I was rushing in the first half. On the goal I knew I had space and time,” Navejas said. "I was just trying to get it to the crossbar. I was just trying to place it.
“Yesterday we started slow, and we were down almost the whole game. Today we wanted to prove that’s not how we play. We wanted to come out and play hard and battle. And even after we were losing, we never gave up.”
Gomez likes the evolution his sophomore striker has shown. “She has to have 18 or 20 goals,” Gomez said. “She’s getting smarter now, and she’s trusting herself.”
After missing eight games due to injury, Martinez returned but played sparingly against Streamwood. The sophomore defender played a few more minutes against West Aurora, but Gomez stayed cautious with her playing time in back-to-back games.
“Having Odalis back is big for us,” Gomez said. “When she’s healthy and playing well, she cuts off everything. (Keeper) Haley Rich doesn’t have anything to do when Odalis is back there. She wins balls in the air, she talks, and she doesn’t hesitate.”
Martinez said she’s feeling stronger every day.
“I wanted to play more today. (Gomez) took me out, and I was like ‘What?’. He said I was done, and I can’t argue. My conditioning has to come around. I used to be able to sprint side-to-side.
“Sitting out was really hard. I felt like I failed the team because I got hurt, but they kept working really hard. So that made me happy.”
Gomez applauded the play of Garcia, defender Alex Alcantar, and freshman striker Rubi Lebo. As part of the Class 3A Geneva Sectional, West Chicago opens regional play at St. Charles North on May 15 against eighth-seeded Bartlett, which won 4-0 over West Chicago on May 1.
“We need to win the ball in the air and follow our mark a little better, and there’s a chance,” Gomez said. “I’m looking forward to this one. I think it will be a good one.
“We’ve played a lot of games and out of our 11 losses, we could have easily won five of them. But it’s a young team and that’s the game.”
Navejas is looking forward to postseason play.
“I’ve been mentally preparing myself,” she said. “We started the year great and towards the end of the year we (struggled) so with the playoffs coming we're trying to rebuild that energy.”
West Aurora is the ninth seed of the Class 3A Plainfield North Sectional. The Blackhawks open regional play at no. 8-seed Lockport.
West Aurora is playing well at the right time of year. The Blackhawks lost a hard-fought 1-0 game to UEC Valley co-champion Bartlett but won six of their last seven regular-season games.
“We used that loss not as a defeat but more as a learning experience,” Papoutsis said. “We played pretty well against Bartlett, and things just didn’t go our way. You make one mistake in the back sometimes and that will happen. That’s just the way the cards fell, but we recovered from it quickly.
“It would have been really nice to beat Bartlett, but we recovered really well from that loss. We flushed the toilet and kept going.”
Starting lineups
West Chicago
GK Haley Rich
D Odalis Martinez
D Alex Alcantar
D Vanessa Montenegro
D Luciana Balzer
M Genesis Garcia
M Jimena Padilla
M Vivis Martinez
M Evelyn Hernandez
F Emily Ayala
F Giselle Navejas
West Aurora
GK Hannah Gove
D Sofia Papoutsis
D Itzel Ochoa
D Mackenzie Thompson
D Isela Chavez
M Riley O’Brien
M Marlene Sanchez
M Olivia McPherson
M Kiara McPherson
F Angela Johnson
F Audrey Stephens
Chicagoland Soccer MVP of the Match: Riley O’Brien, sr., M, West Aurora
Scoring summary
First half
West Aurora - O. McPherson (UA) 32nd minute
Second half
West Aurora - Sanchez (O’Brien) 42nd minute
West Aurora - Papoutsis (O’Brien) 45th minute
West Chicago - Navejas (Garcia) 68th minute