Girls soccer: Noesen sisters help Bartlett upset Batavia
Running low on energy after 100 minutes of regional championship soccer, the girls from Bartlett generated some sister power to finish off Batavia on penalty kicks for a 3-2 victory in Carol Stream Friday.
Batavia junior goalkeeper Jenny Scara and Bartlett freshman keeper Teagan Noesen each stopped one of the first five penalty kicks they faced, forcing their respective coaches to choose five more shooters for the sudden-death phase of penalty kicks.
The seventh player to take a turn for Batavia was senior forward Megan McEachern, who in the eighth minute had scored the match's first goal on an assist from junior Kelly Bleakely to put the Bulldogs ahead 1-0. However, Noesen stepped to her right and rebuffed the attempt, giving the Hawks a chance to win with their next shot.
Next up for Bartlett was senior Jenna Noesen, Teagan's older sister. She will play collegiately next year at Augustana.
The 5-foot-3 midfielder spent a few seconds placing the ball just right, took a few steps back, waited for the whistle and then sent the winning shot just inside the left post. Scara got a piece of it in full dive to her right, but not enough to keep the ball from going in.
"I wanted to place it as much as I could in the corners, just out of her reach," Jenna Noesen said. " I tried to fake her out with my eyes, you know? Maybe look one direction and kick the other way just to get her off her game. I was a little nervous because she touched it, but I'm so glad that it worked out."
Her sister was just as glad, if not more so.
"It just felt so good to have her make it, especially since she's going off to college now," Teagan said. "We'll have that bond that we'll never forget and that memory that we'll never forget. It was a really special moment for us."
The victory advances No. 5 Bartlett (18-5-1) to the sectional semifinal it hosts at Millennium Field in Streamwood on Tuesday against No. 1 St. Charles North (18-3-1). The North Stars won the Conant sectional with a 3-0 win over No. 9 Glenbard West.
The season concluded for No. 4 Batavia (15-5-1) despite late-match heroics from a freshman. Batavia trailed 2-1 in the second 10-minute overtime after Bartlett had taken the lead in the first overtime with a goal by senior Mariela Alba. Enter freshman Avery Davis.
Draped by two defenders, the 5-6 forward got to a high, bouncing through ball up the middle and nudged it over Teagan Noesen to knot the score 2-2 with 59.2 seconds left in the second OT.
"The ball came through and Avery didn't quit on it and then just followed it up," Batavia coach Mark Gianfrancesco said. "The keeper stayed on her line and played it right in, and they didn't track. Good job on Avery's part and good job on us playing it through."
Batavia's equalizer was a punch to the gut to Bartlett.
"They looked like they were going to cry, like they'd lost," Bartlett coach Vince DiNuzzo said of his players. "I told them the game's not over. We still have penalties here. We have a lot of faith in our goalkeeper."
In the 37th minute, Bartlett tied the score 1-1 when Shelley Lyjak got open on the left side of the box and sent an accurate kick inside the opposite post.
The match remained deadlocked until Bartlett striker Mariela Alba scored with 41.9 seconds left in the first overtime. Alba followed a through ball from junior forward Carrigan Sablik as it eluded two Batavia defenders and Lyjak. Then she made her move.
"Their goalie was excellent, a fantastic goalie," Alba said of Scara. "I knew to get a good shot I had to beat her first and then get the goal. So, I took a touch with my right foot back and once she was out of my way I had the goal to myself."