Naperville North shuts out Conant
Conant spent the week preparing to deal with the speed of Naperville North sophomore forward Zoe Swift.
The Cougars learned in the fourth minute of Friday’s Class 3A girls soccer semifinal just why their coaches were so concerned.
Swift took a Hunter Drendel pass, broke behind the Conant line and slipped her shot under onrushing Conant goalkeeper Lindsay Fillingim for the only goal in Naperville North’s 1-0 victory at Naperville Central.
“She had so much space,” Conant coach Jason Franco said of Drendel, “and our backs should have have been dropping and running (ahead of Swift). I told them if you’re going to guard Zoe you need to have an 8-10-yard lead on her, and we were even with her. And the ball got through and we thought we could head it and it slipped over. Then we got in a foot race, and you’re not going to win that with her.”
“Hunter gave me a great flick, and I saw the flick coming,” Swift said. “We work on it hard in practice, so I came up with the patterns and we got a goal from it.”
That was all the stellar Naperville North defense needed. Goalkeeper Abby Green earned the shutout with help from defenders Adrienne Schertz, Jamie Meno, Angela Widlacki and Kirsten Anderson. The Huskies have allowed just 13 goals all season, 1 in their surprising playoff run.
“This is a great team,” Huskies coach Brent Terada said. “You’re not going to hold teams like this scoreless very often. And you’re not going to hold them without looks. They’re too darn good.”
Conant attacked the Huskies goal with a fury, looking for the equalizer. The Cougars were credited with 17 shots in the game, forcing Green to make 9 saves.
“Our defense is solid, and throughout the playoffs we’ve scored early and then we’ve gotten really good at just defending,” Green said.
“You have to be fortunate when you play a team like this,” Terada added. “You’re not going to beat a team like Neuqua (Valley, the top-ranked team in the nation) and Conant without a lot of good fortune.”
As the Huskies defense stood tall, the Cougars grew frustrated.
“Just the fact that all our shots were going wide or we missed opportuities, that was frustrating,” Conant junior Courtney Raetzman said. “Because of that our hearts went down a little bit, no doubt.”
“They were sitting more behind the ball,” Franco added, noting the 90-degree heat that affected both teams. “A combination of that and we were just getting cashed. Our legs weren’t there. The first half I thought we had a lot of times where we slipped through on them. That doesn’t happen to them very often. It was just that last piece that we were missing.”
Still, the Cougars never gave up.
“There was no doubt in mind we could have. We almost had it. We just needed a little more time,” Raetzman said.
After prom Friday night, Conant returns to meet Mid-Suburban League rival Fremd in the 5 p.m. third-place game.
“It’d be nice to go out and end on a high note,” Franco said.
Naperville North meets Granite City at 7 p.m. in the state championship game.
“We’ve done a great job getting here, but we want a ring. We want one of those big trophies you can’t even step over,” Swift said. “We’re glad we’re in the finals now, but we actually want to win it now.”