PK gives St. Francis a hand
A handball often delays the inevitable.
When a sure goal gets the handball treatment, an opponent still has to send a penalty kick past the goalkeeper.
That was the case during Saturday’s girls soccer opener between St. Francis and host West Chicago.
Midway through the first half, a West Chicago player was whistled for a handball offense on what appeared to be a sure-goal situation. The clock stopped, potentially icing St. Francis junior Taylor Bucaro just like an NFL field-goal kicker. She had time to think about her ensuring PK attempt and how she needed to execute to put her team ahead.
Bucaro snuck her PK past West Chicago goalkeeper Cat Canestelli and the Spartans made the lead stand for a 1-0 victory.
“I just saw it as an opportunity to get the game started for us,” Bucaro said. “It’s always better to start with the lead instead of having to chase all game later on.”
West Chicago (0-1) was the team that found itself chasing all afternoon and the Wildcats weren’t able to create many scoring chances.
“I think our nerves ate us up a little bit,” West Chicago coach J. Cesar Gomez said. “We’ve been doing a great of possessing the ball in practice and that just didn’t click today. We didn’t possess at all.”
Replacing Meagan Radloff, an all-state selection and Daily Herald All-Area selection last season, is not going to be easy. Radloff set a school record with 25 goals last year.
St. Francis didn’t allow the Wildcats to get the ball in the final third of the field very often so providing opportunities for players such as junior forward Andie Lazzerini were minimal.
“Our fitness is still an issue, but the weather has been wonderful, so all in all, it’s a decent start for the kids,” St. Francis coach Jim Winslow said. “Today we left some good opportunities out there, but (West Chicago) is going through the same thing as us, and one advantage they have is they get to practice on a bigger field.”
Fatigue may have been one of the reasons why the Wildcats began to possess the ball better late in the second half.
“We tried to play three in the back and it paid off a little bit later on,” Gomez said. “That was a good team we played, but that’s the name of the game. You have to deal with what you need to do best and we didn’t possess well today.”