St. Francis remains perfect with first win over WW South
St. Francis couldn’t have asked for a better start to its season.
The Spartans will head into their own Springfest Classic next week with a perfect record after they disposed of Wheaton Warrenville South 1-0 in Thursday’s nonconference match at Benedictine University.
St. Francis (3-0-0) scored the lone goal nearly midway through the first half when Andrea Ravlin created her own opportunity near the end of the 18-yard box.
“That was a great strike to the back post from a tough angle,” Wheaton Warrenville South coach Guy Callipari said. “You can’t knock that goal at all. She got a clear shot and made the best of it.”
It was goal No. 1 on the season for Ravlin. Meanwhile, the Spartans have yet to surrender a goal through three matches.
“They’ve been great,” St. Francis coach Jim Winslow said. “Over the last 15 minutes as we dropped numbers and they sent more numbers forward, (goalkeeper) Jenna Ditusa was especially huge.”
The game was delayed due to lightning with 33:50 remaining in the second half. A heavy rain followed even after the lightning cleared, so there was some debate to whether or not the game would continue. It would, but the Tigers never could tally the equalizer.
Both coaches said they believe this was the first time that St. Francis has ever beaten Wheaton Warrenville South (0-1-2).
“I don’t think we’d ever lost to them,” Callipari said. “But it doesn’t mean that it can’t happen. That’s why you play the game.”
Dana Miller narrowly pulled the Tigers even with 26:50 remaining, but her shot was deflected by Ditusa and caromed off the crossbar away from harm.
“Outside of Dana (Miller) creating a couple individual 1-on-1 opportunities, we didn’t mount much pressure,” Callipari said. “And that’s because of our predictability of play.”
With six freshmen on their roster, it may take some time for the Tigers to click this season. On the other hand the Spartans are already playing like a seasoned bunch.
“We wanted to come out and see if we could compete against them,” Ravlin said. “It’s exciting to have this nice start. Now we’re going to see how far we can go.”