Metea Valley slips past St. Francis
Two late second-half strikes from Alyssa Fox and Kristina Kentgen helped power Metea Valley to a 2-0 victory over St. Francis in an early morning quarterfinal match at the Springfest tournament.
Later in the day the Mustangs booked their place in today’s 1 p.m. final against York at Olympic Park in Schaumburg.
“The wind was really something out there today, and obviously both of us would have rather played on a more calm day, and a bigger field, but I really thought it was a very good game between two highly skilled teams,” said St. Francis coach Jim Winslow, whose club returned a wonderful group of players from a 2011 side that fell 2-0 in the supersectionals to Wheaton Academy.
The tourney host Spartans (5-1-0), who had not conceded a goal in its first five matches of the young season, showed well for themselves the Mustangs.
Fox and Kentgen helped their teammates withstand constant pressure in the first half by the Spartans, who used gale-like winds at their backs to its favor, and some terrific play by Sydney Fox, Amanda Gaggioli and Andrea Ravlin to keep the Mustangs backline on the alert in front of goalkeeper Megan Geldernick.
“We’ve got a big, strong backline, and we have a lot of confidence in them,” Fox said.
Ravlin put Fox through at seven minutes, forcing Geldernick to save the Spartans senior — and later, a flick forward by Katie Ramsey found Gaggioli, but an alert Geldernik read the potential for trouble and raced off her line to take the ball off the senior’s boot.
With the wind wipping up trouble, especially on punts or long balls out of the back, the pressure was always on both backlines, and each side sparkled.
The Mustangs quartet of Tracy McCoy, Alexis McKay, Rachel Stoffregen and Samantha Butler tackled well and won their fair share in the air war, while their counterparts, Taylor Bucaro, Meghan Wagner, Kate Roback and Ally Mastroianni were equally strong.
In the first half Mastroianni got forward in the Spartans’ attack on several occasions to add numbers and pace up the flank, while adding an occasional serve up top with the hope of finding her mates up top.
“(They) played a 4-3-3, and we didn’t attack it very well, but after making a few adjustments at the half, I thought we did much better doing so,” Krol said.
“We played a very good first half of soccer and didn’t need to change anything at the half,” Winslow added.
The continued win gusts did change the run of play, which for most of the second half was one way traffic for the Mustangs, who watched their backline initiate the attack and constantly find teammates in the middle of the park, particularly Fox and Krol, as well as Kristina Tomaras, who became more involved with each touch by the Mustangs.
The senior tested Spartans keeper Jenna Ditusa midway through the second period, and the junior saved with confidence, as she did a little later on a floater at the near post from Kentgen.
She had no chance on the actual game-winner from Fox, who, with a brilliant hint of a touch, went up and over from in close after Ditusa came off her line to challenge what Kentgen and McCoy instigated.
“It all happened kind of fast, but I was able to get a touch past her,” Fox said.
Bucaro sent her free kick over the bar three minutes from time for the Spartans, on one of their last chances on frame of the match. Just moments before the referee whistled this match over, Kentgen found Tomaras, who sealed safe passage for the Mustangs.
The Mustangs also defeated Benet 2-1 in the semifinals late Tuesday afternoon.
“This was our first serious test of the season, and we knew we had to play at a high level in order to get past Jim’s girls,” said Metea Valley coach Pat Feulner.
Last season Metea Valley defeated the Spartans (2-1) in the third-place match here.