Girls soccer: Batavia downs WW South

"Finding space" and "creating space" may seem like the same thing, but they're subtly different, and Batavia showed the difference in Saturday's 3-1 nonconference girls soccer victory over Wheaton Warrenville South.

Batavia's field is famously narrow, and finding space is never easy. However, the Bulldogs passed well, especially into seams in the visiting Tigers' defense but also through midfield, where the congestion was at its worst.

"After our opener, even though it was a 7-1 win (vs. Plainfield Central), we wanted to work on our communication and our movement off the ball," Batavia coach Mark Gianfrancesco said. "I thought it was good in the first half, but I thought it got really good in the second half."

Arguably the best at finding openings, both for herself and for teammates, was Batavia junior Mackenzie Foster. She showed her ability to find a quiet area on the field 8 minutes before halftime when she received a pass from Gracie DiBiase in midfield. Then she created space and opened up the Tigers' defense with a pass to Megan McEachern, who raced clear of the defense, went around the keeper and scored the opening goal of the match.

"You have to try the best you can to get away from your defenders so you have time to do things," Foster said.

A senior who has led Batavia in scoring the last three years, McEachern has built quite a reputation as a finisher. But she worked into wide areas of the field frequently and played infield passes to teammates as well. She was always a threat, however, and narrowly missed doubling the lead 2 minutes before halftime.

"(McEachern) has been doing it for us for the last three years, and now she can distribute as well as score," Gianfrancesco said. "She's humble and team-oriented, but her movement and touch are strong and I'm excited with the way she's come in as a leader this year."

The second half opened with Wheaton Warrenville South ascendant and the match moving from end line to end line. Within the first 5 minutes, DiBiase had a snap shot saved and Wheaton Warrenville South retaliated and KJ Waghorne had a shot saved.

Then the Tigers equalized from an Allie Anderson free kick from 20 yards to the right of goal. The ball went over Batavia's wall and kept moving toward the left post, eventually hitting the left side netting.

"We started the game with a 4-2-3-1 formation, and then we switched to a 4-3-3 formation because we needed to have some presence up top with the way we needed to be more direct, and I think we accomplished that," Wheaton Warrenville South coach Guy Callipari said.

That goal stunned Batavia to an even higher gear, and the Bulldogs regained the lead within 42 seconds through sophomore Emma Rydholm. This time, the attacking pressure continued. McEachern took a long shot that was saved, and the third goal arrived 10 minutes into the half when Rachel Reinecke headed in a DiBiase corner kick.

"It was almost a good shock," Foster said. "We were maybe being a little complacent, and that goal kind of woke us up and reminded us that we needed to get going. We didn't freak out or get down. We just came right back them."

The immediate surge after Wheaton Warrenville South scored pleased Gianfrancesco.

"I always want to see how we react," he said. "We kept our composure and we were positive with the ball. We just kept going, and that was really good to see."

The match was Wheaton Warrenville South's first of the season, and the Tigers showed in places the potential their junior- and senior-laden team possesses. At other times, they demonstrated that it will take some time to fit all their roster pieces into place.

"We wanted to sort things out," Callipari said. "We had three freshman starters, and there was certainly an acclimation period related to that. We knew we were coming to a narrower pitch than we were used to, and we knew we'd have to adjust to that too. We wanted to come here and learn something about ourselves, and we certainly did that. We didn't get the result we wanted, but we weren't deserving of it either."

Batavia (2-0) has a number of players with considerable varsity experience, settled quickly into the match, and never suffered a spell of extended defensive pressure. Some of that was down to the goalkeeping of junior Jenny Scara, who made a key one-on-one save when the match was 0-0, made another in the opening seconds of the second half and was generally in control of her penalty area.

"I've seen such growth and improvement in her," Gianfrancesco said. "She's directing and coming off her line and dominating. The things we said last year we'd like to see her improve on, she'd doing."