Palatine edges St. Charles East in shootout
Palatine claimed a 2-1 victory over St. Charles East on Thursday evening after outscoring the Saints 4-2 in shootout in a consolation match of the Naperville Invite, which heads into the final phase on Saturday.
Both clubs will put this contest into the scorebook as a draw after 80 minutes didn’t decide a natural winner — but after a short break, each side went straight to PK’s in order to find out who would play where this weekend.
“We got a little careless after the half and gave up a bad goal,” said Palatine coach Willie Filian. “We found a way to get ourselves back into the game, but were never able to finish any of the chances that we created afterward. But that’s kind of the way this season has gone for us thus far.”
The Pirates (5-7-3) were on their heels from the very beginning, with the quartet of Anna Corirosi, Carly Pottle, Darcy Cunningham and Amanda Hilton sustaining an effective attack by the Saints (9-5-4). They showed plenty of pace, desire and speed to cause plenty of problems for Palatine, which counted on defenders Kaitlyn Burke and Kellie Strauss to keep things organized.
Pirates keeper Meghan Ellis raced off her line to smother Cunningham, who ran freely up the middle to catch up to a quality ball sent in from Sam Lombardo. Later Corirosi headed wide a bending corner from Shannon Rasmussen as the Saints continued to search for the first goal.
“We certainly had the run of play in the first half and had our chances as well, but we couldn’t get anything into the back of their net,” said Saints coach Paul Jennison.
After playing the entire first period with a fierce, and cold wind at their back, the Saints struck just after intermission. Now going into the teeth of the wind, Pottle took advantage of some shaky work in the Pirates’ end and broke free on new keeper Rachel Rhodes, who made a gallant run off her line.
Pottle neatly touched past the hard-charging Rhodes before firing in her low drive.
Eight minutes later, McKenzie Wiedemann used her strong left-footed shot to hit a drive on frame, forcing Saints keeper Bailey Stengler to save.
The Wiedemann attempt was the first of a handful of shots Stengler pulld out of the air, each with sure-handed confidence. But the Saints captain could do nothing about a Wiedemann blast from 28 yards in the 68th minute to draw the Pirates even.
“McKenzie has a very strong left-footed shot, but we didn’t create enough chances for her to take advantage of her shot, and especially with the wind at her back,” said Filian.
The game opened up after the Pirates equalized, but neither side was sharp enough around the net to be dangerous.
In shootout, Katelyn Mayer, Julie Johlie, Strauss and Wiedemann were perfect with their spot kicks, but the Saints could only manage to put in 2 of their 4 attempts, with Hilton and Cunningham getting past Rhodes.
“Bailey did very well in goal for us today, but it is still a disappointing way to decide a result,” said Jennison. “But it is what it is, and we had to find out where both teams would be going on Saturday morning.”
Palatine awaits the winner of the Andrew-Hinsdale Central match to see who it will play at Naperville Central at 8 a.m. Saturday. The Saints face the loser of that match, also at 8 a.m. but at Naperville North.