Fremd spoils Kolze's debut at Lake Zurich
Playing each other early in the season is nothing uncommon for the Lake Zurich and Fremd girls soccer teams.
The Bears and Vikings have met late in the season, too, and it could happen again in the Class 3A state tournament in May.
Fremd got an goal and an assist from Laura Mayer and shut out Lake Zurich 2-0 Thursday night in a nonconference match in Palatine.
The Vikings (1-0-1) also got a goal from Nikki Pagnamenta, while Elise Kotsakis also picked up an assist.
Fremd's win spoiled Meghan Kolze's debut as coach of Lake Zurich, her alma mater.
"We'll seem them again. It was a good win," said Fremd coach Steve Keller, whose team opened its season with a 1-1 tie against visiting St. Charles East on Tuesday. "Lake Zurich is a team to watch out for and they were a handful.
"I'm pleased to get the win and the shutout. Lake Zurich seemed to play prettier soccer than our girls did. Our touch might have been off and maybe we were playing more kick ball than we usually do."
Mayer, who had the only goal in the Vikings' win Tuesday, took a feed from Kotsakis and scored in the 13th minute to put Fremd up 1-0.
"We're just a team working together," Mayer said. "It's not one person. It's a group effort."
Mayer assisted on the Vikings' second goal. She sent a corner kick into the box, where Pagnamenta headed it past Bears keeper Maggie Eisenhuth, who was strong in goal with 10 saves.
Fremd's Allison Norenberg earned her first shutout, making 3 stops.
"The girls had some nerves coming into the game," said Kolze, who was a former Lake Zurich player and graduated 10 years ago. "Overall, I'm happy with the way we played. We focused a ton on defense for the last two weeks. Offensively, we still have a lot of things to work on."
The Bears' best scoring opportunity came late in the 36th minute off a corner kick. There was a scrum nearly three yards in front of the goal line. The Bears had three chances for a goal, but two of their shots went off Vikings and a third was picked up by Norenberg.