Barrington caps breakout week with another shutout

Early goals from Barrington's Jenna Szczesny and Elli Ackermann signaled what was to come from the Fillies on Saturday against visiting Schaumburg (3-2-1, 2-1-0).

In a command performance, Barrington went on to record a 7-0 Mid-Suburban West victory.

A nearly perfect week came to an end for the highflying Fillies (4-0-1, 3-0-0), who outscored their league opponents 17-0 since Thursday to climb atop the MSL table after the first week of play.

"We did what we had to this week," said Fillies coach Ryan Stengren, who watched his club defeat Rolling Meadows, then Palatine with identical 5-0 results before handling an inexperienced side from Schaumburg, whose two-game win streak came to an end.

"But this team knows there's plenty of work ahead of us, and that it has a very high ceiling if they continue to train and play as well as they have thus far."

Saxons coach Greg Charvat was quite impressed.

"Barrington is a phenomenal team, and one that we aspire to be like one day," he said. "But we obviously have a long way to go before we reach their level.

"However, it's nice to see our the girls play as hard as they did, and with a lot of heart, especially in the second half after we conceded (6) in the first half."

The Saxons had no answer for the pace, movement, and physical play the home side offered in the early exchanges.

And they had no way to slow or stop newcomers Nicole Niro and Carrie Madden, Szczesny, and of course, Ackermann, who on this day had a hand in 5 of the 7 goals, 3 of which she personally sent into the back of the net.

"It feels good to be 100 percent, and in my senior year, where I can be a positive influence to the five freshmen on this team, just like others were to me when I was on the varsity as a freshmen," said Ackermann, who is off to Indiana next fall.

The striker/attacking midfielder has had her share of injuries to deal with in her career.

It started with a fracture of her fifth metatarsal bone in her foot during the playoffs her sophomore season. That was followed by a severe ankle sprain last year which forced her to miss the first half of 2013.

Ackermann looked fit throughout, and especially in the first quarter-hour.

That's when Ackerman and Niro found teammate Szczesny just four minutes into the match. She showed a nice touch to finish from 16 yards.

Niro, who with Madden came over from club soccer to play their senior year at Barrington, kept a Mia Calamari corner alive smartly enough to give Ackermann space and time on the outside.

From there, the senior drove a superb serve to the back post, and Madden thumped home her header at 13 minutes.

"Having Elli back and healthy is big for us, but the funny thing is she doesn't always start for us, Stengren said. "I guess that's just a tribute to the depth we have this year."

Freshman Kayla Schutter drove in the Fillies' goal fourth of the day in the 21st minute, just moments after being brought on by Stengren.

Megan Fox and Ackermann each scored before intermission, while all-state keeper Hannah Luedtke had little to do in her 40 minutes of action before giving way to Alexis Dargis after the break.

The Saxons came out hard in the second period.

Freshman Sam Tyler and junior Brittany Reinhart tackled with energy and zest, while sophomore Kayla Kowal did her best to create some trouble up top against the Fillies' back line.

Reinhart's free kick was just wide two minutes in.

Later, sophomore Brianna Nordlander almost broke the Barrington shutout four minutes from the final horn.