Girls soccer: Naperville North ends St. Charles East streak

Eventually St. Charles East was going to give up a goal this season. It took a team like Naperville North to score it.

The Huskies ended the Saints' streak of nine shutout victories to start the girls soccer season, dominating play in a 2-0 nonconference victory Thursday night in Naperville.

"It was a big deal for us," Huskies senior forward Alexis Dandridge said. "Throughout the whole day we knew it was game day, ready to go, and I'm so proud of my team."

The Huskies (5-1) impressed both coaches.

"With all due respect to the teams that we've played, none of them have been at the level of Naperville North," Saints coach Paul Jennison said. "Any cliché you've got about false sense of security, we weren't as energized and we didn't pressure the ball like they did."

"It was about as complete of an effort as I thought we could have put together against a very good team who's well-coached, got some great players out there," Huskies coach Steve Goletz added. "The girls from the start were hungry tonight. I think they were excited to get the chance to be that first team to put a loss on their record and to try to score on them. Talk about a top-class goalkeeper, though, holy cow."

For a while it seemed Saints goalkeeper Alison Chesterfield might never allow a goal. She went airborne in the 17th minute, diving left and using her right hand to tip a shot by the Huskies' Shaina Dudas over the crossbar.

"Not many girls make that save," Goletz said. "Not many goalkeepers make that save."

In the 33rd minute Chesterfield dove to her right and at full extension stopped a Maddie Krejci penalty kick.

"She had a blinder of a game," Jennison said. "She was phenomenal. Unfortunately we asked her to do way too much today. To start off, it was a different level from Naperville North. Start to finish, they were the better team. We just acknowledged that as a group. We weren't where we needed to be today unfortunately. We gave them way too much respect. We just didn't have answers for what they were doing."

The Huskies had a clear edge in time of possession, and it was reflected in the shooting totals. Chesterfield faced 20 Huskies shots, saving seven. The Saints managed just 4 shots against Huskies goalkeeper Elizabeth Cablk, who had 3 saves.

"We knew we could score on her, we just had to have a great shot, and in the second half we came up with two huge goals," Dandridge said. "We could have scored more, but two was good enough to get the job done today."

Finally, the goals came just three minutes apart in the second half.

Junior Morgan Lockridge ended the shutout streak in the 49th minute with a header that even Chesterfield couldn't reach off a Morgan Krause free kick.

"It was a big deal for us," Dandridge said of the first goal. "We wanted to be the team to break that streak for them, and it was a great feeling for everybody all around."

Dandridge added the second goal when the ball was deflected by a Saints defender right to her near the penalty spot. Her blast gave Chesterfield no chance.

The good news for the Saints (9-1) is that it's still very early in the season. They have plenty of time to put the lessons from this game to good use.

"The result is not what we wanted, but at the same time we'll have some good reflection and we just promised the girls that we'll never feel like this again this year. That was a great learning curve for us," Jennison said.

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