Girls soccer: Batavia wins friendly over Kaneland with no refs

The pass from Batavia's Abby Piwowarczyk hit Ashley Whelpley right in the foot in front of the Kaneland goal, past keeper Ellie Kruz and in.

As the Bulldogs celebrated, Kaneland defender Emma Hedlund looked toward the sideline and asked "Are we doing offsides?"

Such was the challenge of playing without refs in the match between the clubs Saturday, which they played as a friendly. That goal was waved off but the Bulldogs did end up scoring in the 63rd minute to claim the 1-0 win.

Batavia coach Mark Gianfrancesco said he thought the game was played cleaner on the honor system.

"I thought they played pretty well with that," Gianfrancesco said. "I thought they were pretty honest. It was probably a cleaner game. On a field this size, you're probably not having so much contact of fouls anyway, it's probably pretty limited because the girls are probably spaced out quite a bit."

Before the game, Gianfrancesco and Kaneland coach Scott Parillo gathered the players around, explaining that they'd go without refs. None showed up due to a miscommunication, athletic director Dave Rohlman said. The coaches told the girls not to slide, and make sure that any tackles were really worth it - both teams have the postseason starting in just over a week, and seeds have already been set.

The Bulldogs (6-10) connected on the only goal when Sarah Koziol passed the ball across from the left side to Bella Lins, who was by the far post and able to connect.

"Sarah played me a through ball," Lins said. "I sort of just took a touch and played it through the goal."

About 8 minutes earlier Whelpley appeared to connect but was offsides. Parillo said two of his former players, who are licensed officials, were working the sidelines. But without flags, neither coach saw the call.

"It was a little weird. It made it feel more like a scrimmage," Lins said. "But we need the practice and that's going to help us for playoffs, getting as much practice in as we can against a good team."

Neither team had a lot of scoring chances in the second half, and most of the best offensive attacks came in the first 10 minutes in a game played on a day in which the temperature reached 86 degrees by the time the game was over.

After the Bulldogs spent the first 7 minutes attacking the net, Kaneland (11-5) got its first shot when Brigid Gannon fired a shot that was deflected by the goalie. Taylor Carlson followed with a quick attempt two minutes later that took a leaping save to redirect away from the back of the net.

"I thought the first half was even," Parillo said. "We both had scoring chances, neither one of us capitalized on them. I thought both teams passed the ball well, I thought both teams attacked well and I thought both teams defended well. And in the second half they got one in. Good for them. I think they dominated more the second half, and against just pure tiredness, exhaustion out there."

Parillo is still sitting on 199 career wins, with a chance to hit the 200-win milestone for the second time in his career Wednesday in the semifinals of the Interstate 8 tournament against either Morris or Ottawa.

Parillo reached 200 wins with the boys team last year.

"I'd like to get it over with. Now the pressure is on the girls," Parillo said. "We just want to get the pressure off of them. I think it's important they win their 200th this year. Or give me my 200th this year. I think that's important to them as well. Hopefully we'll get it on Wednesday then. Then the stress is off and no one is thinking about it."

Parillo joked about what getting 200 wins means to him.

"It means I'm old - I'm pretty sure that's what that means," Parillo said. "But you know what, it's been a long struggle for this program. It says a lot for the program that we have over 200 wins."