Tigers top Naperville Central on Dheel, Leskovar goals
By Matt LeCren

When Plainfield North first beat Naperville Central four years ago, it was considered an upset.

When the Tigers did it for a second time Saturday, it wasn’t a big surprise, at least not for the winners.

Shayna Dheel and Kaela Leskovar scored on great individual efforts and the Tigers’ defense allowed just five shots as visiting Plainfield North won 2-0 at Memorial Stadium in Naperville.

“When we beat Naperville Central four years ago, when the game ended the girls were celebrating because it was a big deal for us at the time,” Plainfield North coach Jane Crowe said. “But I noticed today the game ended, they just went over and shook hands, so I think that shows how far we’ve come. We go out expecting to win a game. If it happens, it happens. If it doesn’t it doesn’t, but we expect that now.”

The Tigers (2-0) didn’t lack for motivation as they hadn’t beaten the Redhawks since that 1-0 victory four years ago. None of the current members of the team were around then and they had been hearing some naysayers doubt whether they could continue the excellence of recent years after graduating a talented senior class that included all-time leading scorer Callie O’Donnell.

“We were more than pumped,” Leskovar said. “Neither one of us have ever [beaten Central]. It’s been a long time coming.”

“It was a great experience,” Dheel added. “You’ve just got to go out there and you need to be motivated to win. We knew that this was probably going to be hardest game of the season, so we came out here and we were pumped and ready to play.”

Naperville Central (2-1) had the first scoring chance, which Tigers goalie Erin Wren thwarted by making a diving save at the six-yard line on a 38-yard free kick from Sabrina Cisneros with 25:30 left in the first half.

Dheel, a junior midfielder, gave the visitors the lead five minutes later when she intercepted a pass 35 yards out, speedily dribbled around two defenders into the Redhawks box and slid a shot under the arm of charging Central goalie Abby Hershik.

“I saw a gap and I took it and it felt great, honestly,” Dheel said of her second goal of the season. “The defender came out. I saw she was leaning to the outside and the middle was open, so I just took it.”

Dheel’s goal seemed to rouse the Redhawks, who attacked off the ensuing kickoff and had a solid chance at getting the equalizer, only to see an open 12-yard shot by Veronica Ellis float into the arms of Wren.

Wren, who finished with three saves, denied the hosts a goal in the closing seconds of the first half, coming out to knock a high-arcing cross from Cisneros away from onrushing freshman Kayla Rowan.

Any momentum the Redhawks may have enjoyed was snuffed nine minutes into the second half when Leskovar, a senior midfielder, got in the way of an attempted clearing pass outside the top of the Central penalty area and fired a 27-yard shot under the crossbar for her first goal of the spring to make it 2-0.

“We weren’t respectful of their speed,” Naperville Central coach Ed Watsons said. “We had opportunities to play it in the back and we had to play it briskly and I think that some of our girls in the back were still not recognizing how fast they were. To their credit, they took advantage of our lapses.”

So while the Redhawks controlled much of the play in the midfield, the Tigers were able to excel in the final third at either end, consistently playing the ball on the ground instead of into the air on a frigid, windy day.

“We tried to keep it on the ground and we noticed that when we did pressure, they messed up, so everybody was constantly on somebody and we also moved a lot of our players up,” Leskovar said. “We put two of our players as attacking mids, instead of two defensive mids, and then made our outside wings play higher up so they didn’t have to come back as far, and that made a difference, too.”

On defense, Plainfield North’s back line of freshman Tate Barney, a midfielder who was playing her first game on defense, sophomore Brooke Polonus, senior Nikki Auble and freshman Karsyn Stirrett did an admirable job of containing Redhawks striker Abby Joyce, who had racked up three goals and two assists in Central’s first two matches. Joyce was held to two shots.

“With our two center backs, they keyed on [Joyce] and making sure she wasn’t going to get a chance to turn and shoot,” Crowe said. “They’re dangerous up top and they got some dangerous chances but I think we limited them. Our goalkeeper didn’t have to make too many tough saves.”

Watson was frustrated because he felt his players were looking for the perfect shot instead of just peppering the net.

“We’re not going to beat anybody if we shoot the ball five times, so it was one of those games,” Watson said. “It is early in the year. We’re not going to worry too much about it. We’ve got some young girls and they’re learning. We’ll get there.”

Despite being shut out in this one, the Redhawks still have plenty of firepower, as evidenced by the nine goals scored in wins over Oak Park and River Forest and Young (a 7-1 drubbing on Friday). Three seniors – Ellis (Indiana), Cisneros (Bowling Green) and Autumn Muckenhirn (North Dakota State) – will be playing Division I soccer.

But the Tigers, despite the graduation losses and a relatively young roster that includes seven freshmen and three sophomores, also have plenty of talent, with seven players having already committed to play in college.

Senior Ashley Handwork and her junior sister Heather are the team’s primary scoring threats and have committed to Marquette. Dheel is headed to Western Kentucky, Leskovar to NAIA power Lee University and Auble to Illinois-Springfield. Wren has signed with Minnesota State and senior defender Emma Smith will play for St. Ambrose.

“The first class that we had that was really talented, that kind of brought us to the next level, was the group that just graduated,” Crowe said. “So I think the big challenge for this group was to show that [the Class of 2012 is] gone but we still have good players. They’ve kind of taken that as a challenge and tried to prove people wrong when they say, ‘ok, Callie and those other players have graduated; you guys aren’t going to be able to do it anymore.’ That’s been big for us.”