Spartans post second shutout to start the season
By Gary Larsen

St. Francis graduated considerable offensive firepower from last year’s Class 2A state championship team but the girls in this year’s attack can rest easy as they sort things out, safe in the knowledge that goalkeeper Jenna DiTusa and her defense has got their backs.

West Chicago had the more frequent and the more dangerous scoring chances against the Spartans on Saturday, but DiTusa isn’t a four-year varsity veteran for nothing. The senior keeper’s savvy and shot-stopping ability helped carry St. Francis to a 2-0 win.

“Their chances were better than ours for the most part but I we’re moving people around and seeing what will work as far as our offense goes,” DiTusa said. “Our defense has been amazing so far and today they were better than yesterday. We were marking better, defending crosses better, and we had a better game today.”

The graduation of Sydney Fox and Amanda Gaggioli will have the Spartans looking for offensive answers to start the season, but they made two goals scored 18 minutes apart in the first half stand up, off the feet of Kaity Bucaro and Taylor Van Thournout

Despite yet another frozen day in the Midwest, West Chicago’s attack came out hot. Wildcats senior Andie Lazzerini isn’t a secret to anyone that plays West Chicago but she, Katie Becker, Kayla Kirkwood, and Viri Mendoza all flirted with scoring chances in the game’s opening minutes.

First there was a Lazzerini through ball that Mendoza ripped just wide of the post past a diving DiTusa, who made a diving save two minutes later.

“We’re so glad she’s back there,” Spartans assistant coach Kristin Keigley said of DiTusa. “And it’s wonderful to have the confidence to be able to play a ball behind whenever you need to, and you know it’s going to be played out with confidence.”

Bucaro capitalized on a West Chicago giveaway in its defensive third, scoring from 18 yards out in the game’s 6th minute. Van Thournout made it 2-0 at 22 minutes when she poked a ball home in a crowd at the goalmouth.

“We have a lot of work to do. We lost some girls and it’s a whole new season,” St. Francis defender Kate Roback said. “It’s a nice surprise that we’ve won our first two games. For now we’re mainly focusing on which girls are going to be able to score for us and get us some points, but it’s nice knowing we can keep teams out of our goal.”

Roback, DiTusa, Meghan Wagner, Taylor Bucaro, and Corky Hart did just that in the second half, holding off a West Chicago team that earned a trio of corner kicks after halftime and forced a few more saves out of DiTusa.

Still, West Chicago coach Cesar Gomez was more than pleased with the way his girls played in their first game of the season.

“A goal still has to be scored, but we’re creating many chances and I thought we possessed, used the width, and used everybody,” Gomez said. “We have a few people that were scared in their first game, but (assistant coach Raul Vega) and I are optimistic.”

The Spartans didn’t mark Lazzerini but Roback seemed to zone in on her throughout much of the contest.

“We’ve played against her the past couple years and played club against each other, so I know how she plays and that she was the big girl we had to watch,” Roback said. “We weren’t sure how well we’d be able to stop her. She’s strong and aggressive, but she’s also got speed that you have to watch out for.”

With teams keying on Lazzerini, Gomez has asked her to fill a specific role.

“We’re asking her to be patient and be the target person, and every now and then she’s going to escape and she’s going to go,” Gomez said. West Chicago’s Katie Becker also provided a persistent attacking presence for her squad on Saturday.

“It’s a new position for Katie. She played sweeper and stopper for us but we converted her to an outside player and she can run,” Gomez said. “She just has to get used to the rhythm and the feel of that position and that will just take time.

“I thought Kayla (Kirkwood) also played well and Andrea Correa surprised the heck out of me. She’s very speedy. She didn’t start last year but she’s a senior now and I think she realizes that she can play this game. She’s doing very well.”

Gomez was also pleased with the play of freshmen Karen Ibarra, Maddie Aguilar, and Alexa Vega in their varsity debuts.

Between DiTusa and her backline, Anna Vonderhaar’s big presence in the middle of the field, and senior veterans like Andrea Ravlin, Sarah Rahman, and Emma Fickle in the fold, the Spartans figure to stick to the formula that has worked for them thus far as the offense finds its way.

“(DiTusa) saved some point-blank shots, we couldn’t score, and that’s what soccer is about,” Gomez said. “It’s about who scored the most, not who played better.”