Hornets blank Andrew to reach Lemont Cup semifinals

By Dave Owen

Bouncing between short winning and losing streaks all spring has made consistency very elusive for Hinsdale South.

But the Hornets hope a 2-0 win over Andrew in Friday’s opening round of the Lemont Cup Tournament is part of a high energy finish to the season.

“We just want to keep up our pep,” Hinsdale South senior Julie Vezzani said. “We’re on a good winning streak (three in a row), so hopefully we’ll just stay confident about ourselves.”

Both Vezzani and Brenda Maugeri made extra effort pay off on their first half goals that decided the match for the Hornets (7-7), who meet the hosts in the semifinals.

Maugeri struck first with 18:20 left in the opening half, breaking in on left wing for her third straight game with a goal.

After initially losing control of the ball to a defender in the box, Maugeri recovered the loose sphere and fired a low shot past Andrew’s goalkeeper for a 1-0 lead.

Vezzani also showed no quit on her goal with just 1:13 left in the first half, winning a race to a 50/50 ball in the box and doing the rest.

“It was a great pass from Kelly (Flemm),” Vezzani said. “Me and my player (the Andrew defender) were going towards the ball, it bounced over her head and I just kept going because you never know what’s going to happen.

“It bounced off her, I kind of went between the goalie and the player and followed through with it.”

The deflection earned Vezzani her third goal of the season, and she continued to attack the net in the second half.

Her dribble drive and cross to Maugeri resulted in a shot on goal with 26:30 left, and she later made a nice block of an Andrew clear attempt to set up another scoring chance (a drive up the wing and cross that was caught in a crowd by the Thunderbolts’ keeper).

“I think we did great,” Vezzani said. “We made a lot of nice passes, a lot of runs, and good crosses.”

“I’d say our strategy was to come out confident,” Hornets’ defender Mary Claire Ladd said, “find some feet and possess, and it’s a very wide field so we wanted to work the ball out to in and try to play our best today.”

Goalkeeper Vanessa Niestrom was certainly playing at the top of her game, earning her fifth shutout of the season.

Her long goal kick freed Flemm up for an attack on the Andrew goal less than a minute before Maugeri’s goal.

The senior showed her more typical goalkeeper skills the rest of the way, highlighted by her flying deflection on a 12-yard breakaway shot from Andrew with 30:30 left.

“She is our savior behind us,” Ladd said. “The defense has no worries in the back. We play as hard as we can getting the ball out, but whenever we need her to either clear the ball or step up and make a great save, she’s always there.”

“It’s always nice to have Vanessa back there when teams get a shot,” Hinsdale South coach Pat Wolf said.

“She made a nice save on that one and pushed it aside – she’s confident back there. Sometimes as all goalies do she tries to do a little too much, but she’s in charge in the back which is awesome.”

Niestrom’s big-time breakaway denial was just one great moment for the Hornets’ defense.

Elisabetta Bifero had a nice check from behind on another potential Andrew breakaway with 19:30 to play, resulting in a soft 10-yard shot fielded by Niestrom. Bifero also had a nice blocked shot near the goal crease late in the first half.

In the second half, Ladd had a nice steal of an Andrew dribble just inside midfield, and Maugeri made a key one-on-one steal and clear on a Thunderbolt threat to the right of the crease with 3:50 to play. Jessica Mutters provided her usual strong play at sweeper.

“We have Jessica back there who is tough and smart,” Wolf said, “and we can put Brenda back there, who has wheels and is also tough and smart.

“Our strength is our players in back,” Wolf added. “All five of them work together really well. Colleen McPherson sometimes gets overlooked because she’s not as quick or flashy as some other girls, but she has great touch and that calm demeanor that when someone is charging at her she can just play the ball and beat somebody.

“She’s not flying down the field or crushing one into the net, but she’s calm and confident with the ball. Players like that can get overlooked – she’s not vocal, she’s just out there playing steady every single game, which is cool.”

Another versatile Hornet drew postgame praise.

“Kelly Flemm did a nice job today,” Wolf said. “She was up and back, and she’s getting better every game.”

The Hornets had two other great chances denied with 14:10 left in the first half (a high 35-yard rocket by Cassie Jensen stopped on a leaping catch) and 40 seconds left in the match (Alissa Lokanc’s shot in traffic off a Kerry Just cross). Just also was stopped on a sliding save with 14:30 to go.

Andrew appeared to solve Niestrom with 11:30 remaining, but a tough angle shot past the Hornet keeper went just wide of the left post.

The Hornets overcame the absence of standout forward Jessica Koziol (illness) to continue their late season strides.

“I feel like we adjust very well,” Ladd said. “People get moved up, people get hurt or sick, so just being able to adjust well is one of our strengths back there and with our team as a whole.

“Being able to play off what people’s strengths are and move people around really helps the team a lot, and helps us to score more goals depending on where we put people.”