Chicagoland Soccer

Saddled with a preseason No. 3 national ranking on ESPN’s Powerade Fab50 rankings list, Naperville North has a recent memory that figures to keep that lofty ranking in perspective.

“Neuqua Valley,” Huskies junior Christa Szalach said. “They were ranked No. 1 last year and we beat them in the playoffs, so we know anything can happen. We graduated eight seniors and we’ve got new players stepping in, so it’s a new team and a new year.

“It’s awesome that we’re ranked there, but in my head it doesn’t mean much.”

The Huskies placed second in Illinois in Class 3A last season, and opened the new season Wednesday by hosting Barrington, a team that beat North in their annual meeting last season.

Naperville North (1-0) won 1-0 over Barrington (1-1) Wednesday on a Szalach head shot at the far post, where teammate Cora Climo sent a perfect free kick from distance on the left side.

The Fillies opened the season with a 1-0 win over Glenbrook South and were glad to take on a team with a high national ranking.

“They played hard throughout the entire game, never let up, and they pressured us on every single play,” Fillies senior Sara Condon said. “They were always on our backs so it was really good competition. Playing against a team ranked third in the country will teach us how we can do under pressure, how we can pass with all that pressure, and how to get shots off.”

The game’s lone goal came 14 minutes in when Climo teed up a free kick from 30-plus yards out on the left side. Szalach made her run from the eighteen and went up after it at the post.

“We work on set plays a lot and we a designated group of ball-winners, so I was just trying to get it back post and hopefully one of them would get on it,” Climo said. “Christa is really good at winning those balls in the air.”

North kept good pressure on through 40 minutes but Barrington elevated its play in the second half and spent more time in its attacking third.

Quality scoring chances in the run of play are always hard to come by when two good teams go at it, and Wednesday’s game fit that mold. Most shots came from distance, with neither team allowing the other to get behind their respective back lines.

The game’s next best scoring chance came with only two minutes remaining, when the Fillies’ Mia Calamari sent a corner kick to almost the exact spot at the back post where Szalach buried her head shot. Barrington’s Molly Pfeiffer hammered a head shot on frame but a North defender stopped it and the Fillies’ best scoring chance of the day was gone.

Barrington coach Ryan Stengren applauded the energy his girls brought to the field throughout, and only hopes they learn from the goal that beat them.

“Last year we didn’t get beat in the run of play. We got beat on set pieces,” Stengren said. “So I was frustrated that one play was the difference in the game.

“But I’m sure Naperville North will say the same thing – if this is the best we get, it’s not going to be good enough. It’s only the first week of games and we hope to be a lot better by the end of the year. We have a long way to go and we’re just starting to learn about ourselves. We have a lot of young players and they got some good experience today.”

Stengren liked the way midfielder Condon played quick, intelligent soccer and was happy with the day’s work put in by junior defender Meredith Slott, one season after she sat out the year due to ACL surgery.

“(Slott) played center back and they didn’t get behind us too many times, and they’ve got a ton of speed on that team,” Stengren said.

For her part, Slott was happy to see the way the Fillies approached Wednesday’s game.

“We came out knowing they were ranked third in the country and we knew it would be a hard game, but we wanted to make a statement,” Slott said. “We weren’t going to put our heads down. We wanted to make something of the game. Although we didn’t get a result out of it, it’s early in the season and we can fix the mistakes we made today.

“We talked at halftime about it and I thought we came out in the second half and changed the game. We had more energy and kept it on their end more in the second half.”

Wednesday’s game also marked the first in the head coaching career of Naperville North coach Steve Goletz, who liked a lot of what he saw from his side on Wednesday.

“We had some nerves. The first couple of minutes were kind of ragged but then we calmed down a little bit and I thought we had the better of play for a while there in the first half,” Goletz said.

North keeper Allison Hitchcock and her defense earned its first shutout of the season, and Goletz was pleased with the effort his back line gave him.

“I thought that everybody that played in back had their moments,” he continued.” I thought for Kayla Sharples to step in there as a freshman and really be a rock back there for us was huge. I thought Jen Korn played a great game, Angela Widlacki is all over the field, and defensively it was a good effort in Game One.”

He also pointed to the quickly apparent value of Emily Bromagen in Wednesday’s game.

“Emily was great,” Goletz said. “She’s our dirty worker in there. She gets in there, wins balls, connects passes for us, and when she came off our midfield was stretched a little bit. And I thought Megan Lee subbed in and played great. Hunter Drendel was out wide for us tonight but she has played up top for us, and part of what we’ll do early in the season involves experimenting and finding the right pieces.”

The transition from former coach Brent Terada to Goletz has been anything but rocky for the Huskies.

“It hasn’t been hard on us one bit,” Szalach said. “We miss Terada. We loved him. But Goletz has made it very easy, too.”

Naperville North hosts Hinsdale Central Saturday while Barrington moves on to play a team ranked No. 5 in the country in Neuqua Valley. Stengren hopes his girls bring the same intensity against Neuqua on Saturday.

“I like the way we adjusted on the fly in different systems today, when we were chasing a goal,” Stengren said. “Their energy was very good throughout the day today, and we had some kids who were new to varsity and played in a marquee game, and held their own. We created chances, too, against a good team.

“Last year we beat (Naperville North) 1-0 and they finished second in state, so I’m okay if that reverses this year.”