Fremd falls 1-0 to Palatine in Kinsella Cup game
By Gary Larsen

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Fremd’s stranglehold on the Kinsella Cup ended on Wednesday, courtesy of an early Palatine goal that held up in a 1-0 Pirates victory on the Vikings’ home turf.

Fremd claimed the Cup from 1999 through 2011 in the annual MSL and cross-town rivalry game, between players that go back a while together.

“I always love playing Palatine because these are girls I grew up playing Celtic soccer with, from third grade through eighth grade,” Fremd’s Rebecca Freeman said. “It obviously would have been nice to win.”

Jimmy Kinsella founded the Palatine Celtic Soccer Club along with Bill Hughes in 1968.

“He passed away seven or eight years ago,” Palatine coach Willie Filian said of Kinsella. “He used to come to games wearing a green Fremd jacket with a red Palatine beret. He was a Scotsman with a great accent who loved the game. The fact that the Cup is named after him means the world to me. He was just one of those guys that the kids really loved.”

Palatine played with the spirit of the Cup early on in Wednesday’s game and got a goal the way Filian’s teams always love to score: a head shot at the post, set up by a corner kick.

The game was 10 minutes old when a Palatine corner hit the turf on the far side and was sent back into the mixer by the Pirates’ Erin Mayer. Kellie Reynolds’ head shot goal would be all the scoring the day would see.

Not that Fremd didn’t try like heck to equalize.

“I thought after they scored, we settled down and even had a couple of quality chances in the first half,” Fremd coach Steve Keller said. “In the second half, we pretty much had the run of play and just couldn’t finish. We had chances, and that’s what we talked about. By no means am I disappointed or discouraged. I thought it was a great effort. We just didn’t find the back of the net, and that happens sometimes.

“We’re just having a little trouble scoring. Our three losses are 1-0.”

With a 1-0 lead on a cold, windy night that wasn’t conducive to the prettiest soccer being played, Palatine was in a good place.

“It’s hard to equalize, especially under these conditions,” Filian said. “And both teams have been having trouble scoring, so Steve (Keller) and I were talking before the game that it was probably going to be a 2-1 or 1-0 game, so getting that early goal was big.”

Fremd (2-3, 1-1 in MSL play) last played 12 days prior in a 7-0 win on March 23 over Hoffman Estates. Palatine (1-4, 1-2) went into Wednesday’s game on the heels of a 2-1 loss to New Trier on March 31.

Fremd’s Bri Frys took a shot from distance less than 30 seconds after Palatine scored and teammate Jessa Rizzo sent in a long one-hopper on net at the 15-minute mark. Palatine’s Katelyn Mayer sent a hard shot from distance in on starting Fremd keeper Rachel Tenuta, who cleanly handled it.

Fremd’s Brielle Bailey busted in up the left side with a defender on her hip and fired just wide with Palatine’s keeper bearing down on her at 31 minutes. Bekah Bostrom found a cross on her foot at 38 minutes near the endline on the right side, but her serve across the six went for naught.

One of Fremd’s best chances to finish came at 52 minutes, when a Vikings shots from 18 yards out hit the underside of the crossbar and rocketed down to the turf. Caroline Wagner was there to poke it past Palatine’s keeper, but Palatine defender Jessica Bachman raced back to clear it off the goal line.

Rizzo went wide at 63 minutes from distance and blasted another shot on net from eight yards out that deflected off a defender and was cleared out. Bri Frys sent a long one-hopper in on net at 72 minutes and time expired without a Fremd goal.

“We came out harder in the second half and we were winning balls in the middle of the field in the second half,” Freeman said. “We really tried to play direct and attack, and play the ball to our forwards.”

“(Caroline) Wagner and(Kira) Heggeland up top – they can finish, so we’ll be okay up top. Scoring will come.”

Fremd has a new defensive core and on Wednesday defenders Freeman, Courtney Norenberg, Emily Basten, and Katherine Ernst carried the load, in front of keepers Rachel Tenuta and Christine Piasecki. Veteran Fremd keeper Shannon Norris should return to the fold in the near future.

“We had to rebuild our defense after losing so many seniors from last year, so we’re kind of starting from scratch,” Freeman said. “We’ll pull together.

“We just talked about the fact that this was only the fifth game of the season and we’re still pulling it together as a team. As the season goes on we’ll be a tougher and tougher team.”

Filian was less than thrilled with his side’s organization in the face of Fremd’s second-half pressure, but applauded the tackling done by Bachman and Jessica Malak on the day and the play of Kaitlyn Burke.

“Kaitlyn Burke played the whole game in the middle in front of Kellie Strauss and just really cleaned up things for us,” Filian said. “When we broke down it was out wide. They never really penetrated through the middle and a lot of that was due to (Burke). And the rest of our kids just kind of worked hard tonight, and that’s what we’ve explained to them is that we’re not a finesse team. If we’re going to get it done we have to play physical. It’s going to be sloppy and it’s going to be ugly.”

Keller cited the steady play of Frys and Bostrom for his side, “and Jessa Rizzo has been steady,” he said. “I think she has the talent to even make her mark a little more, and Kira (Heggeland) has been dangerous for us.

“I believe we’ll be a team to be reckoned with. We just have some things to sort out. We always aim to be ready for the end of the year and it’s a long season. It’s always the end result; where are we at the end of the year? We’ve had 9-9 teams that have gone far in the playoffs so it’s about building to that point. Along the way it’s nice to win the conference, or win a tournament title, but you’ve got to experience what we experienced tonight if you want to improve.”