Vikings can't match Conant's energy in 4-2 loss

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By Gary Larsen

You just don’t see a team tag Fremd with four goals.

“When I saw that third goal go in, I couldn’t’ believe we were making this happen,” Conant’s Paige Wentzel said. “We put a cushion there with that fourth goal and then we didn’t let our intensity go down. We did not want to let up.”

Unbeaten Conant had a wild night against MSL rival Fremd on Wednesday, in a 4-2 win that put the Cougars in the driver’s seat of the West Division with a 3-0 record.

A 1-1 halftime score gave way to three consecutive Conant (6-0, 3-0) goals that effectively buried Fremd (3-1, 1-1) in Hoffman Estates.

A battle between two equally solid teams never sees a barrage of shots sent on net either way, but Conant turned its quality chances into goals.

“I was hoping we could put the ball in the net because we struggle with that against them,” Conant coach Jason Franco said. “They play really solid defensively. I know they have some new people back there in spots but they’re aggressive, they’re high-energy, and we made a couple good finishes today.

“That was the difference. We didn’t have a whole lot of chances but the ones we did have, we finished. That’s not going to happen all the time but we’ll take it, especially against Fremd.”

A discouraged Fremd team departed Hoffman Estates knowing exactly where things went wrong against Conant.

“Conant came out here today and beat us to every ball, simply,” Fremd junior defender Emily Basten said. “And we couldn’t string our passes together. Tomorrow we need to come out for practice and work on the intensity that Conant brought today, and we didn’t have. They beat us to everything today.”

It was Paige Wentzel who lit the first candle for Conant, taking a Courtney Raetzman feed 12 minutes in and finishing on it from the left side near the goalmouth, with Fremd keeper Shannon Norris sprawled in front of her.

A fully-extended Norris made a diving stop at 27 minutes, and teammate Kristin Abruscato cleared a shot off the goal-line a few minutes thereafter.

Conant midfielder Chrissy Rosales took center stage in what could have been a turning point in the game. Fremd’s Jennifer Freeman sent in a corner kick that found the foot of Nicole Obos, who took a shot inside the six only to see Rosales stop it on the goal line. A Wentzel clear eliminated the threat.

Those three big plays preceded the game’s tying goal, which came at 37 minutes on a nifty feed from Elise Kotsakis ahead to Michelle Mottonen.

Conant keeper Lindsay Fillingim charged out and got a hand on Mottonen’s blast but her shot had enough on it to roll safely over the goal line.

The 1-1 tie only lasted 36 seconds into the second half, when Wentzel looked up just over the midfield stripe and sent a ball over the top to her favorite target. “That’s my favorite ball. Look up, ‘where’s Hailey?’, and just find her,” Wentzel said.

“I just started taking off and I looked at Paige. She saw me running she layed it right over the top and the defender kind of didn’t see me coming,” Andress said. “Then I just hit it as hard as I could across the net.”

At its best, Conant is a team that uses its skill and quickness in the attack to shred opposing defenses.

“Too many opportunities for them to exploit us, which they did well,” Fremd coach Steve Keller said. “They’re a very smart team, they’ve got some crafty players. We had some chances, too, that we have to put away but forget all that. It was a very disappointing effort.

“We weren’t even looking to combine. Everyone was looking to do it themselves. Conant’s a very good team and the biggest separation tonight was that they showed an understanding of the game of soccer, and our girls did not. I’m very disappointed.”

Fremd earned a trio of corner kicks thereafter but couldn’t get on the end of one. Conant answered quickly with a corner of its own and capitalized at 50 minutes when Raetzman located the ball in a scrum at the near post and buried it for the 3-1 lead.

Kaitlin Chiero scored the lone goal in Conant’s 1-0 win over MSL rival Hersey on Monday, cleaning up the rebound on a Raetzman shot, and the senior struck again for the Cougars’ fourth goal on Wednesday, just three minutes after Raetzmans’s score.

Wentzel earned her second assist of the night on the play.

“Conant’s a smart team and they play around you, basically, and defensively we made too many mistakes,” Basten said. “We needed to focus on the ball but we were all over the place.”

Keller went into the Conant showdown worried about his girls. The Vikings won 3-1 over Schaumburg one week ago but struggled to match the Saxons’ intensity in the second half.

A few less-than-enthusiastic practices followed, leaving the veteran Fremd coach wondering what he’d get from his side on Wednesday. The Vikings clearly elevated their intensity late in the second half, when they were chasing a three-goal deficit, and Kotsakis made it 4-2 when she blistered a shot from distance to the back netting with eight minutes left to play.

But at least part of Fremd’s increased intensity late in the contest was a byproduct of increased intensity from its coach on the sideline.

“I shouldn’t have to be over here yelling like crazy,” Keller said. “They’ve got to know they have to push, and press, and put the pressure on. It was a very poor effort until it was too late. I was hoping that second half against Schaumburg would be a wakeup call. I hope this game shakes us up or we could be in for a long season.”

Basten sees a few fiery practices ahead for the Vikings.

“(Intensity) is something we definitely need to pick up. Hopefully tomorrow at practice we’ll step it up because if we bring what we brought in the last fifteen minutes, we’ll be okay,” she said.

Conant’s girls in back also earned credit for the night they spent in allowing Fremd very little time or space to operate in its attacking third. Kelsey Foss, Kelly Lomas, Kim Trinco, and freshman Drew Wentzel played solidly in front of keeper Lindsay Fillingim.

“We were nervous about Elise (Kotsakis) and (Michelle) Mottonen and I think they did a pretty good job,” Franco said. “They got caught a couple of times but that’s going to happen against high-level players. Their goal in the first half was a great run and a great ball. But we’ve got veteran defenders back there who have seen high-level forwards. We just hadn’t seen them this year yet.

“Hats off to them. I thought Lindsay played very well in net and even when she got hurt, Drew (Wentzel) went in there and played okay for us.”

Fillingim charged off her line and collided with Kotsakis out near the eighteen and had to leave the contest late in the second half.

The Cougars came into the 2011 season with a ton of returnees and high hopes, but Wednesday’s win was a step forward in the confidence department.

“I think we knew having everyone back that we had the potential, but knew people were playing new positions,” Andress said. “This tells us that we can actually do this if we all play our hardest and work together.”

The Cougars take on MSL rivals Schaumburg and Elk Grove next week, capped by a Saturday game against Lake Zurich. Fremd squares off with Buffalo Grove and Barrington in a pair of MSL games next week.