Chicagoland Soccer

Warriors fall to Geneva in home opener

By Gary Larsen

Wheaton Academy’s struggles on Wednesday against a fine Geneva team were compounded by the absence of a few key players. The 3-0 home loss also illuminated a problem that needs fixing.

“We’re not fit. It was our fitness tonight,” Warriors coach Scott Marksberry said. “Geneva had the run of play for the majority of the game, but our fitness in the second half really just killed us. But we had a couple people come in off of surgeries and others that hadn’t played in a while, and those kinds of things.”

“We have two weeks before our next game and I told the team to be ready for it. We’re going to be fit for our next game.”

Warriors senior Meghan Grant agreed that the defending Class 2A state champs – who have the tools to make another deep postseason run – need to get their legs under them.

“That is a big concern. The next two weeks will be a lot of fitness, and once we get that tackled we’ll be a totally different team,” Grant said.

After opening with a solid attacking surge, Wheaton Academy fought tooth-and-nail through most of the contest to hold off sustained pressure by Geneva.

Senor keeper Emily Mulder made a pair of top-shelf saves before halftime to keep things scoreless at the break, and Marksberry was particularly pleased with the play of junior defenders Kerrin Clancy and Lindsey Burke.

“Maybe our two best players on the night were our two outside backs,” he said. “They did a fantastic job, and never lost their marks. Kerrin Clancy and Lindsey Burke were lights out tonight. They were fantastic.”

And you’ll have to search far and wide to find a player more willing to put her nose into any fight than Warriors’ central defender Christi Dithrich. The senior used her big leg to destroy plays and clear balls out all night, until she left the game with an injury down the stretch.

“She plays very hard all the time, and we have to work with her a little more in terms of protecting her body a little more at times, especially when she’s nursing injuries,” Marksberry said of Dithrich. “It started with a little injury tonight and kind of built, partly because there were some reckless moments, perhaps. But she’ll be fine.”

With ODP player and center mid Crystal Thomas away playing in Holland, and a few other players banged up, Marksberry adjusted his approach to the Vikings and their solid midfield.

“Overall I thought the girls played well for what we were doing,” he said. “We told the girls that we weren’t going to create a lot of opportunities against them, so we’re going to send the ball tonight.”

“So rather than bother with trying to possess in our defensive half of the field, we were just trying to send stuff over the top to see if we could create. We did the same thing last year in the state semifinal against Sycamore – send it over the top and see if we can get our quick strikers to run onto it.”

Thomas’s return to the central midfield will only help. The sophomore had 18 goals and 22 assists for last year’s state title team.

“She’ll probably be the most skillful player we’ll see all season,” Marksberry said. “She’s fantastic on the ball, very skillful, and she’s just a competitor. Everything we do, she wants to win, every training session.”

Alexa Sharkey took on a frontrunner’s role Wednesday but her play in the middle will help key the attack this year, and Marksberry sees Rachael Nasralla’s return from injury as another plus.

“When she comes back she’s going to be a very, very good player for us,” he said. “And Meghan Grant is fantastic out at the left wing – a six-footer that’s good in the air, likes to go one-vee-one, hits a good cross and does everything we ask her to do. And Sydney Sharkey is doing a great job on the outside, too.”

Sophomore Ally Witt was prominent during the Warriors’ early attacking surge on Wednesday, and coming off an injury she’s working to return to the form that netted her 19 goals last season. Target player and senior Kristen Wittmuss is healthy this year, and her play will also be key up top.

“I think we’ve got some really strong forwards but we’re solid through the whole team,” Grant said. “This was a good game for us to have at the beginning of the season, for us to figure out what we need to do. It can only go up from here, so I’m excited.”

Senior Caley Kopp and juniors Lizzie Bergquist, Molly Cook, Brigitta Engebretsen, and Lexi Youngberg will all be expected to contribute this year. Sophomore Kristen Morency will back up the steady Mulder in net, and freshman Allison Manske will cut her teeth on varsity play this season.