Tigers bounce back in Downers Grove

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By Gary Larsen

Late in Monday’s eventual 1-0 win for Plainfield North, Downers Grove North added an attacking player and gave away some ground in back against the Tigers’ attack.

If not for Downers Grove goalkeeper Maddi Fitzpatrick, the final score might have been 7-0.

The Tigers used their speed in the final third and took turns breaking in alone on Fitzpatrick, who left her line to stuff them over and over again.

“She was good coming out on our breakaways and messing with us,” Tigers’ sophomore Ashley Auble said. “And we just weren’t able to get around her. We’ll work on finishing and hopefully next game that doesn’t happen.”

Auble scored the game’s lone goal, a head shot near the goalmouth, roughly mid-way through the first half, as the Tigers improved to 3-2 on the young season.

Tigers coach Jane Crowe figures early-season games against teams like Downers Groves North and South, Wheaton Warrenville South, and Lincoln-Way East have already paid dividends.

“We’ve been able to figure out what’s going to work and what’s not going to work,” Crowe said. “When you play a team that’s not as strong, everything is going to work. We’ve been able to find out what we can and can’t do pretty quickly and that helps prepare us for the end of the season.”

This year’s Tigers will face a height disadvantage in many a game this year, but they’ve got the attacking weaponry to deal with it.

“We have a lot of speed up top so we want to use it to our advantage,” Tigers sophomore striker Callie O’Donnell said. “We want to use it on the outside.”

“We don’t have big girls so a lot of it is keeping the ball on the ground, playing to feet, and play quickly so they don’t have an opportunity to knock into you,” Crowe said. “We aren’t a big team but I think our speed makes up for it. That’s what we were dangerous with today. We just weren’t able to finish.”

Ashley Handwork used her speed throughout Monday’s contest, and assisted on the game’s lone goal.

“Ashley is really fast on the outside, so I knew when she got the ball that I should be making a run in,” Auble said. “She crossed a perfect ball and I was able to get on the end of it. Paige Slowik ran in before me and kind of distracted (Fitzpatrick), and I was able to get to it.”

“We’re not looking for one player, we had four or five girls making those runs forward today, and that’s why we’re dangerous,” Crowe said.

The Trojans played without several key players who were away on spring break, but coach Jason Hunter got some good efforts around the pitch.

“We saw some great stuff out of Sarah Desai up top,” Hunter said. “She was surrounded with a freshman and a sophomore, neither of which had any varsity experience. It was more of a learning experience for those two.”

“I thought Liz Frazier in the center mid was doing a pretty good job until she got hurt. We brought up a couple kids from the sophomore team and Frannie Jones played nearly the whole game,” Hunter said. “She did an absolutely phenomenal job fur us, filling in.”

Down a goal with the second half ticking away, the Trojans put numbers forward and set the stage for Fitzpatrick’s outstanding effort in net down the stretch.

“Sometimes we shot it wide, sometimes right at her, and sometimes we tried to dribble around her and took bad touches,” Crowe said. “So it’s a combination of both (factors); She made some great saves but if we’re going to get that many opportunities, we’ve got to finish.”

Crowe was particularly pleased with a good handful of Tigers on Monday.

“I thought Steph Barr played great in the middle and Ashley Auble had a really good game,” Crowe said. “And Bri Buckley played stopper today and she won a lot of balls in the middle of the field.”

“Any ball in the air that gets past midfield, she has to step and win, any ball played to their forwards she has to step in front and win, and find our players on the outside. (Buckley) has done a great job of that.”

With Paige Polonus, Emily Brodict, and Cait Bulthuis in the fold, the Tigers have three quality goalkeepers taking turns in net during the early part of the season. It was Brodict’s turn on Monday, and she helped earn the team’s second shutout of the year.

The sophomore dove to her left to stop a shot at the post early on, stuffed another point-blank shot thereafter, and handled everything else the Trojans sent her way in Downers Grove.

The win at Doerhoefer Park came less than 48 hours after the Tigers led 1-0 against Downers Grove South before giving up 3 goals in the game’s final 10 minutes.

“They were a good team, but I think we got overconfident and we let down,” Auble said. “Once they got that (tying) goal their confidence went up and ours went down a little. We were all disappointed but we came out and won today, so that helps get us over it.”