ROMEOVILLE – Nothing seemed right prior to Thursday’s Romeoville and Oak Park and River Forest match.

After numerous baseball and softball games in the Chicagoland area were canceled due to the threat of rain and storm, the Romeoville home soccer game wasn’t affected.

The Huskies wouldn’t have made the long trip southwest for nothing.

That was the good news.

But as the afternoon sun faded, the weather turned chilly, windy and dark.

The Spartans and Huskies headlined the pair games at Romeoville in the Windy City Ram Classic on Thursday.

The first game ended with Solorio pulling out a 2-1 victory over Shepherd in the consolation bracket‘s Round of 16. The winners’ bracket nightcap started 20 minutes late, much to the dismay of a group of five fans who noticed the long warmup time while walking into the stadium.

A whipping wind – 30 miles per hour – led to a cold night for the brave fans, mostly Spartans’ faithful, who stayed for the entire match. By halftime, the attendance dwindled down to 45 spectators.

Oak Park and River Forest made its own good fortune on the field.

Junior forward Malie Cassel put on a clinic by scoring the first three goals to spark the Huskies to a 6-0 win over the Spartans. The Huskies (2-0-0) advance to play Lincoln-Way East on Saturday at 10:30 a.m. in Romeoville.

The Huskies scored four goals in the second half to put the game away.

Cassel, a dynamic scorer with next-level speed and vision, was all over the pitch. She found open spaces to dribble against the young and inexperienced Spartans. Cassel’s hat-trick raised her season total to five goals in two games and placed her name among the top scorers in the first week of the season.

But the Chicagoland Soccer MVP of the Match, did struggle with one aspect of her game, talking with a reporter post-game. Her play, however, had spoken for her.

The long game and cold weather led to a quick exit for both teams, but Cassel stayed a few extra minutes to talk about her performance.

“I’m not good at this,” she said, searching to find the words to describe her hat-trick. “We adjusted to the weather. We connected and played on the ground. It was a good win. We feel pretty good about this win and are excited for more (wins). I think we played well as a team. I feel like we created many opportunities. I think we will have a good season. We connected through the center a lot, which is good.”

Oak Park and River Forest’s first-year coach Lauren Zallis said Cassel is a big piece of her team’s puzzle, but the team needs everybody to be working in unison.

“I think one thing that’s really unique about this team is we have the ability to possess. Our forwards, in particular, have this courage to be able to turn with the ball and go at people,” Zallis said. “I think in the women’s game that’s a really rare quality. I think because we can be multi-faceted, that we can use both our possession and willingness to attack to do damage. 

“What’s also great is Malie might have had the most goals on the night, but I feel in the last two games we’ve had, the goals have not just come from one source, but they’ve been team goals. She might be the one who is putting the majority of them in, but it builds from everybody, including the back. It starts with defending and having the ball. We create that through everybody on the field. I think it was a good win.”

That’s a plus for the Huskies, who can use their early season momentum to carry them into a tough slate of games in April.

Zallis said senior Keira Kleidon is the backbone of the Huskies backline. Senior goalie Jackie Bollinger had a care-free game, finishing with one save.

“Keira, our centerback, sets the tone with her work-rate and the way she approaches the game with her intensity,” Zallis said. “There’s one thing I can definitely say about this team is their intensity. When you ask them to turn on, they do.”

The tall, physical and strong Kleidon, a three-year varsity player, said she’s still adapting to playing a new position after playing center mid.

“This is my first time playing defense, and it’s the complete opposite,” Kleidon said laughing. “I have gotten used to it. I like it back there. I like the girls and meeting new friends.”

Kleidon said the victory was a nice step in the right direction heading into Saturday’s game.

Ana Sofia Mrotzek contributed two goals and two assists to the win, and Tea Dassinger notched a goal.

“The wind was hard, but it was a nice victory,” Kleidon said. “I feel like in these types of games we work on playing through the middle and connecting and finding feet. I think we did a really good job of that.

“In the second half, we scored four goals, so we did a good job of putting them away. The team is pretty young. The sophomores are really stepping up. We need to build this team up since we’re pretty young. So far, so good. Hopefully, we can see success. We’re looking to win some more games.”

Romeoville is very young but showed sprinkles of toughness, especially on the defensive end to keep the score close for the first 55 minutes.

The Spartans (1-1-0) got several highlight stops from junior keeper Doria Quintana, who finished with nine saves. She showed toughness coming out of the box as the Huskies took advantage of gaps in Romeoville’s backline. Down 2-0 at halftime, the Spartans survived three Huskies’ close-in near-misses in the first 40 minutes.

“(They) were a really talented team, but my team is so young,” Romeoville coach Jose Quintana-Magdaleno said. “It’s going to be a long season, but if we work hard, it will get better. We have just had a few practices, so we need a lot more to prepare for the season. 

“We played well against a very good team. They were very good moving the ball against us. We tried to do our work. We can’t ask for anything more from the team, because we’re so young.

“We have a lot to learn. We have a lot of work. It’s little by little, step by step and day by day for us to get it down.”

Starting lineups

Oak Park and River Forest
GK: Jackie Bollinger
D: Maisee Champaneri
D: Kiera Kleidon
D:  Maddie Vizzone
D: Anna Whitmore
MF: Abby Cockerill
MF: Lola Zarate
MF: Ana Sofia Mrotzek
F: Malie Cassel
F: Addison Bliss
F: Genevieve Simkowski
 
Romeoville
GK: Doria Quintana
D: Deysy Esquivel
D: Yulianna Rodriguez
D: Vanessa Goc
D: Melissa Zuniga
MF: Analya Salazar Cruz
MF: Marely Quntana
MF: Sofia Mesta
MF: Ava Thavipon
F: Giselle Carrera
F: Amy Pineda
 
Chicagoland Soccer MVP of the Match: Malie Cassel, jr., F, Oak Park and River Forest

Scoring summary
First half
OPRF: Cassel (Mrotzek), 17’
OPRF: Cassel (Mrotzek), 22’
 
Second half
OPRF: Cassel (unassisted), 46’
OPRF: Mrotzek (Bliss), 56’
OPRF: Dassinger (Simkowski), 76
OPRF: Mrotzek (Cassel). 76’