Since St. Francis just rejoined the Girls Catholic Athletic Conference last fall, the Wheaton school does not have much of a recent history with Tuesday’s late afternoon guest, Red Division rival Mother McAuley.

Even when the two teams competed in the league, they rarely met on the pitch due to divisional alignments.

“When we were in the Catholic league, five, six, seven years ago, I think we played them maybe twice. And I know we played them one time down there,” St. Francis coach Jim Winslow said. “It was a fairly competitive game. And I don’t know that we ever played them at our place.”

Based on results alone, Mother McAuley, with a 10-9-0 overall record, seems to have the upper hand.

“Their record is solid, and ours (2-5-2, 1-1-1) looks terrible when you look at it, but you know we lost to five of what are the top 16 schools (in the Chicagoland Soccer Top 25), all big schools.” said the Spartans coach.

Mother McAuley is 0-3-0 in Red Division play.

Winslow is concentrating on his team’s tactics rather than countering the Chicago school’s strategy.

“I’m far more worried about what we need to do well, as opposed to what they do.” he said.

Retaining possession is a top priority.

“We need to do a good job of keeping the ball. Against DeLaSalle (4-1 win April 16), I thought we did a much better job of that, but we didn’t capitalize on some early opportunities,” the St. Francis manager said.

As always, hitting the back of the net first will be stressed.

“If we can get off to a good start, get the first goal and then get a second goal type of thing, that would be critical to me,” said Winslow.

Forward Paige Chrustowski, an Austin Peay commit, midfielder Sophia Roszskowki and midfielder Macie Schweiner are candidates for the Spartans’ initial strike.

“Paige has played much better in the last couple games, Sophia has also played better, and Macie has had some moments,” Winslow noted.

Co-ordination between the midfield and frontline could be a deciding factor.

“The level of consistency that we get out of the midfield is important so we can create our opportunities up-top,” the St. Francis manager said.

Junior and Northern Illinois recruit Elle Wainscott’s return to the team has beefed up the backline.

“Elle didn’t play last year. She took a year off, because she was going through the recruiting process,” the Spartans coach said. “Having her back has been huge. She and Alyssa Suriano have been anchors.”

Senior Maeve McGinn is an unsung defensive hero.

“Maeve has been just rock solid, consistent. She doesn’t get enough credit for just doing her job and doing it well,” Winslow concluded.