Naperville North freshman forward Brooke Genthner has been playing soccer for as long as she can remember.
For much of that time, she has been following the Huskies and dreaming of the chance to don the uniform.
“I’ve gone to their summer camps for a really long time, and I’ve known some of the girls from that,” Genthner said. “Getting to play with them is really exciting.”
Does Genthner have any favorite players from past years?
“Definitely Claire DeCook,” she said. “She was really so good. I didn’t know her personally. I knew of her. She was such a big part of the club.”
Genthner is three years younger than DeCook, who graduated early
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to get a head start at Tennessee, so they never got a chance to play together.But Genthner evoked memories of DeCook by scoring a highlight-reel goal on Wednesday. It was her first career goal and gave the visiting Huskies a 1-0 win over previously unbeaten Fremd in Palatine.
“Brooke’s ability to not only hit a ball but be able to break away with her speed are two things that are fantastic for us,” Naperville North coach Steve Goletz said. “The composure to finish a world-class shot to the far corner as a freshman with the game on the line is a pretty neat thing.”
In an action-packed and evenly played game, Fremd (3-1-1) appeared to have the upper hand, attacking with the wind and pinning the Huskies (3-1) in their end.
Then the tables turned in an instant. Senior defender Zara Hasan took the ball away from a Fremd attacker at the edge of Naperville North’s penalty area and cleared the ball into space. Senior forward Amanda Ratz, a first-year varsity player, hustled to get to the ball, and then the Huskies were off to the races on a counterattack.
Ratz saw Genthner moving up the right flank with her hand outstretched asking for a lead pass and quickly sent a sharp through ball far up the wing. Genthner, who was a sprinter in middle school, caught up to the ball, streaked into Fremd’s penalty area and beat goalkeeper Addison Barlo with a terrific shot inside the left post with 9:31 left in the second half.
The entire sequence took less than 15 seconds.
“I saw the ball coming through the middle, and I was already by the sidelines,” Ratz said. “I heard, I think it was Kennedy (Bertsch), yell, ‘Go to, go to,’ so I went to it.
“Then I put my head up, and I saw Brooke was already going wide and trying to cut in. So I just played it through, and she caught onto it.”
Genthner knew exactly what needed to be done and was not going to be stopped.
“I saw (Ratz) starting to go in a little bit, so I thought, ‘OK, I’m going to make the run. If she slips me, I’m just going to take it to goal,’” she said.
A Fremd defender dashed back but couldn’t catch Genthner.
“I heard the player behind me, so I tried to stay focused on where the goalie was positioned, and then I just had to knock it around, and it went in,” she said. “It felt great.
“First goal for this team. It was 0-0, a tight game, so it felt really good to be the one to put it in the net.”
With DeCook gone, the question for the Huskies is who will put the ball in the net. Goletz said they must replace DeCook’s volume with a committee of mostly unknown yet talented players.
Ratz is one of them. She already has three goals, including two in the Huskies’ 4-0 win over DeKalb on Tuesday. Genthner, one of three freshmen on the team along with Mary Mulvihill and Harper Stokes, is another.
“When you’re a freshman on varsity here, it’s a huge accomplishment, and to play the quality of minutes that Brooke, Mary and Harper have already played as freshmen, it’s definitely going to help us,” Goletz said.
Especially when they produce plays like Genthner’s lightning strike.
“It’s a regular-season game, but to beat a top-ranked team and to score the game-winning goal as a freshman, it makes you happy because she’s such a hardworking kid,” Goletz said. “She’s a super coachable kid.
“I think she’s going to continue to get better. The sky is the limit for her.”
Matt Le Cren is a freelance reporter.