PALATINE -- Kelsie Stone was a brilliant goalkeeping star.
During her high school career the 2017 Fremd graduate and All-American set records and compiled gaudy individual stats while making breathtaking saves to insure the Vikings would always be in a position to earn three points.
When Stone moved on to play at Drake University, it left a void in the Vikings first 11 and heaped plenty of pressure on the new keeper in town -- Jennifer Norris.
Manager Steve Keller said he was confident the sophomore was ready to assume to her role between the sticks. Norris rewarded the faith Keller had for her with a terrific performance to help lead the Vikings (1-2-0, 1-0-0) to a hard-fought 1-0 home victory over Prospect on Thursday night.
"Jennifer has incredibly big shoes to fill," said Marta Cholewa, who watched firsthand just what Stone was capable of last season when she starred along the Vikings backline until a late season knee injury ended her year far too soon.
"Kelsie could do it all, (but) Jennifer showed she can be a really good keeper for us," added Lauren Burk, the scoring hero for the home side, whose 68 minutes strike dashed the hopes of the Lady Knights at Hildebrandt Stadium.
"It's just that Fremd curse that did us in once again," said disappointed Prospect manager Tom Froats, who's seen this movie several time during his 16 years in charge of the Knights.
"You think, at the very least you're coming away with at least one point. Their keeper comes up so big. Then they get that late goal and all of our work and several good sequences of solid play, but it ends the way it did."
Froats' reference to the two saves Norris made were only part of the overall work effort she registered. The first, and perhaps one which may have gone unnoticed, was a strong and aggresive challenge off her line in the first half to stop Abbey Danciu from catching up to an early ball sent into the Vikings box.
Norris denied Danciu on two more occasions after the break, but her claim to fame which helped her earn Chicagoland Soccer's MVP of the Match honor came when it appeared the Lady Knights (2-2-0, 0-1-0) were on the brink of taking the lead.
Against Prospect's Shawna Stokes, Ashley Welk and Kristin Schneider, who had a marvelous second half of play showing wonderful pace and creativity, the Vikings defense began to look vulnerable just before the hour mark.
That's when Norris came to the rescue.
After a deep corner, Norris was came up with a superb reaction stop on Schneider and pushed her close-range half volley up and over the bar.
Moments later, she was at it again when the visitors, through a well-excecuted build-up from Natalie Marfilius, Stokes and Schneider set Welk free for another attempt inside 16 yards.
Norris turned that shot away and followed up by coming off her line to deny Schneider.
All of the action occurred just before Burk hit the game-winner.
"It's a tough way to lose, but you have to give the Fremd keeper a lot of credit for what she did for her team, especially in the second half when we created some good chances for ourselves," said a classy Welk, who showed great sportsmanship with her post-game comments.
Keller thinks his new keeper is a keeper.
"Norris will be one of our strength's this season as will our backline, when we finally get them to play more as a unit, " he said. "But there's still a lot to be done with this team."
The long-time Fremd manager liked what he saw from several of his players, many of whom are cutting their teeth with the big club. The group includes Maddie McCarthy and Elizabeth Prigge, as well as Emma Katovich, Mackenzie Stein and Morgan Perkins, who each moved up a year ago after the club lost three players to season-ending injuries.
"Mackenzie (in) the second half, looked like the Mackenzie of last year," said Keller. "She, along with the others, helped give us a spark after our play in the first half was just not very good."
Prospect, which scored 12 times in two-consecutive victories coming into the game, appeared committed to come out and play wide open soccer with the epicenter of the attack coming in the center of the park from veterans Stokes, Welk and Faith Fitzsimmons, and from the back with outside backs Ashley Erickson and Helen Siavelis.
"I was very happy with the way we possessed and used width to generate our attack," said Froats, who would watch Fremd's Katovich and Prigge make key tackles to slow Prospect when it neared the top of the Vikings box. "We just were not sharp enough in the final third."
Keller figured Burk, a forward in club soccer, might breathe some life into his attack when he moved her up-top from defense. Just seconds after doing so, the sophomore was on target with her right-footed blast which nestled into the upper right corner.
"I'd like to say it was genius to move Lauren up, but it wasn't, even though she made it look like it was with her goal," Keller said with a wry smile.
Froats went with three forwards after the home side took the lead, but Cholewa and company stayed water-tight until the end of regulation.
"We're slowly coming around, but it's going to take awhile for us to get comfortable with each other after losing so many great seniors from a year ago," said Cholewa.
Prospect was left to lament what could have been.
"A 0-0 draw would have been a fair result because of the way we played, but we didn't finish the chances we created," began Welk.
"This is a team that has a nice group of seniors who have played together for awhile, so if we keep working hard to improve, we'll continue to get better as the season goes on."