Girls Soccer: Niles West rallies past rival Niles North

Updated: April 11, 2012 9:05PM

Driven by a stern halftime message from its coaching staff, Niles West freshman Veronika Sostaric tied Wednesday’s game against Niles North less than three minutes into the second half.

After Sostaric’s goal, the second half largely mirrored the first before the Wolves awoke late en route to a 3-1 victory over the Vikings.

Niles North dominated possession and held the Wolves without a shot for more than 30 minutes.

Niles West broke the game open with 3:27 remaining, however. Michelle Karp sent a perfect cross into Niles North’s six-yard box and found Molly Kleppin waiting on the back post. Kleppin calmly headed the ball into the back of the net for the second goal.

“It felt amazing to get that goal,” Kleppin said. “[Scoring against Niles North] makes it that much better. We always want to beat North. It’s our biggest rivalry, so it feels really good to get a goal against them.”

The Vikings’ ability to control the ball resulted in an 8-3 shots-on-target advantage and a goal by junior Amina Zukancic in the first half. But Niles North (1-6-1) couldn’t put the Wolves (4-5-0) away in the second half.

“I’m disappointed for our girls because they fought hard,” Niles North coach Paul Elkins said. “I thought we were the better team for most of the game. Giving up that first goal really hurt us. I think it took the wind out of our sails a little bit.

‘‘We battled back and started creating some more chances, but then we gave up the second goal and that was the game.”

© 2013 Sun-Times Media, LLC. All rights reserved. This material may not be copied or distributed without permission. For more information about reprints and permissions, visit www.suntimesreprints.com. To order a reprint of this article, click here.