Will youth be served?
It will have to be if the Oak Park and River Forest High School girls soccer team is going to have another winning season.
The Huskies have seven seniors and 13 juniors on their 22-player roster, but few of them boast extensive varsity experience.
Just three players – junior goalkeeper Leah Silver, senior midfielder Julia Weiss and senior defender Chloe Beonsch – are returning starters.
That inexperience is one of the big reasons why OPRF lost its first two games by an aggregate 10-2, albeit to quality opponents. The Huskies fell 5-1 to Naperville Central in the season opener March 16 and were on the short end of a 5-1 score two days later against Benet.
Benet advanced to the sectional finals last year, losing to Lyons Township, while Naperville Central took eventual state semifinalist Waubonsie Valley to double overtime before losing in the regional finals.
“Every year we start off with two competitive games,” OPRF coach Ignacio Ponce said. “I always like starting out with Naperville Central and Benet because obviously they are high-competition games and it really sets our tone in the sense of one of two things; either we can play with them or we have room for improvement.”
The latter proved true as the Huskies were exposed on defense, giving up three goals in the first half to Naperville Central and four before intermission against Benet. Ponce, already dealing with the school’s most inexperienced team in years, substituted liberally in each match in order to assess what he’s got.
“It’s obvious that we still need to improve quite a bit but it’s so early in the season that I think that we can develop,” Ponce said. “We’re still trying to find ourselves on the field, finding a strong back four and start building from there and getting possession and start attacking.
“To do that we really have to identify the back four and the toughness. I think we have the personnel to be tough. It’s just trying to develop as a group.”
Ponce thinks he has the defensive questions figured out, saying his best options are Beonsch and juniors Penny Hawthorn, Brianne Bujnowski and Jamie Heneghan. That group limited Benet to four shots in the second half.
“It’s definitely hard for us but we’re trying to build as a team, understand each other as players and find our strengths and definitely work on our weaknesses,” Beonsch said. “They didn’t shut us out so that’s definitely something.
 “The build-ups were good. We just need to continue working on that, especially looking to the outsides to cross it in.”
 Junior Anna Eddelbuettel scored the lone goal against Naperville Central, while Weiss found the back of the net in the second half against Benet after the Redwings had taken a 5-0 lead.
Offensive proficiency likely will be the last aspect of the game the young Huskies master as they work first on chemistry and solidifying their defense.
“It definitely takes a while,” Beonsch said. “It doesn’t come in the first two games and it’s definitely about practices. We haven’t had too many and it’s been cold.
“Preseason we wished we could get outside. It completely changes the game, so we definitely have to build up in the next few weeks.”
Playing softer competition in the early going would allow the Huskies to see positive results earlier, but the team ultimately will benefit more from competing against tough teams.
“I definitely embrace the challenge and when we get to conference we know what we’re doing,” Beonsch said. “We’ll be more confident. We play Hinsdale [Central on May 6] and we always come out strong and we give them a battle, so we really build up and we understand what we have to do to try and win.”
OPRF has shown signs of progress with recent ties against Nazareth and Niles West.