To say the Plainfield North girls soccer team has gotten off to a roaring start would be underselling it a bit. The first half of the Tigers’ road game at Plainfield Central on Tuesday, though, was less roar and more of a meow.

The energy in the second half was far more in line with what they’ve produced this season, and it resulted in a scoreline they’re very familiar with.

Katelyn Haiser scored a pair of late goals to seal Plainfield North’s victory over the Wildcats 3-0 and move the Tigers to 11-2 on the season.

The Tigers have been quite dominant this season despite having to move around a lot of people due to injuries. They’ve outscored opponents 57-8 on the year, and Tuesday was their eighth shutout of the season. One of their losses necessitated double-overtime.

“Different people have been able to slide into different possitions,” coach Kathleen Monterosso said. “Unfortunately, we are dealing with quite a bit of injuries right now. What’s good is we can pop some other players into different spots, and they’ve been able to step up and get the job done.”

Tuesday, though, saw the Tigers come out a bit slower than normal. Possession was split relatively evenly in the opening half with the only difference being a Plainfield North penalty kick.

Monterosso addressed the the team’s speed at the midway point.

“We had our talk at halftime about things being way too slow,” she said. “It was way too slow through the midfield, and we needed to speed things up and get (Plainfield Central) to stretch things out wide. That was the difference (in the second half) was us popping the ball and playing one-two touch.”

The time of possession and shot attempts were heavy in Plainfield North’s favor in the final 40 minutes. Plainfield Central keeper Maggie Lambert was awfully busy, but did a fantastic job at keeping the Tigers at bay until the final 18 minutes.

Even the two Lambert gave up were more about the insanely impressive effort of the goal-scorer. Haiser’s first goal was from roughly 25 yards out with 17:53 left into the top-right corner of the net to make it 2-0.

With 9:44 left, Haiser made it a brace for herself with a shot from 30 yards out in impressive fashion.

“I think we just put more effort and energy into things in the second half,” Haiser said. “We weren’t winning our 50/50 balls, and we needed to work better as a team, which we did.”

The lone goal of the first half was the penalty kick by Ilyana Barriball 13 minutes before the half.

Plainfield Central coach Ken Schoen, though, credited his squad for playing well despite what the final score might imply.

“I thought we really had North on their back foot,” Schoen said. “We were really pressing, but they made a quality play to get that second goal.”

Plainfield Central (6-6-1) will next play Yorkville at home on Thursday. Plainfield North will host Romeoville the same day.