Carranza leaves
record-setting legacy at Morton
By Dave Owen
The music may have stopped sooner than expected, but the impact that midfielder Melanie Carranza and the Class of 2020 had on Morton girls soccer was worthy of a Grammy award.
Part of the winningest three-year span in program history (a 51-16-1 record in that time), Carranza’s hopes to wrap up a four-year varsity career with a huge senior season were erased by the cancellation of spring sports due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Definitely the girls and I were really pumped up for this season,” Carranza said, “because we knew that we had a very powerful team. And our bench as well were all just as good as the (starting) 11.”
But in these challenging times of stay-at-home and shelter-in-place, Carranza is accentuating the positive and looking forward.
“I feel the quarantine has honestly helped us show who wants it more than others,” she said.
“The quarantine shouldn’t be an excuse for us to stop working hard, but has more motivated us to keep working and become better. Both for the seniors to be able to play at the next level, and the rest of the girls to continue playing (at Morton) and fighting for the legacy that we helped set up.”
Fortunately for Morton, this year’s 23-player varsity featured 15 underclassmen (including six freshmen) who will be hungry to continue the winning momentum.
And fortunately for Carranza, an opportunity at the college level awaits.
“I’m still undecided, but I’ve narrowed the list to Concordia, St. Xavier, Triton and Morton College,” said Carranza, whose older brother Israel was a standout defender in high school at Morton and played for a 19-win team at Triton last fall.
“Most of us seniors want to play soccer throughout college.”
After what the seniors did at Morton the past few years and weren’t allowed to do this spring, that wish to continue is no surprise.
Carranza’s Morton career began in 2017, when she and goalkeeper Dayanna Gonzalez both started as freshmen on a team that won 16 games (breaking the 2010 Mustangs’ program record of 15 wins).
But as much as Carranza remembers the wins, other emotions and a helping hand from Morton’s 2017 upperclassmen stood out.
“My freshman year I was definitely very shy,” she said. “I didn’t have the confidence I do now, and I feel like my teammates definitely helped me break out of my shell. If it weren’t for them, I don’t think I’d be the player I am today.”
Carranza began to shatter that shell as a sophomore, producing eight goals and five assists. And her continued growth was matched by Morton’s win total: a 19-4-1 record in 2018 that set a second-straight record for victories in a season.
Then last year, Carranza produced more offensive improvement (12 goals, 10 assists) while the Mustangs had yet another breakthrough accomplishment.
Morton’s late-season eight-game winning streak powered the Mustangs to their first-ever undefeated WSC Gold championship (6-0-0 in conference, 16-6-0 overall).
“There was a hunger from the girls, all of us in general,” Carranza said, “because we all wanted to have at least some kind of championship won for the school.
“We’re all very competitive girls, so we wanted to go big or go home. I thought that was a big motivation for us.”
Morton’s success in both 2018 and 2019 came despite some formidable obstacles.
A knee injury sidelined Gonzalez in 2018, but current senior Elena Budziszewski nicely stepped in at goalkeeper that spring.
Then last year, the loss of explosive scorer Jackie Murillo (now playing at Morton College) to a season-ending ACL injury had the potential to again derail the Mustangs.
Instead, players like Carranza and Adriana Moreno (19 goals, eight assists) picked up the slack.
“With Jackie gone (all of 2019),” Carranza said, “we knew that without her it would be a big adjustment and change, because she knew the game in and out.
“But me and Adriana played club soccer together for one of the teams in Cicero, Cicero Mayas. We already knew plays and how to play with each other. And more than half our (Morton) team played there (at Mayas): Dayanna, Mayte (Gongora), Natalie (Valadez), Jackie too.”
Carranza was also teammates with Morton’s Medelin Loza, Bianca Navarrete and Lorena Jaimes on the Chicago KICS FC under-18 Elite club team last summer.
All that familiarity with each other would pay off at Morton, turning injury adversity into record-setting success.
“It was really nice having some of the other players I’d played with already on the field with me,” Carranza said.
“We all knew we had to step up both years (2018 and 2019), because Jackie and Dayanna were most definitely players who could change the game a lot.
“We wanted to be able to play without them,” Carranza added, “knowing that even if they’re not with us, we could still give a good effort. But it would have made a really big difference if both of them were in there.”
Carranza also credited coach Jim Bageanis for helping keep the Mustangs on the rise.
“Playing for Bageanis all four years has honestly been an honor,” Carranza said. “He knows the game very well, and he knew how to play us very well. He gave us confidence, and he motivated us on and off the field, especially in soccer practices. He made us better players.”
Carranza started her own rapid improvement as a player at eight years old, when she overcome initial reluctance and began playing soccer.
“I really liked how unexpectedly I fell in love with it,” she said, “because before that soccer wasn’t what I really wanted to do at all. But then as soon as I kicked a soccer ball around at my first soccer practice, it was honestly something I couldn’t put down again.
“I played volleyball for two years (at Morton), but it didn’t really stick with me as much as soccer did.
“Being competitive,” Carranza added, “with every (soccer) game and every team you don’t really know how well they play. It’s always a new game, and I really like that because the adrenalin never stops.”
Fast forward to her Morton career, and experiences against two teams really stood out.
“My most memorable games were definitely against DGS (Downers Grove South) and Hinsdale South,” Carranza said, “because those were all games that were well-fought as a team. Those were the best for me, and I think the rest of the girls as well.”
The Mustangs ended Downers South’s decades-long domination of WSC Gold championships with wins in 2018 (a 2-0 Morton victory) and last spring (1-0 on a long Loza free kick goal).
Morton’s 3-0 win over Hinsdale South late in 2019 was special in another way. It avenged a 1-0 loss to the Hornets in 2018, the Mustangs’ only WSC Gold loss in the last two seasons.
After years of taking a back seat to Morton’s elite boys soccer program (which placed second in Class 3A last fall), the Mustangs girls made their own mark the last few years. And Carranza was smack dab in the middle of the rise.
“She’s an outside mid that has the ability to take over a game.,” Bageanis said during the 2020 preseason. “A very competitive player that is an important part of our team.”
Said Carranza: “I like being able to see the field. I’m able to see how the girls like to make their runs and stuff, and me listening and being able to tell the girls what to do and them listening as well has, I feel, made us all very effective.”
Carranza graduates this spring along with fellow seniors Gonzalez, Loza, Budziszewski, Navarrete, Jessica Santoyo, Angeli Pelayo and Kemelyn Quevedo. The example they set at Morton will continue.
“I feel like the seniors have made a legacy for the school, and for freshmen and upcoming players to step up and try to keep the (WSC Gold) title and the success that we had,” Carranza said.
record-setting legacy at Morton
By Dave Owen
The music may have stopped sooner than expected, but the impact that midfielder Melanie Carranza and the Class of 2020 had on Morton girls soccer was worthy of a Grammy award.
Part of the winningest three-year span in program history (a 51-16-1 record in that time), Carranza’s hopes to wrap up a four-year varsity career with a huge senior season were erased by the cancellation of spring sports due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Definitely the girls and I were really pumped up for this season,” Carranza said, “because we knew that we had a very powerful team. And our bench as well were all just as good as the (starting) 11.”
But in these challenging times of stay-at-home and shelter-in-place, Carranza is accentuating the positive and looking forward.
“I feel the quarantine has honestly helped us show who wants it more than others,” she said.
“The quarantine shouldn’t be an excuse for us to stop working hard, but has more motivated us to keep working and become better. Both for the seniors to be able to play at the next level, and the rest of the girls to continue playing (at Morton) and fighting for the legacy that we helped set up.”
Fortunately for Morton, this year’s 23-player varsity featured 15 underclassmen (including six freshmen) who will be hungry to continue the winning momentum.
And fortunately for Carranza, an opportunity at the college level awaits.
“I’m still undecided, but I’ve narrowed the list to Concordia, St. Xavier, Triton and Morton College,” said Carranza, whose older brother Israel was a standout defender in high school at Morton and played for a 19-win team at Triton last fall.
“Most of us seniors want to play soccer throughout college.”
After what the seniors did at Morton the past few years and weren’t allowed to do this spring, that wish to continue is no surprise.
Carranza’s Morton career began in 2017, when she and goalkeeper Dayanna Gonzalez both started as freshmen on a team that won 16 games (breaking the 2010 Mustangs’ program record of 15 wins).
But as much as Carranza remembers the wins, other emotions and a helping hand from Morton’s 2017 upperclassmen stood out.
“My freshman year I was definitely very shy,” she said. “I didn’t have the confidence I do now, and I feel like my teammates definitely helped me break out of my shell. If it weren’t for them, I don’t think I’d be the player I am today.”
Carranza began to shatter that shell as a sophomore, producing eight goals and five assists. And her continued growth was matched by Morton’s win total: a 19-4-1 record in 2018 that set a second-straight record for victories in a season.
Then last year, Carranza produced more offensive improvement (12 goals, 10 assists) while the Mustangs had yet another breakthrough accomplishment.
Morton’s late-season eight-game winning streak powered the Mustangs to their first-ever undefeated WSC Gold championship (6-0-0 in conference, 16-6-0 overall).
“There was a hunger from the girls, all of us in general,” Carranza said, “because we all wanted to have at least some kind of championship won for the school.
“We’re all very competitive girls, so we wanted to go big or go home. I thought that was a big motivation for us.”
Morton’s success in both 2018 and 2019 came despite some formidable obstacles.
A knee injury sidelined Gonzalez in 2018, but current senior Elena Budziszewski nicely stepped in at goalkeeper that spring.
Then last year, the loss of explosive scorer Jackie Murillo (now playing at Morton College) to a season-ending ACL injury had the potential to again derail the Mustangs.
Instead, players like Carranza and Adriana Moreno (19 goals, eight assists) picked up the slack.
“With Jackie gone (all of 2019),” Carranza said, “we knew that without her it would be a big adjustment and change, because she knew the game in and out.
“But me and Adriana played club soccer together for one of the teams in Cicero, Cicero Mayas. We already knew plays and how to play with each other. And more than half our (Morton) team played there (at Mayas): Dayanna, Mayte (Gongora), Natalie (Valadez), Jackie too.”
Carranza was also teammates with Morton’s Medelin Loza, Bianca Navarrete and Lorena Jaimes on the Chicago KICS FC under-18 Elite club team last summer.
All that familiarity with each other would pay off at Morton, turning injury adversity into record-setting success.
“It was really nice having some of the other players I’d played with already on the field with me,” Carranza said.
“We all knew we had to step up both years (2018 and 2019), because Jackie and Dayanna were most definitely players who could change the game a lot.
“We wanted to be able to play without them,” Carranza added, “knowing that even if they’re not with us, we could still give a good effort. But it would have made a really big difference if both of them were in there.”
Carranza also credited coach Jim Bageanis for helping keep the Mustangs on the rise.
“Playing for Bageanis all four years has honestly been an honor,” Carranza said. “He knows the game very well, and he knew how to play us very well. He gave us confidence, and he motivated us on and off the field, especially in soccer practices. He made us better players.”
Carranza started her own rapid improvement as a player at eight years old, when she overcome initial reluctance and began playing soccer.
“I really liked how unexpectedly I fell in love with it,” she said, “because before that soccer wasn’t what I really wanted to do at all. But then as soon as I kicked a soccer ball around at my first soccer practice, it was honestly something I couldn’t put down again.
“I played volleyball for two years (at Morton), but it didn’t really stick with me as much as soccer did.
“Being competitive,” Carranza added, “with every (soccer) game and every team you don’t really know how well they play. It’s always a new game, and I really like that because the adrenalin never stops.”
Fast forward to her Morton career, and experiences against two teams really stood out.
“My most memorable games were definitely against DGS (Downers Grove South) and Hinsdale South,” Carranza said, “because those were all games that were well-fought as a team. Those were the best for me, and I think the rest of the girls as well.”
The Mustangs ended Downers South’s decades-long domination of WSC Gold championships with wins in 2018 (a 2-0 Morton victory) and last spring (1-0 on a long Loza free kick goal).
Morton’s 3-0 win over Hinsdale South late in 2019 was special in another way. It avenged a 1-0 loss to the Hornets in 2018, the Mustangs’ only WSC Gold loss in the last two seasons.
After years of taking a back seat to Morton’s elite boys soccer program (which placed second in Class 3A last fall), the Mustangs girls made their own mark the last few years. And Carranza was smack dab in the middle of the rise.
“She’s an outside mid that has the ability to take over a game.,” Bageanis said during the 2020 preseason. “A very competitive player that is an important part of our team.”
Said Carranza: “I like being able to see the field. I’m able to see how the girls like to make their runs and stuff, and me listening and being able to tell the girls what to do and them listening as well has, I feel, made us all very effective.”
Carranza graduates this spring along with fellow seniors Gonzalez, Loza, Budziszewski, Navarrete, Jessica Santoyo, Angeli Pelayo and Kemelyn Quevedo. The example they set at Morton will continue.
“I feel like the seniors have made a legacy for the school, and for freshmen and upcoming players to step up and try to keep the (WSC Gold) title and the success that we had,” Carranza said.