Barrington squeaks past St. Charles East
Fillies win 1-0 to advance to postponed Naperville Invitational final
By Matt Le Cren
NAPERVILLE – There was a team-wide case of dead legs, two starters home with the flu and the absence of their best player due to injury.
None of it could stop Barrington, the top-ranked team in the Chicagoland Soccer Top 25, from eking out another victory at the Naperville Invitational on Friday night.
Sophomore Lara Lubinsky scored midway through the second half, and goalkeeper Leah Eisenbarth made two great saves in the closing seconds to lift the Fillies past n. 6 St. Charles East 1-0 in a semifinal at Memorial Stadium.
It's hoped Barrington (13-1-1) will play no. 2 St. Charles North (13-0-1), which knocked off fourth-ranked New Trier 4-1 in the other semifinal, in a championship game at a date and site to be announced later. An impending winter storm forced the final, originally scheduled for Saturday and then Sunday afternoon, to be postponed indefinitely.
Friday's semifinal was a test of wills.
“I think (the pace) was a lot slower,” Barrington coach Ryan Stengren said. “This was our fourth game in five days, so I think our legs are going to fall off.
“We need a day of rest. I just want to get through this week healthy.”
That didn’t happen. Stengren’s squad lost two players to the flu and played without star Tina Teik for the second-straight game due to ankle injury suffered during the Fillies first loss of the season. That came Wednesday in a Mid-Suburban League game versus rival Fremd.
But the Fillies got just enough offense to win an evenly played game. Lubinsky, a sophomore, bagged her second of the season, at the 21:28 mark of the second half on a wide-open 12-yard shot under the crossbar.
Junior Caroline Kilayko did most of the work on the play, wriggling through three defenders in a tight space in the middle of the box before tapping a short pass to her left to Lubinsky.
“She did a really good job of pressuring the ball, and she just did everything she could to get it to me, and I just had a wide-open shot,” Lubinsky said. “I was surprised (to be that open), but Caroline did a great job.”
The Fillies had more scoring chances but the vast majority of them came from long distance, many off the foot of defender Madi Rosen, who tested St. Charles East goalie Grace Griffin with some crackers from near midfield.
Rosen showcased her strong left leg in the first half by launching free kicks from 47 and 45 yards. Both were on frame but Griffin was there to make the stop each time.
Rosen got a little closer three minutes into the second half, ripping a 30-yard liner toward the top shelf, but Griffin fully extended to tip it over the crossbar.
Seven minutes later, Rosen missed wide on a 43-yard free kick and six minutes after that, the Fillies nearly went ahead when Lubinsky got a long ball over the top that was chested away by Griffin at the top of the box.
The ball squirted to Griffin’s right and Lubinsky got to it but her chip shot went over the empty net.
Three minutes after Lubinsky’s breakthrough score, it was the Saints (13-5-0) who went over the offensive. They looked for Mississippi State commit Elle McCaslin and found her repeatedly inside of 30 yards. But McCaslin couldn’t breach the 18 and missed several chances from outside the box.
With the game still scoreless, she missed an open net from 20 yards two minutes before Barrington’s goal. Later she missed wide on a 22-yard free kick and had a 30-yard free kick blocked by the wall.
Eisenbarth made four of her five saves in the second half, three of which came in the final minute.
The Saints forced three corner kicks in the last 60 seconds. All three were placed dangerously -- two from Kayla Vitta and one from Hannah Miller.
McCaslin nearly converted one but her shot from 10 yards was tipped over the crossbar by Eisenbarth, who then saved a header off the ensuing corner kick that hit the crossbar after her deflection.
St. Charles East got off a final corner kick with one second left but the ball was in the air when the final horn sounded.
“(Eisenbarth) was awesome,” Stengren said. “We’ve been rotating her (with Coast Liapis). Today was her best performance by far.”
Eisenbarth deflected credit to the defenders, who included Rosen, Christine Batliner, Ellie McAuley, Alexis Armando and Natalie Urso.
“It was really just our defense and our whole team effort altogether that really brought my energy up and got us all (to the final),” Eisenbarth said. “(It was) just the help from all my teammates giving me encouragement and letting me know that I can do it.”
Despite the loss, the Saints believe they can get the job done against top opponents. All five of their losses have been one-goal decisions to ranked teams.
“I feel like we’re playing good,” McCaslin said. “We have things, obviously, that we need to keep working on, but I feel like we’re playing good. It will come.”
The final flurry, while exciting, was bittersweet for McCaslin.
“It was a tough way to finish like that,” McCaslin said. “We should have finished our opportunities in the beginning.
“We had a few and just overall it was not our best game. But we’ll come back from it.”
Playing in the Naperville Invitational, of course, is not conducive to padding one’s record, but most teams will say that the experience will pay dividends down the road.
“I like the way we competed,” St. Charles East coach Vince DiNuzzo said. “It was back-and-forth. We had our chances, and they had some chances. They finished one, and we didn’t. So that’s the way it goes.
“We almost got it to penalties. But we have to do a better job at holding the ball up-top. I thought towards the end of the first half we did kind of a poor job of anticipating that first ball and holding it.
“But we’re happy to participate in the tournament.”
Starting lineups
Barrington
GK Leah Eisenbarth
D Christine Batliner
D Ellie McAuley
D Alexis Armando
D Natalie Urso
D Kate McGreevy
D Madi Rosen
M Ashley Rocco
M Rebecca Shomaker
F Ashley Armando
F Riley Raynor
St. Charles East
GK Grace Griffin
D Ashley DiOrio
D Alondra Carranza
D Jessica Stepien
D Lindsey Rzeszutko
M Margaret Harper
M Hannah Miller
M Renee Unterberg
M Jenna Sitta
M Kayla Villa
F Elle McCaslin
Chicagoland Soccer MVP of the Match – Lara Lubinsky, so., F, Barrington
Scoring summary
First half
No scoring
Second half
Barrington – Lara Lubinsky (Caroline Kilayko), 21:28
Fillies win 1-0 to advance to postponed Naperville Invitational final
By Matt Le Cren
NAPERVILLE – There was a team-wide case of dead legs, two starters home with the flu and the absence of their best player due to injury.
None of it could stop Barrington, the top-ranked team in the Chicagoland Soccer Top 25, from eking out another victory at the Naperville Invitational on Friday night.
Sophomore Lara Lubinsky scored midway through the second half, and goalkeeper Leah Eisenbarth made two great saves in the closing seconds to lift the Fillies past n. 6 St. Charles East 1-0 in a semifinal at Memorial Stadium.
It's hoped Barrington (13-1-1) will play no. 2 St. Charles North (13-0-1), which knocked off fourth-ranked New Trier 4-1 in the other semifinal, in a championship game at a date and site to be announced later. An impending winter storm forced the final, originally scheduled for Saturday and then Sunday afternoon, to be postponed indefinitely.
Friday's semifinal was a test of wills.
“I think (the pace) was a lot slower,” Barrington coach Ryan Stengren said. “This was our fourth game in five days, so I think our legs are going to fall off.
“We need a day of rest. I just want to get through this week healthy.”
That didn’t happen. Stengren’s squad lost two players to the flu and played without star Tina Teik for the second-straight game due to ankle injury suffered during the Fillies first loss of the season. That came Wednesday in a Mid-Suburban League game versus rival Fremd.
But the Fillies got just enough offense to win an evenly played game. Lubinsky, a sophomore, bagged her second of the season, at the 21:28 mark of the second half on a wide-open 12-yard shot under the crossbar.
Junior Caroline Kilayko did most of the work on the play, wriggling through three defenders in a tight space in the middle of the box before tapping a short pass to her left to Lubinsky.
“She did a really good job of pressuring the ball, and she just did everything she could to get it to me, and I just had a wide-open shot,” Lubinsky said. “I was surprised (to be that open), but Caroline did a great job.”
The Fillies had more scoring chances but the vast majority of them came from long distance, many off the foot of defender Madi Rosen, who tested St. Charles East goalie Grace Griffin with some crackers from near midfield.
Rosen showcased her strong left leg in the first half by launching free kicks from 47 and 45 yards. Both were on frame but Griffin was there to make the stop each time.
Rosen got a little closer three minutes into the second half, ripping a 30-yard liner toward the top shelf, but Griffin fully extended to tip it over the crossbar.
Seven minutes later, Rosen missed wide on a 43-yard free kick and six minutes after that, the Fillies nearly went ahead when Lubinsky got a long ball over the top that was chested away by Griffin at the top of the box.
The ball squirted to Griffin’s right and Lubinsky got to it but her chip shot went over the empty net.
Three minutes after Lubinsky’s breakthrough score, it was the Saints (13-5-0) who went over the offensive. They looked for Mississippi State commit Elle McCaslin and found her repeatedly inside of 30 yards. But McCaslin couldn’t breach the 18 and missed several chances from outside the box.
With the game still scoreless, she missed an open net from 20 yards two minutes before Barrington’s goal. Later she missed wide on a 22-yard free kick and had a 30-yard free kick blocked by the wall.
Eisenbarth made four of her five saves in the second half, three of which came in the final minute.
The Saints forced three corner kicks in the last 60 seconds. All three were placed dangerously -- two from Kayla Vitta and one from Hannah Miller.
McCaslin nearly converted one but her shot from 10 yards was tipped over the crossbar by Eisenbarth, who then saved a header off the ensuing corner kick that hit the crossbar after her deflection.
St. Charles East got off a final corner kick with one second left but the ball was in the air when the final horn sounded.
“(Eisenbarth) was awesome,” Stengren said. “We’ve been rotating her (with Coast Liapis). Today was her best performance by far.”
Eisenbarth deflected credit to the defenders, who included Rosen, Christine Batliner, Ellie McAuley, Alexis Armando and Natalie Urso.
“It was really just our defense and our whole team effort altogether that really brought my energy up and got us all (to the final),” Eisenbarth said. “(It was) just the help from all my teammates giving me encouragement and letting me know that I can do it.”
Despite the loss, the Saints believe they can get the job done against top opponents. All five of their losses have been one-goal decisions to ranked teams.
“I feel like we’re playing good,” McCaslin said. “We have things, obviously, that we need to keep working on, but I feel like we’re playing good. It will come.”
The final flurry, while exciting, was bittersweet for McCaslin.
“It was a tough way to finish like that,” McCaslin said. “We should have finished our opportunities in the beginning.
“We had a few and just overall it was not our best game. But we’ll come back from it.”
Playing in the Naperville Invitational, of course, is not conducive to padding one’s record, but most teams will say that the experience will pay dividends down the road.
“I like the way we competed,” St. Charles East coach Vince DiNuzzo said. “It was back-and-forth. We had our chances, and they had some chances. They finished one, and we didn’t. So that’s the way it goes.
“We almost got it to penalties. But we have to do a better job at holding the ball up-top. I thought towards the end of the first half we did kind of a poor job of anticipating that first ball and holding it.
“But we’re happy to participate in the tournament.”
Starting lineups
Barrington
GK Leah Eisenbarth
D Christine Batliner
D Ellie McAuley
D Alexis Armando
D Natalie Urso
D Kate McGreevy
D Madi Rosen
M Ashley Rocco
M Rebecca Shomaker
F Ashley Armando
F Riley Raynor
St. Charles East
GK Grace Griffin
D Ashley DiOrio
D Alondra Carranza
D Jessica Stepien
D Lindsey Rzeszutko
M Margaret Harper
M Hannah Miller
M Renee Unterberg
M Jenna Sitta
M Kayla Villa
F Elle McCaslin
Chicagoland Soccer MVP of the Match – Lara Lubinsky, so., F, Barrington
Scoring summary
First half
No scoring
Second half
Barrington – Lara Lubinsky (Caroline Kilayko), 21:28