Benet blanks leg-weary Deerfield
Redwings score twice after break to take Kickoff Classic title
By Matt Le Cren
LISLE – Mary Kate Wilhelm had to watch from the sidelines as Benet made a stirring run to the Class AA supersectionals last spring before losing to eventual state champion St. Francis.
The lockdown defender missed her entire junior season due to a Lisfranc injury in her foot, which required surgery over the summer.
After being cleared to play in November, Wilhelm got back to work, determined to make her senior year a memorable one.
So far, so good.
Wilhelm picked up where she left off, helping Benet’s defense remain stingy. The Redwings, ranked fourteenth in the Chicagoland Soccer Top 25, have allowed only one goal in their first four games and posted their third shutout Thursday night by knocking off Deerfield 2-0 at Benedictine University.
The win gave Benet (4-0-0) the Wheaton North Kickoff Tournament title and avenged a 1-0 loss to Deerfield last year.
“My teammates have been really supportive in helping me get back in the swing of things,” Wilhelm said. “The other center back, Mary Kate Hansen, has been helping me and covering me and making sure we’re getting behind each other. We’re playing good defense.”
She got no argument from the 20th-ranked Warriors, who were outshot 14-2 and only rarely got the ball across midfield. Deerfield (5-2-0) was playing its fourth match in four days and seventh in 10 days and it showed, but part of that was Benet’s backline and midfield.
“Not only can all four of our defenders defend well but they’re all good on the ball,” Benet coach Gerard Oconer said. “They’re able to all distribute well out of the back, and that gets our attack started right away.
“So we could go very quickly from one end of the field to the other because they can deliver that very accurate 15-to-20-yard pass on the ground to our target. (The Warriors) just end up chasing the whole time. The first 20 minutes they chased.”
Running around without the ball, of course, gets a little tiring and more than a little aggravating. The Warriors already were tired, and it showed.
“We learned a lot about the effort level,” Deerfield coach Rich Grady said. “We’re still testing out combinations in the back and in goal.
“I’m happy with what I saw tonight. I would have liked to see a little bit more offense but realistically we didn’t have the legs tonight. We did what we could.”
Deerfield got only two shots off. The first came at the 33:20 mark of the second half when Julia Neal’s long poke was saved by Benet goalie Eva Frantzen.
The second was a 34-yard free kick off the toe of Holly Deutsch which Frantzen stopped on one hop with 17:20 to go. All-state junior Malori Killoren, who scored a hat-trick on Wednesday night and has nine goals already, did not get a look.
“We’ve had four games in four days,” Killoren said. “After every game everyone’s been resting up, getting ice, trying to do everything they can do to repair and get ready for the next game. But we just couldn’t make any chances today.”
Now the Warriors get a week of rest before resuming play after spring break.
“We get three practices when we get back, which is good because we haven’t had a practice to get to work on anything new,” Killoren said. “I think (the busy early schedule) helps everyone get to know how each other plays and get to really see what each other can do, so when we do have more practices later we can fix what we messed up on in the games.”
Deerfield didn’t mess up much against a deep and rested Benet side. While the Redwings constantly pressured, the Warriors did not concede for the first 57 minutes. This despite playing all five of their freshmen, two of whom started.
In fact, Benet didn’t get many clear scoring opportunities despite having eight corner kicks and taking the first eight shots. The game was played on turf but the Warriors found a way to proverbially muddy up the middle.
“It was a little bit similar to our game last year with them where we had very much the run of play,” Oconer said. “They are very organized in the back and just really clogged up the middle and made it tough to get through there.
“We felt like once we got the first one, things would open up a little bit and that’s exactly what happened.”
Indeed, the Redwings finally broke through with 22:57 to go when senior striker Abby Casmere took a pass from defender Kate Flynn and bounced a 31-yard shot inside the left post. It was Casmere’s team-high fourth goal of the season.
But it was Mia Tommasone, last year’s leading scorer, who put the game out of reach when she bagged her first goal of 2019 with 3:28 to go. As usual, the Redwings were applying plenty of pressure, with a couple of shots being blocked before Tommasone poked home a rebound from eight yards.
“It was good,” Tommasone said. “I was ready.”
Benet appears ready to dominate
“It’s definitely a good confidence-booster,” Wilhelm said. “We knew we were going to be strong when we saw our first scrimmages, and we are just really focusing on having an aggressive goal-scoring mentality. Mia and all the other forwards know to go out there and think that they’re going to score a goal.
“I think everyone is pretty excited. We have a great lineup this year, and I think we’re going to do good.”
Starting lineups
Deerfield
GK Gabriella Sipe
D Allison Linn
D Dylan Sachs
D Katie Morgan
M Shayna Wood
M Malori Killoren
M Mallory Sawyer
M Riley Schimanski
F Marissa Hyland
F Julia Neal
F Holly Deutsch
Benet
GK Eva Frantzen
D Brooke Pullen
D Kate Flynn
D Mary Kate Hansen
D Mary Kate Wilhelm
M Kayla Brannigan
M Mia Ullmer
M Cami Picha
F Abby Casmere
F Mia Tommasone
F Jaimee Cibulka
Chicagoland Soccer MVP of the Match – Mary Kate Wilhelm, sr., D, Benet
Scoring summary
First half
No scoring
Second half
Benet – Abby Casmere (Kate Flynn) 22:57
Benet – Mia Tommasone 3:28
Redwings score twice after break to take Kickoff Classic title
By Matt Le Cren
LISLE – Mary Kate Wilhelm had to watch from the sidelines as Benet made a stirring run to the Class AA supersectionals last spring before losing to eventual state champion St. Francis.
The lockdown defender missed her entire junior season due to a Lisfranc injury in her foot, which required surgery over the summer.
After being cleared to play in November, Wilhelm got back to work, determined to make her senior year a memorable one.
So far, so good.
Wilhelm picked up where she left off, helping Benet’s defense remain stingy. The Redwings, ranked fourteenth in the Chicagoland Soccer Top 25, have allowed only one goal in their first four games and posted their third shutout Thursday night by knocking off Deerfield 2-0 at Benedictine University.
The win gave Benet (4-0-0) the Wheaton North Kickoff Tournament title and avenged a 1-0 loss to Deerfield last year.
“My teammates have been really supportive in helping me get back in the swing of things,” Wilhelm said. “The other center back, Mary Kate Hansen, has been helping me and covering me and making sure we’re getting behind each other. We’re playing good defense.”
She got no argument from the 20th-ranked Warriors, who were outshot 14-2 and only rarely got the ball across midfield. Deerfield (5-2-0) was playing its fourth match in four days and seventh in 10 days and it showed, but part of that was Benet’s backline and midfield.
“Not only can all four of our defenders defend well but they’re all good on the ball,” Benet coach Gerard Oconer said. “They’re able to all distribute well out of the back, and that gets our attack started right away.
“So we could go very quickly from one end of the field to the other because they can deliver that very accurate 15-to-20-yard pass on the ground to our target. (The Warriors) just end up chasing the whole time. The first 20 minutes they chased.”
Running around without the ball, of course, gets a little tiring and more than a little aggravating. The Warriors already were tired, and it showed.
“We learned a lot about the effort level,” Deerfield coach Rich Grady said. “We’re still testing out combinations in the back and in goal.
“I’m happy with what I saw tonight. I would have liked to see a little bit more offense but realistically we didn’t have the legs tonight. We did what we could.”
Deerfield got only two shots off. The first came at the 33:20 mark of the second half when Julia Neal’s long poke was saved by Benet goalie Eva Frantzen.
The second was a 34-yard free kick off the toe of Holly Deutsch which Frantzen stopped on one hop with 17:20 to go. All-state junior Malori Killoren, who scored a hat-trick on Wednesday night and has nine goals already, did not get a look.
“We’ve had four games in four days,” Killoren said. “After every game everyone’s been resting up, getting ice, trying to do everything they can do to repair and get ready for the next game. But we just couldn’t make any chances today.”
Now the Warriors get a week of rest before resuming play after spring break.
“We get three practices when we get back, which is good because we haven’t had a practice to get to work on anything new,” Killoren said. “I think (the busy early schedule) helps everyone get to know how each other plays and get to really see what each other can do, so when we do have more practices later we can fix what we messed up on in the games.”
Deerfield didn’t mess up much against a deep and rested Benet side. While the Redwings constantly pressured, the Warriors did not concede for the first 57 minutes. This despite playing all five of their freshmen, two of whom started.
In fact, Benet didn’t get many clear scoring opportunities despite having eight corner kicks and taking the first eight shots. The game was played on turf but the Warriors found a way to proverbially muddy up the middle.
“It was a little bit similar to our game last year with them where we had very much the run of play,” Oconer said. “They are very organized in the back and just really clogged up the middle and made it tough to get through there.
“We felt like once we got the first one, things would open up a little bit and that’s exactly what happened.”
Indeed, the Redwings finally broke through with 22:57 to go when senior striker Abby Casmere took a pass from defender Kate Flynn and bounced a 31-yard shot inside the left post. It was Casmere’s team-high fourth goal of the season.
But it was Mia Tommasone, last year’s leading scorer, who put the game out of reach when she bagged her first goal of 2019 with 3:28 to go. As usual, the Redwings were applying plenty of pressure, with a couple of shots being blocked before Tommasone poked home a rebound from eight yards.
“It was good,” Tommasone said. “I was ready.”
Benet appears ready to dominate
“It’s definitely a good confidence-booster,” Wilhelm said. “We knew we were going to be strong when we saw our first scrimmages, and we are just really focusing on having an aggressive goal-scoring mentality. Mia and all the other forwards know to go out there and think that they’re going to score a goal.
“I think everyone is pretty excited. We have a great lineup this year, and I think we’re going to do good.”
Starting lineups
Deerfield
GK Gabriella Sipe
D Allison Linn
D Dylan Sachs
D Katie Morgan
M Shayna Wood
M Malori Killoren
M Mallory Sawyer
M Riley Schimanski
F Marissa Hyland
F Julia Neal
F Holly Deutsch
Benet
GK Eva Frantzen
D Brooke Pullen
D Kate Flynn
D Mary Kate Hansen
D Mary Kate Wilhelm
M Kayla Brannigan
M Mia Ullmer
M Cami Picha
F Abby Casmere
F Mia Tommasone
F Jaimee Cibulka
Chicagoland Soccer MVP of the Match – Mary Kate Wilhelm, sr., D, Benet
Scoring summary
First half
No scoring
Second half
Benet – Abby Casmere (Kate Flynn) 22:57
Benet – Mia Tommasone 3:28