Fenwick 'D', Nourse star, top Plainfield S.
Friars making most of 2nd chance, advance to Pepsi Navy final
By Dave Owen
PLAINFIELD – Inches made a mile’s worth of difference on the scoreboard in Thursday’s PepsiCo Showdown Navy bracket semifinal between Fenwick and Plainfield South.
Fenwick goalkeeper McKenzie Blaze’s reach-back cover of a loose ball at the goal line with 27:50 left in the match was the first close call.
Then five minutes later, Fenwick’s Anissa Nourse sent a 15-yard blast off the inside of the crossbar and straight down into the crease for Cougars goalkeeper Nicole Trenholm to grab. But officials ruled the shot hit part of the net, awarding Fenwick a goal.
The miniscule separation between save and score on those shots were part of a stellar performance by the sixth-seeded Friars (8-2-0), who rolled to a 2-0 win over the Cougars (10-2-1) and into the bracket championship match against top-seeded Crystal Lake Central.
“We’ve got a really nice group of kids here,” Fenwick coach Rob Watson said. “They’re starting to come together.
“They were a little slow earlier in the tournament coming off spring break, and I think we’re finally back to where we were before we left. We still have a long way to go, but the potential is there, the talent’s there, and if we play together as a team we have a good team.”
The Friars got new life in the bracket with a surprise invitation to re-enter the main draw after getting upset by 11th-seeded Lane in their opening, round-of-16 match.
"I know the opposing team had a scheduling conflict so Fenwick moved back in," a person named Katey who is involved with the tournament wrote in an email to Chicagoland Soccer. "We've had teams before that have had scheduling conflicts."
A follow-up email that requested the last name and position of the tournament contact has not yet gotten a response.
Fenwick has taken full advantage of the unusual opportunity with two wins.
“We lost that game 1-nil (to Lane) and certainly played our worst game of the year,” Watson said. “Then a few days later I got a call from the tournament saying we were back in (the winners bracket). And now here we are.
“I told the girls ‘You don’t great breaks and second chances like this very often.’ So we need to take advantage of it when we get a break.”
Said Blaze: “Some people might be a little mad about that, but we’ve taken every chance we’ve gotten. We’ve come far.”
And now a chance at a first place trophy beckons.
Getting back into a groove Thursday wasn’t easy in the early going; host Plainfield South came out roaring.
The Cougars’ Taylor Metcalf and Alyssa Grigg each generated good scoring chances in the first four minutes.
Then after Fenwick’s Alessia Mollo sent a right wing shot just wide of the far post nine minutes in, Blaze made the save of the game to extinguish a huge threat 22:40 before halftime.
Isabel Cerda’s pass upfield hit Gianna Dodaro, who raced between two Fenwick defenders to break in alone. But Blaze came off her line to make a great kick deflection that altered Dodaro’s 8-yard shot that appeared destined for the net wide left.
“It was all coming at me really quick,” Blaze said. “And then I heard my assistant coach yell ‘Out, out.’ So I just ran at her (Dodaro) and hoped I would get to the ball.”
Having survived that chance by the Cougars’ explosive forward, Fenwick cashed in on its own opportunity just over two minutes later.
Nourse’s dribble in on right wing drew the defense, and she nicely angled a pass to forward Morgan Hosty slotting into the box. Hosty did the rest, lining a 12-yarder into the upper left corner of the net for a 1-0 Fenwick lead at the 20-minute mark.
“I usually am the playmaker,” said Nourse, whose goal and assist Thursday earned her Chicagoland Soccer MVP of the Match honors. “And I love having Morgan Hosty up there, because I know she’s a tough girl. She’ll get the ball and turn on basically any defender. She just perfectly finishes it every time.”
Fenwick continued to push in a strong first half showing. In the 25th minute, Tess Shannon’s well-struck 30-yard shot off a corner kick was saved by Trenholm. Then just 1:28 before halftime, Trenholm felt the impact of another Friars threat.
A 53-yard free kick by Fenwick’s Lauren Miller bounced through the defense and sent Erin Frumkin charging in on goal. Trenholm came out to smother Frumkin’s 10-yard shot, but the ensuing collision forced both Frumkin and Trenholm to the bench for the remainder of the first half.
Fenwick’s steady forward forays over the last 35 minutes of the first half required a Plainfield South adjustment.
“They were very fast,” Cougars junior Emily DeVivo said of the Friars. “We didn’t come out as strong as we wanted to, but we had our talk before the second half and that got us there.
“In the second half we came out stronger and were a lot faster. One of our main problems is lunging, and we kind of held back a little and contained them forward instead of just lunging in and reaching for the ball.”
Despite the adjustments, the second half didn’t start well for the hosts.
A Cameron Graham blocked shot and DeVivo clear were needed to deny a Nourse chance off a Fenwick corner kick 50 seconds in.
Then with 38:15 left, a Nourse-to-Lauren Stibich pass produced a left side run. Stibich’s ensuing cross to the far post produced a nice six-yard header by Mollo, but Trenholm denied her.
Just over 10 minutes later, Plainfield South’s bid to answer produced a very close call.
Christina Schade’s send sprung Dodaro on the right for a 1-v.-1 attack. Dodaro’s ensuing 10-yard low blast was caught by Blaze, but the ball momentarily slipped behind her as she reached back to cover.
But did the ball cross the goal line for a would-be tying score?
“We think it did,” Cougars coach Alfonso Lopez said. “A couple of people standing right on the line thought the goalie was sitting on the line, and the ball went through her legs and she brought it from behind her back to the front.
“But it is what it is. You can’t help those calls sometimes. The girls battled and played a decent game. Congrats to Fenwick on a well-played game. We know they’ll do well in the next round.”
Fenwick certainly did well on its next quality chance. Nourse’s perfect location on her drive just under the crossbar gave her 14 goals this season and provided a huge insurance tally.
“Honestly I got an amazing pass taking a run in, and it was great timing,” she said. “I was able to make a move and then just slot it.”
That goal with 22:57 left came less than a minute after Cougars star Dodaro exited the match for good.
“She’s been battling some ankle problems so we rest her here and there,” Lopez said. “She hasn’t been 100 percent basically since she was injured in Game 3 of the season, and she’s been fighting through it.
“Right now she’s at 80 percent, so that tells you where she’d be if she were 100 percent.
“We had a couple girls get knocked out early in the second half,” Lopez added. “Cerda got a knee to the hip and couldn’t come back in, Dodaro with her ankle, and Cece (Ciara Coneset) was battling a little bit of an illness. But no excuses. We put in other girls, and they do a great job coming in. We know we can count on them.”
Even having to dig deep, the Cougars turned up the heat. With 4:20 left, DeVivo’s long send produced a Metcalf left side dribble drive. After the Fenwick defense denied that threat, DeVivo’s eventual 18-yard shot narrowly went wide right.
“A lot of frustration is coming from not getting shots on (net), or they’re right at the goalie,” DeVivo said. “I have a problem with the crossbar. I hit it almost every game. And that shot went wide. But we just have to keep shooting. Obviously it didn’t go the way we wanted it to, but we just have to come out stronger.”
Fenwick’s defense then stood tall to seal the shutout. Shannon Ehrhardt’s nice midfield block set up a 30-second possession, ending with an Ehrhardt 27-yard shot caught by Trenholm with 3:05 left.
Sheila Hogan followed with a nice clear of a Grigg cross with 1:30 to go. Then on consecutive Cougars throw-ins deep in the offensive zone with 35 seconds left, Miller and Margaux Schearer made nice defensive plays to limit any threat from developing.
“I think Margaux Shearer and Lauren Miller really hold it all together at the center backs,” Blaze said. “They get everything out, they talk, they work so well together. The whole defense works so well. They’ve been together for two years, and it shows.”
After the loss to Lane in their first match after spring break, the Friars have regained their early-season excellence.
“I told the underclassmen that I hope that was a good spring break, because it’s the last one we go on,” Watson joked. “Spring break kind of put us off mentally. Our focus was off. But now we’re back to playing the way we were before we left.”
Said Blaze: “I think the first game of the PepsiCo we definitely came out slow and not ourselves. We weren’t focused. But these last two games we’ve really tried to make focus our no. 1 priority. We’ve tried to go back to how we started the season, when we were winning a lot of games. We’ve been connecting passes more in the back, looking to the middle, and that’s been helping a lot.”
Plainfield South hopes the rare loss Thursday is a lesson learned.
“We went through a rough patch right after PepsiCo last year,” DeVivo said. “This year I’m looking forward to things, because I don’t think we’re going to go down that path again.”
Said Lopez: “We’re still working on the defensive end of our game. We try to touch up on that every day in practice. There’s still a couple kinks in our game there, body positioning and formation wise.
“But our girls do a good job and are learning every game. As I told them earlier, we use these tournament games to get ready for conference, and that’s what we’re doing. Obviously we want to win them, but we want to learn and adjust.”
For Fenwick, hopes for 2018 continue to rise.
“We’ve been having a great season,” Nourse said, “and I just think it’s due to our chemistry as a team and working hard together.
“It’s definitely our teamwork that’s gotten us here. Now this confidence is really boosting us, and we’re ready to make a run at state.”
Starting lineups
Fenwick
GK McKenzie Blaze
D Tess Shannon
D Lauren Miller
D Margaux Shearer
D Regan Hultquist
M Anna Waring
M Anissa Nourse
M Lauren Stibich
M Alessia Mollo
F Morgan Hosty
F Kaylie Fredian
Plainfield South
GK Nicole Trenholm
D Adanelly Escamilla
D Christina Schade
D Emily Sauder
D Amaya Silvar
M Cameron Graham
M Emily DeVivo
M Isabel Cerda
M Alyssa Grigg
F Taylor Metcalf
F Gianna Dodaro
Chicagoland Soccer MVP of the Match Anissa Nourse, jr., M, Fenwick
Scoring
First half
Fenwick – Morgan Hosty, 20th minute
Second Half
Fenwick – Anissa Nourse, 58th minute
Friars making most of 2nd chance, advance to Pepsi Navy final
By Dave Owen
PLAINFIELD – Inches made a mile’s worth of difference on the scoreboard in Thursday’s PepsiCo Showdown Navy bracket semifinal between Fenwick and Plainfield South.
Fenwick goalkeeper McKenzie Blaze’s reach-back cover of a loose ball at the goal line with 27:50 left in the match was the first close call.
Then five minutes later, Fenwick’s Anissa Nourse sent a 15-yard blast off the inside of the crossbar and straight down into the crease for Cougars goalkeeper Nicole Trenholm to grab. But officials ruled the shot hit part of the net, awarding Fenwick a goal.
The miniscule separation between save and score on those shots were part of a stellar performance by the sixth-seeded Friars (8-2-0), who rolled to a 2-0 win over the Cougars (10-2-1) and into the bracket championship match against top-seeded Crystal Lake Central.
“We’ve got a really nice group of kids here,” Fenwick coach Rob Watson said. “They’re starting to come together.
“They were a little slow earlier in the tournament coming off spring break, and I think we’re finally back to where we were before we left. We still have a long way to go, but the potential is there, the talent’s there, and if we play together as a team we have a good team.”
The Friars got new life in the bracket with a surprise invitation to re-enter the main draw after getting upset by 11th-seeded Lane in their opening, round-of-16 match.
"I know the opposing team had a scheduling conflict so Fenwick moved back in," a person named Katey who is involved with the tournament wrote in an email to Chicagoland Soccer. "We've had teams before that have had scheduling conflicts."
A follow-up email that requested the last name and position of the tournament contact has not yet gotten a response.
Fenwick has taken full advantage of the unusual opportunity with two wins.
“We lost that game 1-nil (to Lane) and certainly played our worst game of the year,” Watson said. “Then a few days later I got a call from the tournament saying we were back in (the winners bracket). And now here we are.
“I told the girls ‘You don’t great breaks and second chances like this very often.’ So we need to take advantage of it when we get a break.”
Said Blaze: “Some people might be a little mad about that, but we’ve taken every chance we’ve gotten. We’ve come far.”
And now a chance at a first place trophy beckons.
Getting back into a groove Thursday wasn’t easy in the early going; host Plainfield South came out roaring.
The Cougars’ Taylor Metcalf and Alyssa Grigg each generated good scoring chances in the first four minutes.
Then after Fenwick’s Alessia Mollo sent a right wing shot just wide of the far post nine minutes in, Blaze made the save of the game to extinguish a huge threat 22:40 before halftime.
Isabel Cerda’s pass upfield hit Gianna Dodaro, who raced between two Fenwick defenders to break in alone. But Blaze came off her line to make a great kick deflection that altered Dodaro’s 8-yard shot that appeared destined for the net wide left.
“It was all coming at me really quick,” Blaze said. “And then I heard my assistant coach yell ‘Out, out.’ So I just ran at her (Dodaro) and hoped I would get to the ball.”
Having survived that chance by the Cougars’ explosive forward, Fenwick cashed in on its own opportunity just over two minutes later.
Nourse’s dribble in on right wing drew the defense, and she nicely angled a pass to forward Morgan Hosty slotting into the box. Hosty did the rest, lining a 12-yarder into the upper left corner of the net for a 1-0 Fenwick lead at the 20-minute mark.
“I usually am the playmaker,” said Nourse, whose goal and assist Thursday earned her Chicagoland Soccer MVP of the Match honors. “And I love having Morgan Hosty up there, because I know she’s a tough girl. She’ll get the ball and turn on basically any defender. She just perfectly finishes it every time.”
Fenwick continued to push in a strong first half showing. In the 25th minute, Tess Shannon’s well-struck 30-yard shot off a corner kick was saved by Trenholm. Then just 1:28 before halftime, Trenholm felt the impact of another Friars threat.
A 53-yard free kick by Fenwick’s Lauren Miller bounced through the defense and sent Erin Frumkin charging in on goal. Trenholm came out to smother Frumkin’s 10-yard shot, but the ensuing collision forced both Frumkin and Trenholm to the bench for the remainder of the first half.
Fenwick’s steady forward forays over the last 35 minutes of the first half required a Plainfield South adjustment.
“They were very fast,” Cougars junior Emily DeVivo said of the Friars. “We didn’t come out as strong as we wanted to, but we had our talk before the second half and that got us there.
“In the second half we came out stronger and were a lot faster. One of our main problems is lunging, and we kind of held back a little and contained them forward instead of just lunging in and reaching for the ball.”
Despite the adjustments, the second half didn’t start well for the hosts.
A Cameron Graham blocked shot and DeVivo clear were needed to deny a Nourse chance off a Fenwick corner kick 50 seconds in.
Then with 38:15 left, a Nourse-to-Lauren Stibich pass produced a left side run. Stibich’s ensuing cross to the far post produced a nice six-yard header by Mollo, but Trenholm denied her.
Just over 10 minutes later, Plainfield South’s bid to answer produced a very close call.
Christina Schade’s send sprung Dodaro on the right for a 1-v.-1 attack. Dodaro’s ensuing 10-yard low blast was caught by Blaze, but the ball momentarily slipped behind her as she reached back to cover.
But did the ball cross the goal line for a would-be tying score?
“We think it did,” Cougars coach Alfonso Lopez said. “A couple of people standing right on the line thought the goalie was sitting on the line, and the ball went through her legs and she brought it from behind her back to the front.
“But it is what it is. You can’t help those calls sometimes. The girls battled and played a decent game. Congrats to Fenwick on a well-played game. We know they’ll do well in the next round.”
Fenwick certainly did well on its next quality chance. Nourse’s perfect location on her drive just under the crossbar gave her 14 goals this season and provided a huge insurance tally.
“Honestly I got an amazing pass taking a run in, and it was great timing,” she said. “I was able to make a move and then just slot it.”
That goal with 22:57 left came less than a minute after Cougars star Dodaro exited the match for good.
“She’s been battling some ankle problems so we rest her here and there,” Lopez said. “She hasn’t been 100 percent basically since she was injured in Game 3 of the season, and she’s been fighting through it.
“Right now she’s at 80 percent, so that tells you where she’d be if she were 100 percent.
“We had a couple girls get knocked out early in the second half,” Lopez added. “Cerda got a knee to the hip and couldn’t come back in, Dodaro with her ankle, and Cece (Ciara Coneset) was battling a little bit of an illness. But no excuses. We put in other girls, and they do a great job coming in. We know we can count on them.”
Even having to dig deep, the Cougars turned up the heat. With 4:20 left, DeVivo’s long send produced a Metcalf left side dribble drive. After the Fenwick defense denied that threat, DeVivo’s eventual 18-yard shot narrowly went wide right.
“A lot of frustration is coming from not getting shots on (net), or they’re right at the goalie,” DeVivo said. “I have a problem with the crossbar. I hit it almost every game. And that shot went wide. But we just have to keep shooting. Obviously it didn’t go the way we wanted it to, but we just have to come out stronger.”
Fenwick’s defense then stood tall to seal the shutout. Shannon Ehrhardt’s nice midfield block set up a 30-second possession, ending with an Ehrhardt 27-yard shot caught by Trenholm with 3:05 left.
Sheila Hogan followed with a nice clear of a Grigg cross with 1:30 to go. Then on consecutive Cougars throw-ins deep in the offensive zone with 35 seconds left, Miller and Margaux Schearer made nice defensive plays to limit any threat from developing.
“I think Margaux Shearer and Lauren Miller really hold it all together at the center backs,” Blaze said. “They get everything out, they talk, they work so well together. The whole defense works so well. They’ve been together for two years, and it shows.”
After the loss to Lane in their first match after spring break, the Friars have regained their early-season excellence.
“I told the underclassmen that I hope that was a good spring break, because it’s the last one we go on,” Watson joked. “Spring break kind of put us off mentally. Our focus was off. But now we’re back to playing the way we were before we left.”
Said Blaze: “I think the first game of the PepsiCo we definitely came out slow and not ourselves. We weren’t focused. But these last two games we’ve really tried to make focus our no. 1 priority. We’ve tried to go back to how we started the season, when we were winning a lot of games. We’ve been connecting passes more in the back, looking to the middle, and that’s been helping a lot.”
Plainfield South hopes the rare loss Thursday is a lesson learned.
“We went through a rough patch right after PepsiCo last year,” DeVivo said. “This year I’m looking forward to things, because I don’t think we’re going to go down that path again.”
Said Lopez: “We’re still working on the defensive end of our game. We try to touch up on that every day in practice. There’s still a couple kinks in our game there, body positioning and formation wise.
“But our girls do a good job and are learning every game. As I told them earlier, we use these tournament games to get ready for conference, and that’s what we’re doing. Obviously we want to win them, but we want to learn and adjust.”
For Fenwick, hopes for 2018 continue to rise.
“We’ve been having a great season,” Nourse said, “and I just think it’s due to our chemistry as a team and working hard together.
“It’s definitely our teamwork that’s gotten us here. Now this confidence is really boosting us, and we’re ready to make a run at state.”
Starting lineups
Fenwick
GK McKenzie Blaze
D Tess Shannon
D Lauren Miller
D Margaux Shearer
D Regan Hultquist
M Anna Waring
M Anissa Nourse
M Lauren Stibich
M Alessia Mollo
F Morgan Hosty
F Kaylie Fredian
Plainfield South
GK Nicole Trenholm
D Adanelly Escamilla
D Christina Schade
D Emily Sauder
D Amaya Silvar
M Cameron Graham
M Emily DeVivo
M Isabel Cerda
M Alyssa Grigg
F Taylor Metcalf
F Gianna Dodaro
Chicagoland Soccer MVP of the Match Anissa Nourse, jr., M, Fenwick
Scoring
First half
Fenwick – Morgan Hosty, 20th minute
Second Half
Fenwick – Anissa Nourse, 58th minute