Hersey’s Stefaniak stuns Prospect
Huskies top Knights 1-0 in 2 OT to stay alive in MSL East hunt
By Gary Larsen
MT. PROSPECT — Scoring any goal is cause for celebration but there’s a frenzy specially reserved for celebrating a game-winning goal in overtime. That’s a goal which causes wide-eyed teammates with wide grins to hoot, holler, and howl with happiness on a whole other level.
Jane Stefaniak can tell you all about it.
After the Hersey senior scored the game's lone goal in a second overtime against Prospect, euphoric teammates mobbed her, converging on Stefaniak like a pack of wolves.
Strike that; better call it a pack of Huskies. A pack of overjoyed Huskies.
Stefaniak’s strike came with less than two minutes remaining in the second overtime, set up by a Faith Sena corner kick to the near post. Stefaniak, a compact, tough-as-nails defender, saw her chance and stepped into it.
“Faith saw it and sent a perfect ball, right to my head,” Stefaniak said. “She saw it, and the ball was right there.”
Stefaniak’s header from six yards whipped through a crowded goalmouth to the back netting. When the final buzzer sounded, Hersey (3-5-1, 3-4-0) had secured a 1-0 win in a Mid-Suburban League East Division match of considerable consequence.
The three points Hersey earned kept the Huskies neck-and-neck with Buffalo Grove in the MSL East race.
“That’s all a senior can ask for, right?” Stefaniak said.
For a hundred minutes of soccer, Hersey keeper Alli Paulsen and Prospect keeper Annie Ninness each saw countless crosses and serves sent in towards them but few, if any, dangerous shots that required them to make truly difficult saves.
Prospect (2-4-2, 2-3-2) started the game in fifth gear. Junior Abby Knott hit the crossbar with a shot from distance in the game’s first minute, and the Knights (2-4-2, 2-3-2) were clearly the more dangerous team in the first half.
Knott, Hannah Mekky, Maggie Rosenburg, Jillian Sawadski, Madison Culli, and Kayley Bouzas led a solid charge into attacking territory through 40 minutes for Prospect. It was a true effort by committee, and it put Hersey on its collective heel.
But linking to a quality shot on net proved elusive.
“Tonight was one of our best starts of the year,” Prospect coach Tom Froats said. “We created chances right out of the box, hit a crossbar, came close, and if one of those goes in it changes the complexion of the game.
“That’s been a little bit of our M.O. this year — playing really quality soccer and generating chances, but not capitalizing on them. It has come back to haunt us on a couple occasions.”
Hersey defender Natalie Suto laced up her track shoes and chased the dangerous Knott around for much of the night, no easy task considering Knott’s level of speed, skill, and smarts.
Defenders Suto, Stefaniak, Ali Beck, and Cassie Caruso had their hands full through 40 minutes, and they rose to the occasion.
“There were a lot of fifty-yard dashes tonight for both teams,” Hersey coach Mike Rusniak said.
Prospect's Hannah Mekky launched her share of free and corner kicks into the Hersey box, while Culli, Rosenburg, and Knott battled well to find looks on net.
“I feel like we did what we wanted to do going into the game,” Mekky said. “We knew they had speed up-top. We knew we needed to be organized off the ball, and it was just a matter finishing those chances that we got tonight. We needed to capitalize first, but they ended up capitalizing at the last minute.”
Hersey turned the tide after halftime. Neither team strung together too many passes, but the Huskies came out with more energy to start the second half. Anni Caliendo provided hard-fought minutes up and down the right sideline, and Sena applied pressure in the final third with her speed on several runs.
Sena headed a ball just wide at 54 minutes. She was set up by a long throw-in from Becca Caliendo, whose throws have been dangerous for Hersey all year. Avery Larson, Avery Williams and Norah Viers also each flashed moments of attacking promise for Hersey in the second half.
“We really stepped to the ball, and we were winning things in the second half,” Stefaniak said. This is probably our best game where I’ve seen us connecting. We don’t have an offense where we just have one person to put the ball in the net. It’s more of a team effort for sure, like it was tonight.”
With neither side allowing much in the way of truly quality scoring chances, Stefaniak tried to stir things up several times in 100 minutes of soccer. The senior took people on with a ball at her foot multiple times, picking her way around and between Prospect players more like a gifted striker than the feisty central defender she is.
Never mind that if all 22 players on the field lined up shoulder-to-shoulder by height, Stefaniak invariably lands at the shorter end of that line.
“She’s five-foot-nothing but she plays like she’s six-foot-three,” Rusniak said of Wednesday’s Chicagoland Soccer MVP of the Match.
Mekky and Stefaniak are friends and attended speed and agility camp together last summer.
“Props to her and props to their team,” Mekky said. “We fought hard, it was a back-and-forth game for 100 minutes, and it was a fun game to play in.”
Ninness made a sliding save near the post at 80 minutes, setting up two mandatory overtime periods.
Knott sent a shot off the bar at 87 minutes, and Paulsen saved a shot from Culli at 90 minutes. Sena sent a shot just over the bar at 96 minutes, and two minutes later she sent in the corner kick that set up Stefaniak’s game-winner.
“We made some adjustments tactically in the second half, as far as some of the places we knew we had to position ourselves a little bit better,” Rusniak said. “We also got a lot more focused and that definitely showed.”
“Players on both sides had phenomenal games. It was a nice back-and-forth, see-saw affair. With how much these girls know each other it makes it a little more special that they get to play each other.”
Froats got another fine night’s effort up and down his lineup and hopes the shots start falling for a team that’s knocking on the door and creating chances.
“They’re working really, really hard. We’re not far away,” Froats said. “And even though sometimes it seems like the top of the mountain is getting further away, it’s not. We just have to keep pushing.
“I thought our backline did a really nice job, starting with Kaela Salehzadeh, Isabella Hubrich, Jackie Keane and Kayley Bouzas. Our holding mids Hannah and Maggie Rosenburg played well, but I thought everyone left it on the field tonight, and that’s what really impresses me about this team.
“The game is a great teacher and hopefully we’re learning from these moments, as painful as they are.”
Starting lineups
Hersey
GK Alli Paulsen
D Cassie Caruso
D Jane Stefaniak
D Natalie Suto
D Ali Beck
M Abi Beck
M Norah Viers
M Avery Williams
M Avery Larson
M Maddy Kim
F Faith Sena
Prospect
GK Annie Ninness
D Kaela Salehzadeh
D Isabella Hubrich
D Jackie Keane
D Kayley Bouzas
M Maggie Rosenburg
M Jillian Sawadski
M Hannah Mekky
M Kayley Bouzas
F Abby Knott
F Madison Culli
Chicagoland Soccer MVP of the Match — Jane Stefaniak, sr., D, Hersey
Scoring summary
First half
No scoring
Second half
No scoring
First overtime
No scoring
Second overtime
Hersey — Stefaniak (Sena), 98 minutes
Huskies top Knights 1-0 in 2 OT to stay alive in MSL East hunt
By Gary Larsen
MT. PROSPECT — Scoring any goal is cause for celebration but there’s a frenzy specially reserved for celebrating a game-winning goal in overtime. That’s a goal which causes wide-eyed teammates with wide grins to hoot, holler, and howl with happiness on a whole other level.
Jane Stefaniak can tell you all about it.
After the Hersey senior scored the game's lone goal in a second overtime against Prospect, euphoric teammates mobbed her, converging on Stefaniak like a pack of wolves.
Strike that; better call it a pack of Huskies. A pack of overjoyed Huskies.
Stefaniak’s strike came with less than two minutes remaining in the second overtime, set up by a Faith Sena corner kick to the near post. Stefaniak, a compact, tough-as-nails defender, saw her chance and stepped into it.
“Faith saw it and sent a perfect ball, right to my head,” Stefaniak said. “She saw it, and the ball was right there.”
Stefaniak’s header from six yards whipped through a crowded goalmouth to the back netting. When the final buzzer sounded, Hersey (3-5-1, 3-4-0) had secured a 1-0 win in a Mid-Suburban League East Division match of considerable consequence.
The three points Hersey earned kept the Huskies neck-and-neck with Buffalo Grove in the MSL East race.
“That’s all a senior can ask for, right?” Stefaniak said.
For a hundred minutes of soccer, Hersey keeper Alli Paulsen and Prospect keeper Annie Ninness each saw countless crosses and serves sent in towards them but few, if any, dangerous shots that required them to make truly difficult saves.
Prospect (2-4-2, 2-3-2) started the game in fifth gear. Junior Abby Knott hit the crossbar with a shot from distance in the game’s first minute, and the Knights (2-4-2, 2-3-2) were clearly the more dangerous team in the first half.
Knott, Hannah Mekky, Maggie Rosenburg, Jillian Sawadski, Madison Culli, and Kayley Bouzas led a solid charge into attacking territory through 40 minutes for Prospect. It was a true effort by committee, and it put Hersey on its collective heel.
But linking to a quality shot on net proved elusive.
“Tonight was one of our best starts of the year,” Prospect coach Tom Froats said. “We created chances right out of the box, hit a crossbar, came close, and if one of those goes in it changes the complexion of the game.
“That’s been a little bit of our M.O. this year — playing really quality soccer and generating chances, but not capitalizing on them. It has come back to haunt us on a couple occasions.”
Hersey defender Natalie Suto laced up her track shoes and chased the dangerous Knott around for much of the night, no easy task considering Knott’s level of speed, skill, and smarts.
Defenders Suto, Stefaniak, Ali Beck, and Cassie Caruso had their hands full through 40 minutes, and they rose to the occasion.
“There were a lot of fifty-yard dashes tonight for both teams,” Hersey coach Mike Rusniak said.
Prospect's Hannah Mekky launched her share of free and corner kicks into the Hersey box, while Culli, Rosenburg, and Knott battled well to find looks on net.
“I feel like we did what we wanted to do going into the game,” Mekky said. “We knew they had speed up-top. We knew we needed to be organized off the ball, and it was just a matter finishing those chances that we got tonight. We needed to capitalize first, but they ended up capitalizing at the last minute.”
Hersey turned the tide after halftime. Neither team strung together too many passes, but the Huskies came out with more energy to start the second half. Anni Caliendo provided hard-fought minutes up and down the right sideline, and Sena applied pressure in the final third with her speed on several runs.
Sena headed a ball just wide at 54 minutes. She was set up by a long throw-in from Becca Caliendo, whose throws have been dangerous for Hersey all year. Avery Larson, Avery Williams and Norah Viers also each flashed moments of attacking promise for Hersey in the second half.
“We really stepped to the ball, and we were winning things in the second half,” Stefaniak said. This is probably our best game where I’ve seen us connecting. We don’t have an offense where we just have one person to put the ball in the net. It’s more of a team effort for sure, like it was tonight.”
With neither side allowing much in the way of truly quality scoring chances, Stefaniak tried to stir things up several times in 100 minutes of soccer. The senior took people on with a ball at her foot multiple times, picking her way around and between Prospect players more like a gifted striker than the feisty central defender she is.
Never mind that if all 22 players on the field lined up shoulder-to-shoulder by height, Stefaniak invariably lands at the shorter end of that line.
“She’s five-foot-nothing but she plays like she’s six-foot-three,” Rusniak said of Wednesday’s Chicagoland Soccer MVP of the Match.
Mekky and Stefaniak are friends and attended speed and agility camp together last summer.
“Props to her and props to their team,” Mekky said. “We fought hard, it was a back-and-forth game for 100 minutes, and it was a fun game to play in.”
Ninness made a sliding save near the post at 80 minutes, setting up two mandatory overtime periods.
Knott sent a shot off the bar at 87 minutes, and Paulsen saved a shot from Culli at 90 minutes. Sena sent a shot just over the bar at 96 minutes, and two minutes later she sent in the corner kick that set up Stefaniak’s game-winner.
“We made some adjustments tactically in the second half, as far as some of the places we knew we had to position ourselves a little bit better,” Rusniak said. “We also got a lot more focused and that definitely showed.”
“Players on both sides had phenomenal games. It was a nice back-and-forth, see-saw affair. With how much these girls know each other it makes it a little more special that they get to play each other.”
Froats got another fine night’s effort up and down his lineup and hopes the shots start falling for a team that’s knocking on the door and creating chances.
“They’re working really, really hard. We’re not far away,” Froats said. “And even though sometimes it seems like the top of the mountain is getting further away, it’s not. We just have to keep pushing.
“I thought our backline did a really nice job, starting with Kaela Salehzadeh, Isabella Hubrich, Jackie Keane and Kayley Bouzas. Our holding mids Hannah and Maggie Rosenburg played well, but I thought everyone left it on the field tonight, and that’s what really impresses me about this team.
“The game is a great teacher and hopefully we’re learning from these moments, as painful as they are.”
Starting lineups
Hersey
GK Alli Paulsen
D Cassie Caruso
D Jane Stefaniak
D Natalie Suto
D Ali Beck
M Abi Beck
M Norah Viers
M Avery Williams
M Avery Larson
M Maddy Kim
F Faith Sena
Prospect
GK Annie Ninness
D Kaela Salehzadeh
D Isabella Hubrich
D Jackie Keane
D Kayley Bouzas
M Maggie Rosenburg
M Jillian Sawadski
M Hannah Mekky
M Kayley Bouzas
F Abby Knott
F Madison Culli
Chicagoland Soccer MVP of the Match — Jane Stefaniak, sr., D, Hersey
Scoring summary
First half
No scoring
Second half
No scoring
First overtime
No scoring
Second overtime
Hersey — Stefaniak (Sena), 98 minutes