It’s snow joke! Berkeley leads
Rochelle Zell past Ida Crown
Sophomore nets both goals in shutout conference win
By Bill McLean
WHEELING -- Mother Nature shook Heritage Park on
Thursday night before the start of the Chicago Prep Conference match between Ida Crown and Rochelle Zell, and made it look like a snow globe setting in December.
Minus the glass sphere and wood base.
“Magical,” Rochelle Zell coach David Martinez said of the snowy conditions on the last day of March, which served as the backdrop for his team’s Senior Night.
“Really pretty,” said freshman forward Elana Cohen.
You can’t exactly call two goals in a three-minute stretch a scoring flurry in 2-0 Tigers victory, but let’s do it anyway. Rochelle Zell improved to 5-2-0 overall, 2-1-0 in the Chicago Prep Conference with the win.
Superb sophomore forward, lefty Becca Berkeley, broke a 0-0 halftime score with a left-footed, 14-yard strike in the 43rd minute and deftly, from close range, redirected a dandy throw-in from Tigers senior defender Naomi Sendlin three minutes later.
Cohen delivered the assist on Berkeley’s first tally.
“Becca is coachable, and she’s a leader as a sophomore,”
Martinez said of Chicagoland Soccer’s MVP of the Match. “She listens, reacts well and adjusts her game well.”
Berkeley plus the soccer ball at her feet added up to danger for Ida Crown most of the night. Fast and a slick dribbler with gobs of soccer savvy, she either booted uh-oh crosses or blasted a shot seemingly every other minute, particularly in the first half.
Ida Crown coach Leo Rodriguez, who got more than his fill of Berkeley’s skill set in two games last spring, barked orders to his Aces that doubled as compliments for their opponent.
One example: “We need to track 5 (Berkeley’s jersey number)!”
Ida Crown slipped to 2-3-0 overall and 1-1-0 in the conference with the loss.
“We’re getting better with our shape and buying in on our
three-back system,” Rodriguez said, adding his student-
athletes don’t get out of class each day until 5:30 or 5:45 p.m., and that the program is allowed to conduct only three practices per week.
The coach later praised the effort of Aces sophomore forward Ilana Schwartz, who, like Rochelle Zell’s Cohen, plays basketball in the winters. Schwartz took most of Ida Crown’s set pieces Thursday night, played tirelessly and consistently kept her passes low and on-target.
“I like her soccer IQ,” Rodriguez said. “She’s our go-to, and she sees the field exceptionally well.”
Winning goalkeeper and junior Talia Scholder, had to make only two saves, but one of the kick variety stopped a bullet shot off the foot of Aces senior forward Alex Schreiber late in the second half. Moments later Schreiber banged another shot, but this one sailed a few feet above the crossbar.
“Wake up!” a voice from Rochelle Zell’s sideline warned right after Schreiber’s second attempt.
Scholder’s counterpart, Aces sophomore Rena Neiger, stopped six shots during the frigid night.
“All of them,” Martinez said, “were solid saves. She played very well, and we would have liked to have (capitalized on more chances) than we did, because we had a strong night winning 50/50 balls and getting crosses off. With that combination, it’s going to end up a low-scoring game like it did.
“But we did a great job against an Ida Crown team that
advances the ball well. We go in together and play as hard as we can for each other. We’re a family; they’re all ‘sisters’ who enjoy playing as a team.”
About that right-on throw-in from ‘sister’ Sendlin to ‘sister’ Berkeley: an assistant referee halted Sendlin from throwing it in, because she had positioned herself too far up the sideline.
The ref then motioned Sendlin to move closer to the corner flag.
Seconds later, Berkeley fielded the bouncing, overhead chuck like a smooth shortstop would (minus a glove) and tapped it past Neiger.
Berkeley lauded the send-in from Sendlin.
Her one-word description of Cohen’s assist early in the second half?
“Perfect,” Berkeley said.
“I love the way our team plays,” she added. “It’s go, go, go, every time we play. We made sure our energy didn’t drop off in the second half. And our team is close.”
Cohen appreciates Rochelle Zell’s family-centric makeup, too.
“When you have that, everyone keeps their energy up,” she said as snowflakes continued to fall.
Rochelle Zell continues league play when it hosts Cristo Rey at 3 p.m. Sunday at 3 p.m. at the school field. Ida Crown visits reigning Chicago Prep Conference champion Hope at 7 p.m. on April 7.
Footnotes
Deerfield-based Rochelle Zell and Skokie-based Ida Crown split their two games last spring. Rochelle Zell won the regular-season matchup, and Ida Crown avenged the loss in a Chicago Prep Conference Tournament semifinal. Ida Crown fell to Hope in the CPC title
game. … Ida Crown’s major loss to Graduation 2021 was Abigail Koenig, who scored 25 goals in her senior season. … Jay Weis, the center referee Thursday night, played goalie at Stevenson in the late 1970s before battling as a club keeper at the University of Michigan. He earned the Patriots’ first boys soccer victory in program history in 1976. He is in his 17th season as a high school referee and in his 22nd overall as an official. “It keeps me young,” Weis, 60, said of refereeing. … Rochelle Zell recognized the varsity’s seven seniors before the start of Thursday’s rivalry game against Ida Crown. The septet: Sendlin, Rudnick, Moller, Levitan, midfielders/forwards Aria
Meisler and Arielle Penn and defender Alex Fleisher. … Ida Crown third-year coach Rodriguez played soccer at Mundelein High School and at Roosevelt University. … Both squads Thursday night are underclass-laden ones. Ida Crown’s roster includes six freshmen and 13 sophomores. Six freshmen and seven sophomores made the Rochelle Zell varsity this spring. … A baseball game
at Heritage Park delayed the start the game for about 15 minutes. A baseball diamond abuts Field 1’s soccer
pitch at the Wheeling facility.
Starting lineups
Ida Crown
GK Rena Neiger
D Attar Benmelech
D Ella Perlman
D Ayelet Appel
M Daria Lennon
M Shiri Kolom
M Jordana Zwelling
F Alex Schreiber
F Ilana Schwartz
F Gabi Rosenzweig
F Ella Kakon
Rochelle Zell
GK Talia Scholder
D Naomi Sendlin
D Haley Rudnick
D Meira Lieberman
D Aya Moller
M Zoey Weiss
M Janie Levitan
M Ahava Cohen
M Bailey Singer
F Elana Cohen
F Becca Berkeley
Chicagoland Soccer MVP of the Match: Becca Berkeley, so., F, Rochelle Zell
Referee: Jay Weis (center)
Scoring summary
First half
No scoring
Second half
Rochelle Zell — Berkeley (E. Cohen), 43’
Rochelle Zell — Berkeley (Sendlin), 46’
Rochelle Zell past Ida Crown
Sophomore nets both goals in shutout conference win
By Bill McLean
WHEELING -- Mother Nature shook Heritage Park on
Thursday night before the start of the Chicago Prep Conference match between Ida Crown and Rochelle Zell, and made it look like a snow globe setting in December.
Minus the glass sphere and wood base.
“Magical,” Rochelle Zell coach David Martinez said of the snowy conditions on the last day of March, which served as the backdrop for his team’s Senior Night.
“Really pretty,” said freshman forward Elana Cohen.
You can’t exactly call two goals in a three-minute stretch a scoring flurry in 2-0 Tigers victory, but let’s do it anyway. Rochelle Zell improved to 5-2-0 overall, 2-1-0 in the Chicago Prep Conference with the win.
Superb sophomore forward, lefty Becca Berkeley, broke a 0-0 halftime score with a left-footed, 14-yard strike in the 43rd minute and deftly, from close range, redirected a dandy throw-in from Tigers senior defender Naomi Sendlin three minutes later.
Cohen delivered the assist on Berkeley’s first tally.
“Becca is coachable, and she’s a leader as a sophomore,”
Martinez said of Chicagoland Soccer’s MVP of the Match. “She listens, reacts well and adjusts her game well.”
Berkeley plus the soccer ball at her feet added up to danger for Ida Crown most of the night. Fast and a slick dribbler with gobs of soccer savvy, she either booted uh-oh crosses or blasted a shot seemingly every other minute, particularly in the first half.
Ida Crown coach Leo Rodriguez, who got more than his fill of Berkeley’s skill set in two games last spring, barked orders to his Aces that doubled as compliments for their opponent.
One example: “We need to track 5 (Berkeley’s jersey number)!”
Ida Crown slipped to 2-3-0 overall and 1-1-0 in the conference with the loss.
“We’re getting better with our shape and buying in on our
three-back system,” Rodriguez said, adding his student-
athletes don’t get out of class each day until 5:30 or 5:45 p.m., and that the program is allowed to conduct only three practices per week.
The coach later praised the effort of Aces sophomore forward Ilana Schwartz, who, like Rochelle Zell’s Cohen, plays basketball in the winters. Schwartz took most of Ida Crown’s set pieces Thursday night, played tirelessly and consistently kept her passes low and on-target.
“I like her soccer IQ,” Rodriguez said. “She’s our go-to, and she sees the field exceptionally well.”
Winning goalkeeper and junior Talia Scholder, had to make only two saves, but one of the kick variety stopped a bullet shot off the foot of Aces senior forward Alex Schreiber late in the second half. Moments later Schreiber banged another shot, but this one sailed a few feet above the crossbar.
“Wake up!” a voice from Rochelle Zell’s sideline warned right after Schreiber’s second attempt.
Scholder’s counterpart, Aces sophomore Rena Neiger, stopped six shots during the frigid night.
“All of them,” Martinez said, “were solid saves. She played very well, and we would have liked to have (capitalized on more chances) than we did, because we had a strong night winning 50/50 balls and getting crosses off. With that combination, it’s going to end up a low-scoring game like it did.
“But we did a great job against an Ida Crown team that
advances the ball well. We go in together and play as hard as we can for each other. We’re a family; they’re all ‘sisters’ who enjoy playing as a team.”
About that right-on throw-in from ‘sister’ Sendlin to ‘sister’ Berkeley: an assistant referee halted Sendlin from throwing it in, because she had positioned herself too far up the sideline.
The ref then motioned Sendlin to move closer to the corner flag.
Seconds later, Berkeley fielded the bouncing, overhead chuck like a smooth shortstop would (minus a glove) and tapped it past Neiger.
Berkeley lauded the send-in from Sendlin.
Her one-word description of Cohen’s assist early in the second half?
“Perfect,” Berkeley said.
“I love the way our team plays,” she added. “It’s go, go, go, every time we play. We made sure our energy didn’t drop off in the second half. And our team is close.”
Cohen appreciates Rochelle Zell’s family-centric makeup, too.
“When you have that, everyone keeps their energy up,” she said as snowflakes continued to fall.
Rochelle Zell continues league play when it hosts Cristo Rey at 3 p.m. Sunday at 3 p.m. at the school field. Ida Crown visits reigning Chicago Prep Conference champion Hope at 7 p.m. on April 7.
Footnotes
Deerfield-based Rochelle Zell and Skokie-based Ida Crown split their two games last spring. Rochelle Zell won the regular-season matchup, and Ida Crown avenged the loss in a Chicago Prep Conference Tournament semifinal. Ida Crown fell to Hope in the CPC title
game. … Ida Crown’s major loss to Graduation 2021 was Abigail Koenig, who scored 25 goals in her senior season. … Jay Weis, the center referee Thursday night, played goalie at Stevenson in the late 1970s before battling as a club keeper at the University of Michigan. He earned the Patriots’ first boys soccer victory in program history in 1976. He is in his 17th season as a high school referee and in his 22nd overall as an official. “It keeps me young,” Weis, 60, said of refereeing. … Rochelle Zell recognized the varsity’s seven seniors before the start of Thursday’s rivalry game against Ida Crown. The septet: Sendlin, Rudnick, Moller, Levitan, midfielders/forwards Aria
Meisler and Arielle Penn and defender Alex Fleisher. … Ida Crown third-year coach Rodriguez played soccer at Mundelein High School and at Roosevelt University. … Both squads Thursday night are underclass-laden ones. Ida Crown’s roster includes six freshmen and 13 sophomores. Six freshmen and seven sophomores made the Rochelle Zell varsity this spring. … A baseball game
at Heritage Park delayed the start the game for about 15 minutes. A baseball diamond abuts Field 1’s soccer
pitch at the Wheeling facility.
Starting lineups
Ida Crown
GK Rena Neiger
D Attar Benmelech
D Ella Perlman
D Ayelet Appel
M Daria Lennon
M Shiri Kolom
M Jordana Zwelling
F Alex Schreiber
F Ilana Schwartz
F Gabi Rosenzweig
F Ella Kakon
Rochelle Zell
GK Talia Scholder
D Naomi Sendlin
D Haley Rudnick
D Meira Lieberman
D Aya Moller
M Zoey Weiss
M Janie Levitan
M Ahava Cohen
M Bailey Singer
F Elana Cohen
F Becca Berkeley
Chicagoland Soccer MVP of the Match: Becca Berkeley, so., F, Rochelle Zell
Referee: Jay Weis (center)
Scoring summary
First half
No scoring
Second half
Rochelle Zell — Berkeley (E. Cohen), 43’
Rochelle Zell — Berkeley (Sendlin), 46’