Preview story: Class A finals
By Patrick Z. McGavin
North Shore Country Day's Edith Mizel-Edwards just made the leap from the theoretical to the practical.
With the rest of her Raiders teammates, the star junior forward has straddled the line, acknowledging the historic run of last year’s team that reached the state championship against the urge to treat this year as a wholly different entity.
“When we sat down at the beginning of the season and talked about our goals, we did not make our goals to go as far as we did last year,” Mizel-Edwards said. “Our goals were to control the things we can control and not focus on expectations.”
By routing IC Catholic Prep 7-1 in the Class A supersectional Tuesday at Concordia University Chicago in River Forest, the Raiders have shifted tactics and approach. The past is no longer a foreign concept. Now it very much shapes and influences the present.
Now North Shore Country Day (15-3-0) looks to write a new history by capturing the first soccer state title in program history. The supersectional was the first step. The Raiders face Herscher (23-4-), from the Interstate 8 Conference, in the second state semifinal at 7 p.m. Friday at North Central College in Naperville.
Even with 10 returning starters from last year’s state tournament run, North Shore Country Day confronted a great unknown.
“I think right now, there is a sense of relief,” coach Lizzy Giffen said. “We didn’t make this a goal, but the girls all wanted to go back. They are loose, excited and this team does a nice job of balancing focus and feeling good.
“I want them to be contenders, but I also want them to have fun, especially now going back to state for a second time. That should be very helpful.”
With an enrollment of 234, which becomes 386 with the multiplier the IHSA uses for private programs, the Raiders are by far the smallest school of the Final Four.
But the scale is a key to the program’s success. The cohesion developed out of the fact the players are part of a close-knit, small group which has been attending school and playing together since they were young kids.
“That is a huge piece of who we are as a school and a program,” Giffen said. “We are a kindergarten to high school school. We spend a lot of time with kindergartners, first graders and fourth graders. They spend a lot of time together. They know each other very well. They know each other’s tendencies.
“Compared to last year, we have now played together even longer, and we are a little bit older and that is only going to help.”
Mizel-Edwards earned Chicagoland Soccer All-State team honors last year by scoring 29 goals and adding 21 assists. Her goal in double-overtime over University (Chicago) catapulted the Raiders to the title game.
She is still the linchpin of the attack, the central focus, but hardly a standalone talent. She has 19 goals and 15 assists, virtually the identical total with senior forward Emily Weil (20 goals, 15 assists).
The synchronization of the two is something to behold -- Mizel-Edwards creative and explosive in space, and Weil a skillful and creative facilitator who also knows how to finish when the situation demands it.
The middle of the attack is also special. Senior midfielder Paige Forester, lanky and agile, is arguably the team’s best pure athlete. She is also a star basketball player and field hockey player who is set to play field hockey at MIT.
Forester scored 11 goals and contributed 14 assists. Junior midfielder Allie Charnas is another dynamic talent who scored 14 goals and added 14 assists. Few programs have the depth or skill level of balancing four players who had double-doubles in goals and assists.
Sophomore Eun Hae Lillig represents the bright next wave, another savvy and skilled young talent who scored 11 goals and added five assists. Classmate and forward Zinzi Steele added nine goals and three assists as a largely situational player who brought energy, size and athleticism off the bench.
Senior keeper Abby Renaud posted 11 shutouts and permitted just 11 goals in 18 games for a 0.61 goals-against average. She is set to play field hockey at Northwestern.
The blend of high-level athleticism and accomplishment are crucial weapons the Raiders hope push them over the top. Mizel-Edwards and Weil also were part of the 2018 Class A state championship tennis team.
“This group has had a lot of success athletically on other teams,” Giffen said.
The Raiders’ three losses came against much larger programs: no. 23 Young, which is playing in a Class 3A sectional final; Class AA sectional semifinalist Lake Forest; and Wheaton North, who pushed no. 2-seed Conant to PKs in a 3A regional final.
“They were technically losses, but we did not treat them that way,” Giffen said. “Sure, we did not score as many goals in those games, but we treated them as huge victories. We learned so much, and we gained confidence.”
Herscher rides a 20-game winning streak. Coach Chris Longtin is in his second coaching stint with the Tigers. He led the team from 2003-2008, and then returned in 2014 and has coached every year since. In 2008, his team finished fourth in the Class A state tournament. Herscher's top state finish came in 2011 when it lost the state title game to Marquette (Alton).
The Tigers played bigger programs like Plainfield Central, Quincy, Notre Dame (Quincy) and Bradley-Bourbonnais. They also played Solorio, Joliet West and Streamwood at the PepsiCo Showdown.
“Four years ago we lost the supersectional in penalty kicks, and I felt we needed to up our game. I knew the group I had was a talented bunch,” Longtin said. “Being able to see different levels from different regions has been a huge role in our success. We have developed, not just skill-wise, but mentally as well. Our only losses are against bigger schools.”
Senior forward Mattie Brown, a Millikan recruit, has scored a staggering 36 goals and added 16 assists. Senior forward Chloe Walsh has 15 goals and 13 assists. Despite missing seven games, freshman forward Ally Meyer scored 12 goals and added nine assists. Senior midfielder Leighann Allison has 12 goals and seven assists.
Freshman keeper Rourke Zigrossi has permitted 28 goals in 27 games for a 1.04 goals-against average. Fifteen of those goals came in three games.
The Interstate 8 features two state qualifiers. Lisle (18-1-2) faces downstate power Columbia (25-2-1) in the first semifinal at 5 p.m.
Manteno coach Justin Emerson broke down the strengths of each team with the following scouting reports:
“The Herscher senior class has been dominant the past four years and this seems to be the year that every part is clicking,” he said. “Their true strength is that all 11 players they put on the field are high quality. They know how to play to their strengths very well and are extremely disciplined in what they have learned.
“For a Class A team, I have not seen many better in utilizing the flanks and switching the field of play. They love to swing big diagonal balls in from the middle third to the back bar where their athletic forwards are able to make a play. In the back they are organized and intelligent, in the midfield clean and pragmatic, and up-front they are creative and precise.”
Herscher administered the Lisle’s only loss, a 3-2 decision, on April 25.
Interestingly, Lisle lost to Manteno in the state semifinals in its only previous state appearances in 2010 and 2012.
Coach Paul Kohorn has won 196 career games in his 16-year career.
Senior forward Alexa Fasone has scored a mind-boggling 37 goals and added 13 assists in just 20 games. Sophomore midfielder Tara Kane and senior forward McKenzie Weaver have each scored 23 goals.
“This Lisle team looks a bit different than teams of years past, which is helping them light up the scoreboard,” Emerson said. “Lisle has traditionally been a very possession-oriented team that loves to keep the ball and move it around at a fast pace, whether in the defensive, middle, or attacking third.
“This season they seem to have embraced the idea to play more direct and allow their playmakers to attack and create individually. While they have a great mix of upper and lower classmen on their team, they are led by two senior forwards, Fasone and Weaver who play off of each other incredibly well in the attacking third.
“While Herscher has Brown up front, Lisle has Fasone, and they both may be two of the best Class A players in the state.”
Columbia remains the tournament favorite. The Eagles are unbeaten against Illinois schools -- their only losses came to highly ranked Missouri schools. They have been top-ranked since Week 2 in Chicagoland Soccer’s exclusive Illinois 10, a poll of the state’s top teams outside of the Chicago area.
The Eagles have wins over Class 3A foes Granite City, Collinsville and sectional finalist Edwardsville, Class AA sectional finalist Notre Dame (Peoria), and Althoff in a Class A Sectional final. Most impressively, Columbia posted a 2-1 win over Neuqua Valley, ranked ninth in the final regular season Chicagoland Soccer Top 25. The March 29 result came at the Parkway Showcase Tournament in St. Louis.
“Columbia is very well-coached,” Neuqua Valley coach Joe Moreau said. “They are very dangerous offensively. Kennedy Jones is one of the most explosive forwards we saw this year. Defensively, they are very well-organized.”
Jones has scored 19 goals and generated 12 assists. Haley Glover has scored 24 goals, and Fae Harrell has scored 21 goals. Eighteen different players have scored for the Eagles.
Senior goalkeeper Rylee Iorio, who was a Chicagoland Soccer all-stater as a sophomore and a watch list member last year, has permitted just eight goals for an 0.29 goals-against average.
This figures to be one of the strongest fields in memory.
“At this point any team that is in the state semifinals, they deserve to be there,” NSCD's Giffen said. “The players are going to be great, and we are really excited. The only thing we can do is come out and play our game and get ready for a great battle.”
By Patrick Z. McGavin
North Shore Country Day's Edith Mizel-Edwards just made the leap from the theoretical to the practical.
With the rest of her Raiders teammates, the star junior forward has straddled the line, acknowledging the historic run of last year’s team that reached the state championship against the urge to treat this year as a wholly different entity.
“When we sat down at the beginning of the season and talked about our goals, we did not make our goals to go as far as we did last year,” Mizel-Edwards said. “Our goals were to control the things we can control and not focus on expectations.”
By routing IC Catholic Prep 7-1 in the Class A supersectional Tuesday at Concordia University Chicago in River Forest, the Raiders have shifted tactics and approach. The past is no longer a foreign concept. Now it very much shapes and influences the present.
Now North Shore Country Day (15-3-0) looks to write a new history by capturing the first soccer state title in program history. The supersectional was the first step. The Raiders face Herscher (23-4-), from the Interstate 8 Conference, in the second state semifinal at 7 p.m. Friday at North Central College in Naperville.
Even with 10 returning starters from last year’s state tournament run, North Shore Country Day confronted a great unknown.
“I think right now, there is a sense of relief,” coach Lizzy Giffen said. “We didn’t make this a goal, but the girls all wanted to go back. They are loose, excited and this team does a nice job of balancing focus and feeling good.
“I want them to be contenders, but I also want them to have fun, especially now going back to state for a second time. That should be very helpful.”
With an enrollment of 234, which becomes 386 with the multiplier the IHSA uses for private programs, the Raiders are by far the smallest school of the Final Four.
But the scale is a key to the program’s success. The cohesion developed out of the fact the players are part of a close-knit, small group which has been attending school and playing together since they were young kids.
“That is a huge piece of who we are as a school and a program,” Giffen said. “We are a kindergarten to high school school. We spend a lot of time with kindergartners, first graders and fourth graders. They spend a lot of time together. They know each other very well. They know each other’s tendencies.
“Compared to last year, we have now played together even longer, and we are a little bit older and that is only going to help.”
Mizel-Edwards earned Chicagoland Soccer All-State team honors last year by scoring 29 goals and adding 21 assists. Her goal in double-overtime over University (Chicago) catapulted the Raiders to the title game.
She is still the linchpin of the attack, the central focus, but hardly a standalone talent. She has 19 goals and 15 assists, virtually the identical total with senior forward Emily Weil (20 goals, 15 assists).
The synchronization of the two is something to behold -- Mizel-Edwards creative and explosive in space, and Weil a skillful and creative facilitator who also knows how to finish when the situation demands it.
The middle of the attack is also special. Senior midfielder Paige Forester, lanky and agile, is arguably the team’s best pure athlete. She is also a star basketball player and field hockey player who is set to play field hockey at MIT.
Forester scored 11 goals and contributed 14 assists. Junior midfielder Allie Charnas is another dynamic talent who scored 14 goals and added 14 assists. Few programs have the depth or skill level of balancing four players who had double-doubles in goals and assists.
Sophomore Eun Hae Lillig represents the bright next wave, another savvy and skilled young talent who scored 11 goals and added five assists. Classmate and forward Zinzi Steele added nine goals and three assists as a largely situational player who brought energy, size and athleticism off the bench.
Senior keeper Abby Renaud posted 11 shutouts and permitted just 11 goals in 18 games for a 0.61 goals-against average. She is set to play field hockey at Northwestern.
The blend of high-level athleticism and accomplishment are crucial weapons the Raiders hope push them over the top. Mizel-Edwards and Weil also were part of the 2018 Class A state championship tennis team.
“This group has had a lot of success athletically on other teams,” Giffen said.
The Raiders’ three losses came against much larger programs: no. 23 Young, which is playing in a Class 3A sectional final; Class AA sectional semifinalist Lake Forest; and Wheaton North, who pushed no. 2-seed Conant to PKs in a 3A regional final.
“They were technically losses, but we did not treat them that way,” Giffen said. “Sure, we did not score as many goals in those games, but we treated them as huge victories. We learned so much, and we gained confidence.”
Herscher rides a 20-game winning streak. Coach Chris Longtin is in his second coaching stint with the Tigers. He led the team from 2003-2008, and then returned in 2014 and has coached every year since. In 2008, his team finished fourth in the Class A state tournament. Herscher's top state finish came in 2011 when it lost the state title game to Marquette (Alton).
The Tigers played bigger programs like Plainfield Central, Quincy, Notre Dame (Quincy) and Bradley-Bourbonnais. They also played Solorio, Joliet West and Streamwood at the PepsiCo Showdown.
“Four years ago we lost the supersectional in penalty kicks, and I felt we needed to up our game. I knew the group I had was a talented bunch,” Longtin said. “Being able to see different levels from different regions has been a huge role in our success. We have developed, not just skill-wise, but mentally as well. Our only losses are against bigger schools.”
Senior forward Mattie Brown, a Millikan recruit, has scored a staggering 36 goals and added 16 assists. Senior forward Chloe Walsh has 15 goals and 13 assists. Despite missing seven games, freshman forward Ally Meyer scored 12 goals and added nine assists. Senior midfielder Leighann Allison has 12 goals and seven assists.
Freshman keeper Rourke Zigrossi has permitted 28 goals in 27 games for a 1.04 goals-against average. Fifteen of those goals came in three games.
The Interstate 8 features two state qualifiers. Lisle (18-1-2) faces downstate power Columbia (25-2-1) in the first semifinal at 5 p.m.
Manteno coach Justin Emerson broke down the strengths of each team with the following scouting reports:
“The Herscher senior class has been dominant the past four years and this seems to be the year that every part is clicking,” he said. “Their true strength is that all 11 players they put on the field are high quality. They know how to play to their strengths very well and are extremely disciplined in what they have learned.
“For a Class A team, I have not seen many better in utilizing the flanks and switching the field of play. They love to swing big diagonal balls in from the middle third to the back bar where their athletic forwards are able to make a play. In the back they are organized and intelligent, in the midfield clean and pragmatic, and up-front they are creative and precise.”
Herscher administered the Lisle’s only loss, a 3-2 decision, on April 25.
Interestingly, Lisle lost to Manteno in the state semifinals in its only previous state appearances in 2010 and 2012.
Coach Paul Kohorn has won 196 career games in his 16-year career.
Senior forward Alexa Fasone has scored a mind-boggling 37 goals and added 13 assists in just 20 games. Sophomore midfielder Tara Kane and senior forward McKenzie Weaver have each scored 23 goals.
“This Lisle team looks a bit different than teams of years past, which is helping them light up the scoreboard,” Emerson said. “Lisle has traditionally been a very possession-oriented team that loves to keep the ball and move it around at a fast pace, whether in the defensive, middle, or attacking third.
“This season they seem to have embraced the idea to play more direct and allow their playmakers to attack and create individually. While they have a great mix of upper and lower classmen on their team, they are led by two senior forwards, Fasone and Weaver who play off of each other incredibly well in the attacking third.
“While Herscher has Brown up front, Lisle has Fasone, and they both may be two of the best Class A players in the state.”
Columbia remains the tournament favorite. The Eagles are unbeaten against Illinois schools -- their only losses came to highly ranked Missouri schools. They have been top-ranked since Week 2 in Chicagoland Soccer’s exclusive Illinois 10, a poll of the state’s top teams outside of the Chicago area.
The Eagles have wins over Class 3A foes Granite City, Collinsville and sectional finalist Edwardsville, Class AA sectional finalist Notre Dame (Peoria), and Althoff in a Class A Sectional final. Most impressively, Columbia posted a 2-1 win over Neuqua Valley, ranked ninth in the final regular season Chicagoland Soccer Top 25. The March 29 result came at the Parkway Showcase Tournament in St. Louis.
“Columbia is very well-coached,” Neuqua Valley coach Joe Moreau said. “They are very dangerous offensively. Kennedy Jones is one of the most explosive forwards we saw this year. Defensively, they are very well-organized.”
Jones has scored 19 goals and generated 12 assists. Haley Glover has scored 24 goals, and Fae Harrell has scored 21 goals. Eighteen different players have scored for the Eagles.
Senior goalkeeper Rylee Iorio, who was a Chicagoland Soccer all-stater as a sophomore and a watch list member last year, has permitted just eight goals for an 0.29 goals-against average.
This figures to be one of the strongest fields in memory.
“At this point any team that is in the state semifinals, they deserve to be there,” NSCD's Giffen said. “The players are going to be great, and we are really excited. The only thing we can do is come out and play our game and get ready for a great battle.”