Lions rebound with 4-0 win over Andrew
By Dave Owen
Photos courtesy of Laura Lusson

 

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Lyons Township’s girls’ soccer team was looking for a little extra bounce after a sluggish 1-0 win Saturday over St. Ignatius.

Wednesday against Andrew, the Lions’ Sarah Mazur didn’t take long to provide it.
Just 1:56 into the match, Mazur stormed the net, hit the post with her first shot but pounded in her own rebound to start the Lions (2-0-1) on course to a 4-0 win.

“I attacked the net, it hit the post and I just got a lucky bounce right in front of the goal and the keeper was a little out of position,” Mazur said.

“We’ve been talking a lot in practice about getting early goals to set the tone of the game, so it was nice to get that. Then we just kept the ball rolling.”

The Lions rolled both offensively and defensively.  Controlling possession of the ball over 80 percent of the game, the Lions didn’t even allow Andrew a single shot against goalkeeper Maggie Orlowski.

“We played the other day and didn’t look really good,” LT coach Bill Lanspeary said. “We were off a little bit. The touch was off, passing was off and the movement wasn’t quite there. 

“Today things came together nicely for us. We were a little sharper connecting passes and moving off the ball, and when we do those things we have some players out there than can create some good opportunities.”

One of those chance creators was Erin Fitzgerald, who struck for two goals later in the first half to put the Lions up 3-0 at the break.

“I thought we did really well tonight moving the ball,” Fitzgerald said. “We had a bunch of combinations that were really good, and we almost scored off a few of them. It’s a big improvement over our last game, which is always positive to see.

“I think we were more aware of what was going on and talking to each other more, which allowed us to have more time on the ball if we knew if we had someone on. Also the forwards and outside mids were making really good runs today as opposed to our last game.”

Both of Fitzgerald’s goals were great athletic plays. First at the 26:53 mark, she lunged into traffic to nicely redirect a Juliet Lusson corner kick into the net for a 2-0 LT lead.

“I just stuck my leg out and it went in,” she said. “Just get whatever part of your body on the ball that you can, and hope it goes in.”

On her second goal with just 41.3 seconds left in the half, Fitzgerald stole an attempted clearing pass 30 yards out, set herself and rocketed a shot into the upper left corner of the net to provide another jolt of momentum entering the break.

That unassisted score was a far cry from the Lions’ style most of the night.

“Having possession is obviously always key to having success,” Fitzgerald said, “and we’ve been working a lot in practice to, rather than force the pass turn back to play defense or try to outlet out wide instead of just kicking the ball and giving it away. By keeping the ball you obviously create more opportunities to score.”

The Lions stuck to that game plan until the end. With 11:27 left, Lusson scored the game’s final goal off an assist from freshman reserve Margaret Lynch.

We had great combination play, especially on Juliet Lusson’s goal,” Mazur said. “That was a nice pass from Margaret. We just worked really well together and moved as a unit instead of individually. That was nice to see.

“Especially from the last game we wanted to communicate better and make runs off the ball, moving when you don’t have the ball. And I thought we did that so much better today.

“We have like four people who can fill that space in the center mid, and that’s a key thing,” Mazur added. “When you can control the mid, you can kind of control the game.”

While they didn’t dent the scoring column, other Lions’ starters like Mackie Furlong, Kristen Janicki, Emily Lange and Abbie Pasquinelli at midfield/forward spots and defenders Liza Gabrek, Ari Kowalski and Catherine King made just as big an impact.

“Our backs did a great job,” Lanspeary said. “Liza and Ari on the outside did a great job shutting things down even before anything happened, and when they (Andrew) did get a little bit going, Catherine King did a nice job in the middle controlling things for us.”

That defensive effort was evident on Andrew’s best chance and only restart of the match. On a Thunderbolts’ 20-yard indirect kick with 28:05 to go, a crossing attempt towards the box was first blocked by King and then cleared out of the zone by Kowalski.

Having returned to the form they showed in a season-opening tie with powerful Waubonsie Valley, the Lions now head into a 10-day break between matches feeling very much back on track.

“Our next game is after spring break,” Fitzgerald said, “so we’re just looking forward to that and hopefully building on everything we’ve done.”