Chicagoland Soccer

Benet takes it to the Warriors
By Matt Le Cren

If Benet continues to play the way it did Monday night, there is only one place they are headed: the state finals.

In a possible supersectional preview, the Redwings dominated Wheaton Academy 6-2 in a match that could have been a lot more lopsided than it was.

Jamie Borges led the way for Benet by scoring two goals, while Catherine Caniglia, Katie Michalik, Amanda Kaiser and Diana Kinn also found the back of the net for the Redwings (9-3), who have scored 17 goals in their last three games.

“We have a really good offensive team,” Borges said. “[The Benet coaches] have been telling us that from the start. We just haven’t been producing and once we get going we can definitely start putting them in like we did on Marist on Saturday [in a 4-0 win]. We didn’t score first half and then we put four in in the second half.”

Ironically, Wheaton Academy actually scored first and did so against the run of play. Crystal Thomas won a ball in the midfield and sent a quick pass up the right wing to Ally Witt, who slid a pass under onrushing Benet goalie Christina Stopka with 16:43 left in the first half.

It was the first shot of the game for the Warriors (4-4), who managed only one more the rest of the period and five overall.

The lead didn’t last long, as the visitors got the equalizer just 33 seconds later. Kinn made a strong run up the right side and passed into the middle to Borges, who went top shelf with a 15-yard shot.

“When they scored that first one, I knew our team mentally didn’t want to get out of it,” Borges said. “So I just wanted to pick it up and then Diana had that good run and it was right to me so I put it in.”

The play seemed to deflate the Warriors, who are in a grueling stretch that sees them take the pitch 16 times in 23 days, including eight in a 10-day period.

“[It deflated us] a little bit,” Thomas said. “We were fine and then they got another quick one. We don’t normally let that happen and we’ll learn from it.

“I don’t like to make excuses, but I’m going to make one. This is our fifth game in seven days so I don’t know if you noticed but our legs were kind of dead.”

The Redwings, in contrast, were as hot as the weather was cold, dominating the midfield and wreaking havoc on Wheaton Academy’s defense, which had allowed only seven goals in its first seven contests.

Caniglia blasted a 27-yard shot into the upper 90 off a feed from Madie Burke to give Benet the lead at the 8:40 mark, and Michalik made it 3-1 a couple of minutes later, scoring on a short shot from just outside the left post. Michelle Morefield got the assist on that play, which Meghan O’Hara started with a cross into the box from the right wing.

It was more of the same in the second half. Borges increased the lead to 4-1 when her 16-yard shot bounced off a defender and into the net at the 16:48 mark.

Thomas then gave the hosts hope when she sent a free kick around a four-man wall to junior defender Meredith Matson, who beat Stopka to the ball and poked home a five-yard shot to make it 4-2 with 13:25 remaining.

But the Redwings again hit right back, scoring 38 seconds later when Kaiser converted a penalty kick after the Warriors were whistled for a hand ball in the box. The quick retaliation was an example of Benet’s new-found aggressiveness.

“We don’t just accept getting scored on or accept a loss,” Borges said. “We don’t want let the other team to get the momentum, even when we’re in a situation where we’re already up by that much.”

Benet coach Bob Gros was not surprised by the offensive fireworks.

“We have the ability offensively. We struggled a little bit earlier,” Gros said. “We were controlling things and setting things up and we weren’t finishing. Then we had a lull where we had a five-day period [without a match] and guess what we worked on?

“On our offensive scheme, we’re moving the defense a lot better and playing both sides and we’re setting things up. Now we’re starting to finish and it shows because we’ve had really strong results lately.”

The Redwings could have hit double-digits if not for the play of Wheaton Academy goalie Kristen Morency, who was outstanding in making 12 saves, including tipping two shots over the crossbar and two into the crossbar, the last of which came on a 30-yard free kick from Madie Burke. True to the theme of the evening, the rebound of that shot went right to Kinn, who alertly pounced on it to finish the scoring with 2:50 to go.

“We could have had more but Kristen Morency, God love her,” Gros said. “She went to Europe this summer with us [on a travel team] and she was our goalie. She’s an outstanding goalie and here we are drilling her and she’s good friends with us.”

The two teams could meet again in the Class 2A Benedictine University Supersectional next month and everybody agrees the outcome would be much closer. No one could remember the last time Wheaton Academy had given up six goals.

“Remember the day, because I don’t think that will be happening again,” Thomas said. “We’ll be ready next time.”

But Thomas acknowledged that the Warriors, who had allowed seven goals in its first seven matches, will need to tighten up defensively if they want to reverse this result.

“On defense, we were letting them cut us and they were following through on shots,” said Thomas, who hit the crossbar with a shot in the 75th minute. “We would make the first save and…we had a couple where our girls had the ball and tripped and then they got it and put it in the back of the net.

“So it’s an unfortunate thing and we’re definitely not going to let it happen again. Definitely we’ll have some motivation and I think it’s going to pump us up for the rest of the season because we’ve got some work to do. I think at the end of the season we’ll be prepared and ready to finish strong.”

Even so, Benet knows they can’t take anything for granted.

“It’s hard to beat any team twice,” Borges said. “That’s why this game as well as our Nazareth game coming up, [are important].”