Griffins lose to rival Phoenix on late goal

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By Gary Larsen

It might well be the motto for this year’s team at Lincoln-Way East.

“Wherever Papa needs me,” junior Kelly McGovern said, when asked to name her favorite position on the field.

The Griffins fell 1-0 to rival Lincoln-Way North on Saturday but played a whale of a game in defeat. Playing without injured players Hayley Gerdes and Stacy Sons, Griffins coach Brian Papa shifted his lineup around to compensate.

“You can ask every player on our bus and they’ve all played at least two positions,” senior Theresa Tynski said. “Even Arianna (Nie). It only started a few games ago where she’s been playing up top.”

Nie is one of the best goalkeepers around, and she did her part early on to keep the host Phoenix out of net, before being moved up top at game’s end to help East find a goal.

“She saved us at the beginning of the game. She made a one-on-one save and she played well and kept us in the game,” Papa said of Nie. “And she’s a threat on every restart. She’s an individual talent.”

On a weekend when Neuqua Valley goalkeeper Alexa Wilde trekked all the way upfield to score off of a corner kick, Nie did what she’s been doing all season for the Griffins, crossing midfield to take free kicks throughout the contest.

Getting on the end of balls served into the box, however, has been a struggle for East this year. “It’s not that the girls aren’t trying, but we’re in our sixteenth game and we haven’t figured out yet how to get a head on the ball,” Papa said.

“All we can do is keep pushing but like I told the girls, time is running short. We’re getting near the end of the year.”

Lincoln-Way East (7-9) took on a young team in Lincoln-Way North that has shown the ability to finish throughout a 14-5-2 season. Taylor Schissler was Saturday’s hero, finding a seam late in the game and sending its only tally under the crossbar, from 18 yards out.

“We have some girls that can score,” North coach Mike Murphy said. “We’re young but we’re having a great season.”

Schissler, Rita Craven, Jessica Bean, and Lauren Sajewich have led a strong young core of players for this year’s Phoenix. Sajewich and Schissler are freshmen, while Craven and Bean are sophomores.

“Every game so far we’ve had different people step up to score goals,” Murphy said. “We’ve lucked out in that we have a ton of kids that can score, and a ton of them have stepped up to put balls in the back of the net.”

McGovern, Tynski, Nicole Ernat, Rebecca Dobrich, and Cassidy Cassello used guts and guile to help slow and limit the Phoenix’s top attacking players throughout the contest. McGovern played scrappy in back all day.

“We’re a bunch of hard workers. We just don’t have the natural talent that some teams have,” McGovern said. “But we’re definitely working hard and we had plenty of opportunities today.”

Papa has tinkered since Day One to find scoring for his squad. Tynski started the year at forward, moved to the back line, and played a holding midfielder spot on Saturday.

Attacking player McGovern played in back, and Erin Mangia is a center mid playing forward, while midfielder Kelsey Kurey played striker on Saturday.

Early in Saturday’s game, the Griffins reached the end line on the right side twice and served in crosses that went for naught. North’s Becca Morris also sent in a long one-hopper in on Nie early in the game.

Schissler broke in behind the East defense in the 12th minute and sent a ball just wide, and North keeper Michelle Balcerzak handled a Kurey head shot shortly thereafter, on a restart from midfield sent in by Nie. The senior Nie tipped a shot over the crossbar in the 26th minute.

The Griffins showed great intensity through the first 40 minutes, and they kept it up after the break. “We played a full eighty minutes today,” Papa said. “We’ve been playing this way basically all year.”

“Give them credit. I think they might have outplayed us,” Murphy said of East. “They brought the intensity and we didn’t have it today. I expected them to go hard to every ball, and they did.”

“We won ugly, and we’ll take it.”

The Griffins nearly put a goal on the board in the second half when Nie lofted a long restart in and Giselle Sabal charged onto it and blasted it off the crossbar. The ball caromed to the turf and bounced up high before a head shot by the Griffins’ Erin Mangia went just wide.

“Games like these are frustrating, where you’re winning most of the game,” Tynski said. “But our effort was there and now we just need to start scoring goals. We have a good team, all-around. We just need to score some goals, but we’ll get it. We’ll figure it out by the time the playoffs come around.”

“One of our keys today was taking their big players out of the game, and for the most part I thought we did that,” Tynski said. “Except for that one at the end.”

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