Cougars see season conclude with regional defeat to Porters

 

 

By Matt Le Cren

If at first you don’t score, try and try again.

And if that doesn’t work, just make a great pass so someone else can score the game-winning goal.

That’s the formula that junior forward Lacey Clarida used Tuesday night and it set Lockport up to defeat Plainfield South 1-0 in a Class 3A Naperville North Regional semifinal.

Clarida, an Alabama recruit, has scored 26 goals this season for the Porters, who have yet to be shut out. But though she produced several highlight-reel moves and squeezed off eight of her squad’s 21 shots, Clarida was unable to find the back of the net.

No worries. Clarida merely sent a perfect cross to teammate Ally Brehm, whose 17-yard drive with the left foot snuck inside the left post at the 36:59 mark of the second half.

“That’s what I keep telling [Clarida]: you don’t have to score goals to make a difference in the second half,” Lockport coach Todd Elkei said.

“The first half the whole team was just kind of going through the motions and in the second half Lacey kind of took over with a couple of shots and good crosses and through balls to Ally.”

For Brehm, it was the third time in the past two seasons she has scored a game-winning goal in a playoff contest played in Naperville. The Porters recorded 1-0 upset victories over host Naperville Central in a regional final and Metea Valley in a sectional semifinal played at Naperville North last season. Brehm had the lone goal in both of them.

Brehm couldn’t explain her eerie knack, although it bodes well for the Porters if they somehow can make an unexpected run to the state finals, which will be held at North Central College in Naperville. But Elkei has a theory.

“I think she sees the Mongolian Barbecue [restaurant] or whatever it is and gets excited about it,” he quipped. “She hustles and she’s in the right spots and in big games she’s shown up.”

The Porters (14-3-1) showed up early for the 7 p.m. contest and were left cooling their heels for 90 minutes in the 90-degree heat because Plainfield South’s bus was late.

Perhaps that explains Lockport’s sluggishness in the first half, which ended 0-0 despite Lockport enjoying a 14-3 edge in shots.

“We were anticipating traffic so we left early,” Elkei said. “We didn’t have traffic and got here early, then their bus was an hour late so we were sitting in the bleachers for an hour and a half and kind of lost of our head a little bit.”

That got the Porters, the No. 8 seed at the Naperville North Sectional, thinking ahead to Friday’s regional final, where they will face defending state champion Naperville North (16-0-2), which crushed Romeoville 10-0 in the first semifinal.

The Huskies ended the Porters’ Cinderella 2012 run with a 2-0 victory in the sectional final on this same field.

“We were kind of preparing ourselves for Friday because we knew Naperville North would beat their team today and we were hoping to win today so at practice we’ve been working on things, preparing more for Friday than today, I would say,” Brehm said.

“We definitely want to get revenge because they took us out last year. We don’t really want that to happen again, but they’re a good team so it will be a good game on Friday.”

The 10th seeded Cougars (9-8-2) gave the Porters a good game and nearly grabbed an early lead in the seventh minute when Abby Banks got a step on the defender in the box and fired a quick shot from 16 yards out.

But Lockport goalie Alyssa DeYoung showed good reflexes in knocking the ball up and to her right. Banks tracked the ball down on the left end line but her cross found only empty space in front.

That was to be Plainfield South’s only significant scoring threat, as DeYoung had to make only one other save in recording her eighth shutout behind a defensive line led by Jenny Meyer, Taylor Burek, Brynn Feeley and Frannie Vargas.

That allowed the Porters to focus more on how to solve Plainfield South’s tenacious defense. Clarida and Brehm, who along with midfielders Leah Plescia and Alexis Hernandez combined on a couple dozen promising combinations, finally figured it out.

“We had a lot of good chances together,” Brehm said. “[Clarida] had a nice cross from the corner [to] right in the middle of the goal and I just took a shot and put it in the corner.”

“We definitely played better second half,” Clarida noted. “Usually we’re a second half team. We played better as a team and put a lot of better passes together and started getting shots on the goalie, testing her.”

They certainly did. Thought repeatedly tested, Plainfield South keeper Tabby Ortiz played like a tiger, making 11 saves to prevent the Porters from extending the lead.

Ortiz came up with several highlight reel stops, including three on Clarida, who was left standing with her hands on her hips after the last two, which came in the final eight minutes on a 23-yard rocket that Ortiz tipped over the crossbar and a point-blank shot in the box that she knocked away.

On the latter chance, Clarida got the ball back and fired again, but this attempt was deflected wide at the last second by Ashley McClendon.

“I think a lot of people underrate Tabby,” Plainfield South coach David Brown said. “She’s not that tall, she’s not that big but she is as tough as nails. She’s going to fight you and scrap. She always gives you that appearance like she’s not going to get to the high one and then she does. She’s a quality keeper.”

The Plainfield South defense played a quality game despite being back on its heels for long periods.

“Ashley McClendon, our sweeper, we had sit back a little deeper today than we would just because we knew Lacey was a dangerous player,” Brown said. “We have a few girls who play club with her and we just wanted to have cover in case she beats one of our backs and I thought Ashley did a tremendous job. Mayra Flores and Alex Goff and Rachel Boros worked hard.

“I think from top to bottom, the girls competed well all night. I couldn’t be more proud of their effort. We talked at halftime how it was probably going to come down two, maybe three chances on each side. Can we defend their chances well and can we put our chances away?

“They were able to find space on a cross and their girl ran through the box a little unmarked and she finished, so kudos to them. Lockport is a good team. We just came up one play short.”

The fancy footwork of Clarida, who used nifty moves to get free from defenders and unleash hard shots, along with the relentlessness of players like Brehm and Plescia, will be needed more than ever against Naperville North.

And it will have to be evident from the get-go, not 30 minutes into the match, if the Porters have any hope of upsetting the Huskies.

“I think we just have to work together really well as a team and keep talking,” Brehm said. “We just have to put our heart into it. Like in the first half [tonight] we weren’t really into it.

“I don’t know. Maybe the heat had something to do with it. Once it cooled down we started to relax. I think because it was our first playoff game and we have a lot of new players on the team, everyone was kind of nervous, but once everyone relaxed and started playing, we were good and hopefully that will carry on in [Friday’s] game.”

Brown, a first-year girls head coach, is hoping the Cougars’ early-season success will carry over into 2014. The squad started 8-2-2 before dropping five straight contests over a five-day span earlier this month.

“I think we took steps forward,” Brown said. “I don’t know if we’re where we want to be. We want to be competing for the conference championship every year and pushing Plainfield North, who’s kind of taken over the dominance the last few years, and making them work for it. We’re not satisfied, but I think we took steps in the right direction.”