Falcons fall victim to Hinsdale Central comeback
By Gary Larsen

PHOTO GALLERY COURTESY OF HARRISON BULL

To find yourself holding a regional title plaque above your head while being hoisted on the shoulders of your teammates is a rare thing, but that’s what Alison Cerny found herself doing on Friday night.

It happened because Cerny’s goal with less than two minutes remaining in a tied game gave Hinsdale Central (14-3-3) a comeback, 2-1 regional final win over Wheaton North (9-9-3).

As the top seed of Hinsdale Central’s 3A sectional, the Red Devils trailed the No. 9 Falcons 1-0 on a Lexi Pelafas breakaway goal scored in the game’s 63rd minute.

Central still trailed 1-0 with less than five minutes left to play, before getting goals from Meghan Schick and Cerny to pull a win out of the fire and live to play another day.

"When (Pelafas) scored we were all encouraging each other to not give up, and that drove us to pick it up," Cerny said. "We kept playing our game, we played possession and didn't just start booting balls all over the field.

"I was nervous and I know all of our seniors were nervous, but I really thought we deserved to win.”

Afterwards, Red Devils coach Michael Smith was pleased by the resilience and poise his girls showed, chasing a goal with time ticking down on their season.

"This team won't give up," Smith said. "They know that if we keep doing what we need to do -- because we were creating chances, but (Wheaton North) was in the right place at the right time for most of the night. I'm glad they made us work for it. We had to earn it.

"You see a number 1 versus a number 9 and you can think it should be a cakewalk, but we know better, because last year we were an 8 seed and (Lyons Township) was a 1 seed."

Hinsdale Central upset LT 2-0 in a regional title game last season.

The Red Devils’ possession game carried most of the play throughout Friday’s game at Wheaton North, but the Falcons held them to shots from distance for much of the match.

The game's first hard shot on net came 11 minutes in when Hinsdale Central's Lily Chetosky hammered a ball from distance on the right side that Wheaton North keeper Jessica Kiely saved at the near post.

Wheaton North earned a corner kick at 16 minutes that the Red Devils cleared out, Hinsdale's Emily LaRocque sent a shot wide from 20 yards out at 35 minutes, and teammate Jenn Jarmy reached the endline on the right side only to see her low cross go untouched to the far touchline, as the scoreless tie held to halftime.

The Falcons have been injury-riddled all year and at times had four freshmen lined up at midfield against a skilled and savvy Hinsdale Central midfield. But coach Tim McEvilly’s side fought tooth-and-nail to slow the Red Devils down.

"We tried to start the season playing like Hinsdale Central played tonight. What we wanted to do this year is what Hinsdale Central does,” McEvilly said. “But with all of our injuries we just weren't able to field kids that could control the ball like their midfielders can, so we realized we had to try to take that away from them."

Central’s Casey May took a ball deep up the left side but Wheaton North defender Emily Barry raced back to destroy the play at 44 minutes, and May earned a corner kick for her side two minutes later.

Cerny sent a good chance high of frame at 48 minutes and Falcons keeper Jessica Kiely saved a hard-hit shot at the post a minute later, as Central established its presence on Wheaton North’s half after halftime.

Kiely saved a Caitlin Smith shot at 57 minutes before Pelafas broke free from midfield past the Red Devils’ last defender standing at 63 minutes, and had 40 yards of space to think about what to do with the ball.

As the Wheaton North bench collectively rose to its feet, McEvilly sat down as his banged-up sophomore striker took the ball in.

"All I could think was 'please do what we talked about before the game -- challenge the keeper, take a few touches. We don't need to shoot that ball from 35 yards',” McEvilly said.

"Lexi is running on one leg out there and it takes a lot of tactical awareness to realize that if I just fight through that pain and take a few more touches, the keeper's not overly aggressive, and I've got myself an easier shot inside the 18 than if I take it from 25. And she simply slid that ball past the keeper.

“I had the confidence that she was going to do it, but I sat down because I didn't want to watch it. I knew she knew what she had to do but I didn't know if she had the physical strength to get it done. But she did."

The Red Devils returned to pressure-mode, earning corner kicks and sending in a few shots that Kiely handled to the 76th minute. That’s when Cerny intercepted a goalkick and crossed it.
The ball hit the carpet near the goalmouth and bounced around before Schick was able to get a foot on it and tie the game.

Cerny’s game-winner came with just 1:53 left in the contest.

"Casey May fed me a great ball, dropped it into the middle, and I had it on my right foot," Cerny said. "But there was a defender in front of me so I tried to turn and get around the other side of her and took a hit with my left foot.”

From 18 yards out, Cerny’s shot tore a path to the underside of the crossbar, hitting it before quickly settling into the net.

“(Kiely) has no chance on that shot,” McEvilly said. “She's a 5-foot-11 goalie but what high school goalie is going to make that save?"

Smith liked what he saw from Cerny as his side was chasing a goal with its season on the line.

"In the last ten minutes, Alison Cerny started to get on the ball a little bit more and be more decisive, especially around the 18," Smith said. "She showed us that at the beginning of the year and now she's getting back in that groove after fighting a few little injuries this year.

"(Center mid) Jenn Jarmy had great movement off the ball, in trying to anticipate, and I thought our midfield -- Meghan Schick, Madeline Engelking -- and Alex Otto gave us a lot of positive minutes off the bench today, and Caitlin Smith played well at holding mid.”

The Red Devils move on to a sectional semifinal game against Saturday’s winner between Downers Grove South and Benet.

"I'm proud of my girls and I'm proud of the way Wheaton North played because that can only prepare us for the next game," Smith said.

For Wheaton North, adversity visited the team early, often, and for an extended period of time in 2013.

"I don't know if it would be humanly possible for a team to go through more injury and adversity than we went to this season," McEvilly said. "Again, Lexi is playing on one leg, Linnae (Giuliano) is one of the top defenders in the area and we lost her for the year to an injury. We played with jayvee kids and I played almost 40 minutes with four freshmen across my midfield line. But they can play. They were understanding what we wanted them to do and they were getting it done."

Another solid crop of seniors will depart McEvilly’s program again this year, in Giuliano, Kiely, Lauren Szumski, Anne Denz, Madie Fagan, Allison Martinez, Michelle Maskeri, Brittany Norris, Alyssa Berry, and Kelsey Sorensen.

"The loss is gut-wrenching because that (regional) plaque is so close within your reach," McEvilly said. "But the most difficult thing for me is to search for words to express to my seniors the gratitude that I have for them. The guilt I have is that I know I'll have another regional championship in front of me next year -- who knows how many more I've got a shot at as a coach? But there are a finite number of opportunities for the girls coming through the program and it kills me to see in their eyes that recognition of 'that was my last crack in high school to do something special'.

"They gave everything they had tonight, just as they did all season, and there wasn't anything we asked them to do all year that they didn’t rise to meet the challenge.

"One of the greatest blessings of Wheaton North is to be able to work with young women of such strong character, and sportsmanship, and a team-first attitude. A lot of coaches can complain about what they have to deal with from players or parents complaining, but every year the group of kids and parents that we're graduating -- 99 times out of 100 it's 'what can I do to help the team? It's not just about me'. We’re lucky because I know it's not like that everywhere."