Carmel's first half dooms Redwings
By Gary Larsen

Who among us, after getting kicked in the face at work, would shrug it off and get right back to the job at hand?

With a swollen nose and a bandage stuffed into one nostril, Carmel goalkeeper Jenna Bauer can put her hand up because that’s just what she did on Saturday.

In the second half of Carmel’s 3-1 win over visiting Benet, Bauer hit the artificial turf and took a shot from an oncoming Redwing. “I just went for the one-on-one and she went to hit it and hit me in the nose,” Bauer said. “It was just unlucky.”

Bauer left the game and quickly returned, and that was about the only bad thing that happened to Carmel all day in the East Suburban Catholic showdown. The Corsairs (4-0, 2-0 in ESCC play) put three goals on the board before halftime, leaving coach John Halloran with little to say at intermission.

“Our halftime talk took about one minute,” Halloran said. “I just said ‘play exactly how you did in the first half’.”

Previously unbeaten Benet (5-1-1, 1-1) had to contend with an intense Carmel attack that had a strong wind at its back through 40 minutes.

“It was better in the second half but we couldn’t quite capitalize,” Benet coach Bob Gros said. “All in all, I told our kids that I thought it was a closer game than the final result showed. They just took it to us in the first half in that wind, and we couldn’t get the ball out.”

Carmel senior Meegan Johnston had a hand and a foot in all three Carmel goals. There’s a tendency sometimes to take for granted what the best players on the field do, and the University of Illinois-bound Johnston quietly put forth a superb performance.

Carmel’s first goal came at 6 minutes when Johnston sent in a free kick from midfield that hit the crossbar and fell to the goalmouth, where teammate Leah Lach buried it. The Corsairs scored again 8 minutes later when Bri Carlson got her head on a Johnston throw-in and sent it towards the near post.

Senior Claire Ogrinc was there to do the rest.

“Meegan can throw it so far and with this wind you have to be ready for it,” Ogrinc said. “I was right in front of the goal and it just bounced off my thigh and went in.”

Carmel’s persistent pressure continued to the 33rd minute, when Johnston intercepted a pass on the left side and took a few touches ahead before going far post to give the Corsairs their 3-0 halftime lead.

A Benet team that had only given up four goals in its previous six games was fairly shell-shocked.

“We’re more of a team that plays balls in the air and out wide, and they’re more of a possession-type team, so the wind was to their advantage because they’re used to playing it on the ground,” Benet junior Michelle Morefield said. “It’s a different style that we had to get used to and no one can predict this weather, but we needed to come better prepared for it.”

Benet’s Loretta Elder sent a hard-hit, low-flying corner kick to the near post at 36 minutes but Johnston was there to volley it away, and the Redwings’ Meagan O’Hara blasted a shot just wide of the post from 18 yards out, two minutes before halftime. And when the teams changed ends, Benet used the wind to finally begin spending some time on Carmel’s half of the field.

Morefield has been a terror on freekicks this season and she scored her side’s lone goal on a kick from distance that hit a player in Carmel’s defensive wall and was redirected, but still had enough force on it to tear a path to the upper ninety past a diving Bauer.

“Did it hit someone? It went upper ninety so it was a good shot,” Bauer said. “But this is a good way to start our conference out and it was a good win.”

Bauer saved a blast from Benet’s Jacque Kaufman at 60 minutes and Morefield sent in a hard-hit one-hopper from distance that Bauer fielded at 71 minutes. Kaufman reached the endline with a ball on the right side at 75 minutes but Lach raced back to dispossess her and clear the ball out. Benet’s Ellie Bumpus had one final try on net at 77 minutes but her shot flew just wide of the post.

With a strong wind in its face, the Carmel backline gave up nothing in the run of play.

“We graduated our whole back line but so far everyone is picking up the slack and doing very well,” Ogrinc said. “It’s tough defending in this wind because you want to push up but you can’t because the ball will just fly right over you. Then you have to play to feet to get it out because if you put it in the air it’s coming right back at you.”

Halloran was pleased with the contributions he got from around the pitch.

“Jenna (Bauer) was great, Claire and Leah and Kayla and Emily and Colleen, Jen (Capparelli) was great at holding (mid) today, and Meegan’s throws and set pieces were huge,” Halloran said. “There were a lot of positives coming out of this one.

“Maybe the last ten minutes we could have held the ball a little better up top to try to kill (the clock) off. But we stayed really composed in back today, with a new defense, which you don’t see sometimes. Other than Colleen (Foley), there’s not a single person coming back, back there.”

With Fenwick and Saint Viator still ahead for both teams in ESC play, Saturday’s win for Carmel was still a long way away from claiming this year’s conference crown. “It’s a disadvantage to be put in the hole this early in the conference so we know that we’ll have to come back strong, starting Monday against Nazareth,” Morefield said.

Gros knew there were no panic buttons to be hit where the conference is concerned.

“There’s still a long way to go and we know from many years of experience that there will be an upset along the way, and a team that you don’t suspect might be in contention,” Gros said.

“(Carmel) did a better job of capitalizing on the wind today and this field is like a pool table. I’m not throwing stones. It is what it is. But it’s difficult on a non-windy day to make an endline pass, so the wind really changes things up.

“I thought the long throw helped them and we didn’t play it well. We work on those kind of things but we’re a young team and we’re sometimes timid about that kind of stuff.”

Nobody at Carmel is about to start counting their chickens yet, either.

“We have Marist on Wednesday and last year they were up 1-0 on us with ten minutes to go,” Halloran said. “We scored three in the last ten minutes to come out with the win. So Marist will be our next focus and then we play Saint Viator on Saturday.”