O'Keefe's plays the hero in Cougars win vs. Falcons
By Gary Larsen

Conant’s Courtney O’Keefe was twice the hero on Saturday night in Wheaton, and that was only because teammate Bianca Madonia left everything on the field.

Even a little more than everything.

With Conant (6-3-2) trailing Wheaton North (6-4-1) 1-0 with less than a minute to play in the game, Madonia was tripped from behind about 40 yards from goal. She fell forward and landed hard on the artificial surface at Wheaton North.

Losing your lunch is never pleasant, especially in a public place with fans watching.

“I landed right on the ball,” Madonia said. “She tripped me from behind and the ball was still rolling. I landed right on the ball, and everything came back up. I’m just glad some good came out of the situation.”

After Madonia was helped from the field, she sat on the bench with a fair amount of stomach pain and watched O’Keefe step to the spotlight. It started with a Drew Wentzel freekick from the spot of the foul, with Wentzel’s kick reaching the goalmouth.

“We do like a four-person crash and I knew the goalie was going over there, so I just crashed in case she dropped it,” O’Keefe said. “The goalie kind of hit it to the turf and I was just there to clean it up.”

O’Keefe’s goal sent the game into overtime.  An uneventful first overtime period ensued but two minutes into the second one, O’Keefe found herself deep on the left side near the endline. The senior cut it back and let fly.

O’Keefe’s cross decided to sneak inside the far post after Falcons keeper Emily Barry got a hand on it.


“That one I didn’t expect to go in at all,” O’Keefe said. “I was just trying to get it somewhere in the middle of the goal, and it just went my way. This definitely helps our confidence a lot going into (MSL play) next week.

“It sure helps my confidence… those are my first two goals of the season.”

Conant coach Jason Franco was glad his side was able to pull off the victory, after losing a morning game to Geneva, with a pair of pivotal MSL games ahead for the West Division-leading Cougars.

“Going into two big conference games against Palatine and Prospect next week, we wanted to have some confidence going in. We didn’t want to have two losses here,” Franco said.

“Scoring a late goal like that and going into overtime, after playing a game in the morning, I’ve got to be proud of the way the second half went. They played a good second half and both overtimes. They played some good soccer on tired legs.”

Conant was chasing a goal in the first place thanks to Wheaton North senior Lauren Szumski, who scored a first-half goal for a Falcons team on the cusp of winning their pool in the annually brutal Naperville Invitational, despite being decimated by injury and absence.

“It’s disappointing to lose, no doubt, but at the end of the day we are missing a big chunk of our starters,” Szumski said. “So we’re very proud of our underclassmen and the players that came off the bench, who stepped up and did a quality job today.”

Wheaton North coach Tim McEvilly had to slide personnel around the pitch and call up jayvee players just to field a team on Saturday.

With starting central defender Linnae Giuliano absent, midfielder Anne Denz moved to the backline. With starting keeper Jessica Kiely absent due to injury, central defender Emily Barry had to play goal.

“I can’t be prouder of Emily for stepping in the net for a game and a half,” McEvilly said. “She didn’t have to face a lot of challenges but she prevented things from becoming dangerous. She made a great save in the first half, punching one over. That was a brilliant save.”

Barry punched a first-half shot taken by Conant’s Alyssa Altosino over the bar to keep the game scoreless.

Falcons forward Monica Tyler came up with a big goal in Friday’s 1-0 win over Geneva – with forward Lexi Pelafas injured and absent – and on Friday it was Szumski’s turn to help her makeshift squad get on the scoreboard.

Tyler had the assist on the goal Szumski scored just before halftime against Conant. Not that Szumski knew that the ball she hit off the crossbar found its way into the goal.

“I thought the shot went out,” Szumski said. “I thought it hit the top of the crossbar and went out, so I turned to jog back and play defense. Then I saw my dad in the stands and he was all fired up, so I turned back around and saw the ball in the net.”

Franco wasn’t pleased with the defensive lapse for a Conant side that hasn’t given up many goals this season, but the Cougars put themselves back in his good graces after intermission.

“I thought we started to get some of our possession back, especially in the second half,” Franco said. “You can’t just kick it against good teams. We started to find feet, we started to get wide, and started to threaten their goal that way. Then we tightened up defensively a little bit and didn’t give (Wheaton North) much of a look in the second half.

“Wheaton North was just playing on energy. They’re beat up and for what they played with, they played pretty well. Especially defensively, they reminded me of a Hersey kind of style – three girls that are just always back there.”

Franco applauded another high-energy game from Madonia, and Altosino was busy at midfield throughout the contest.

“(Altosino) is one of our holdovers as a senior that has played with us for all four years, and at this point I just kind of expect that from her,” Franco said. “She started to find some room and make things happen, and I’m very happy with the way she’s been playing.”

“It was a good team effort, and Bianca played well, too. Watching her, you’d never know we played a game this morning.”

Madonia has been playing each game with seemingly inexhaustible energy this year for good reason. “Last year I tore an ACL so this year I’m not taking anything for granted. I’m going full-out,” Madonia said.

And for a battle-weary Wheaton North team, just the fact that the Falcons nearly advanced to the Invite’s quarterfinals defied expectation.

“You could tell in the last twenty minutes that we were just physically done,” McEvilly said. “Without any subs and kids playing that played in a jayvee game this morning, and a freshman playing that had already played a game today, and people playing minutes not anywhere near the minutes they’re used to playing. So they were just physically and mentally spent.

“We basically played the last two games with five of our normal eleven starters, and we were fifty seconds away from winning the group. I’m proud of them.”