Cougars make history by capturing Rosary Invite title

 

 

By Darryl Mellema

As they got ready to take team photos with the Rosary Invitational trophy, Plainfield South senior Abby Banks quipped, “Are you kidding me? There's more standing?”

Banks and her teammates needed some time off their feet – having just finished five shortened matches that started at 8 a.m. and ended around 4 p.m.

But there was also a definite need to remember the moment – Plainfield South has never won an in-season tournament before, and the Cougars accomplished the feat by going 3-0-2 through the day, defeating Willows 1-0 in the title match.

“I was joking that this is the least excited championship winning team in the world,” Cougars coach Dave Brown said. “They played so many games in a short span of time. When they get a chance to relax and look back on it, I'm sure they'll be very proud of their efforts today.”

When you're defending as well as South did on Saturday, you don't need many goals to be successful. As it turned out, the Cougars scored just three times in those – one in the deciding pool match, one in the semifinal and one in the championship match.

Those goals were all game-winners because Plainfield South's defense did not allow a goal in any of the five matches.

“I think we earned it defensively today,” Brown said. “The defense was stellar. We had both goalies playing. Sam Hlavac had three shutouts and Tabby Ortiz posted two of the shutouts.

“Peyton Marmoll, Ashley McClendon, Rachel Boros, Alex Goff, Mayra Flores, in the back, those five, all day long, competed their butts off for us.”

South (8-2-2) squeaked through pool play. After playing scorelesss ties with Joliet Catholic and Rosary, the Cougars were within two minutes of finishing third and missing the semifinals when Banks scored to earn a 1-0 win over Joliet West.

In the semifinal against St. Edward, Lexus Rose scored the only goal midway through the first half after Kailyn Haski's shot was saved and the rebound fell directly to Rose.

“I knew the goalie was going to not make the save and I was just there to hit it into the corner and that's what pushed us to the title,” Rose said.

Each of the Cougars had various levels of exhaustion at the end of the day – but all were tired.

“Its been a hard day for me,” Rose said. “I was part-injured at the start of the day and I had to push through just like everyone else in the heat and with everything else. We're just glad to be able to go home with this win.”

In the title match and with scoring chances becoming even more limited – the title-winner came on a goalmouth scramble that started with Kelsey Pruett playing the ball in. Haski had an attempt at the ball and so did Goff. Eventually the ball came back to Haski, who rolled it into the net from close range.

“I saw the ball come in and it was a scramble and I just poked it in with my foot and hoped it would go in and it did,” Haski said.

The exhaustion of the day showed as the Cougars came off the field.

“I'm really tired,” Haski said. “It's been a day. It's hot. It's been a nice day for soccer, but we've played a lot of games and it's hard to come out in the championship game with a lot of energy. But we finished strong and got the result that we wanted.”

Mentally, the tournament became a challenge as players asked their bodies to do things that they were less-able to do.

“Even our coach was saying that the last game is where you have to be not just physically strong but mentally strong,” Haski said. “We were tired and we'd been out here all day.”

All coaches talked of the day as a marathon event and all teams showed fatigue as the afternoon progressed.

“The goals weren't pretty,” Brown said. “But on the day, nothing was going to be pretty as the day went on. They found a way to come through in the end, which is awesome.”

Brown mentioned that Banks and Pruett were strong in the middle of South's lineup.

“All day long, I don't think I subbed them once,” Brown said. “They're captains for a reason. The girls look up to them. They fought and scrapped and they didn't want to go to PK's in any game and they found a way to battle through and do just enough to get a goal in every game.”

South's day started in the worst possible way, when Alexis Mele suffered a serious knee injury.

“You never want to see that on the field,” Brown said. “That always has an effect on both teams. From there, we had some injuries that we already had coming into this game. And some girls stepped up and played through and played some minutes they didn't think they could play. It was a complete team effort, which is awesome.”

South's week started with an 8-0 defeat at Plainfield North but then improved with a 3-2 overtime win over Plainfield Central and culminated with Saturday's tournament success.

“The one thing we took away from Plainfield North, what we talked about in practice the next day, is communication,” Brown said. “We didn't communicate and when we got frustrated, we stopped playing as a team So our emphasis the whole week, since Monday, has been communication.

“That paid off for us Thursday against Central, another hard fought battle, and then all day today. When you're running and struggling all day long, talking is the best cure for having to spring more. If you're in the right place already, you don't have to do as much with regards to effort.”