Corsairs beat Providence to remain in first in ESCC race
By Matt Le Cren
There is no doubt Meegan Johnston has plenty of talent.
The scholarship to the University of Illinois is proof of that.
But talent is not all Johnston has – she’s also an intelligent player.
The Carmel senior forward demonstrated that with a heads-up play that enabled the Corsairs to put Wednesday’s East Suburban Catholic Conference match with host Providence Catholic out of reach.
Carmel was leading 3-1 when it was awarded a free kick about 28 yards from the Providence net. Just seconds after the whistle and before the Celtics could organize a wall, Johnston caught everyone by surprise by launching a shot that sailed into the upper right corner of an undefended net with 28:00 left in the second half.
That all but put the finishing touches on a 5-1 victory in New Lenox that kept the Corsairs (12-1, 6-0) in sole possession of first place in the ESCC.
“I just asked the ref, ‘is it direct?’” Johnston said. “He said yes, and I noticed that nobody was paying attention to me, nobody was ready so I was like, I’m going to take it.”
Carmel coach John Halloran was so impressed with Johnston’s presence of mind that he brought it up in his postgame talk.
“She saw the keeper go over to set the wall and she said, ‘what the heck?’” Halloran said. “We talked about it in the postgame because I harp on them a lot on dead balls to make sure it doesn’t happen to us, and I said that’s why we work so much on that. If you’ve got somebody on the ball that’s sharp, take a freebie.”
Even though Carmel controls its own destiny in the conference race, having already beaten traditional powers Benet, Saint Viator and Nazareth, Halloran knows better than to assume there are any freebies on the schedule.
Fenwick, which is 4-0-1 in league play, is the only tough game remaining on the schedule, but the Corsairs knew better than to overlook the Celtics (6-10, 2-5).
“We talked about that a lot,” Halloran said. “We were a bit unfocused against Joliet [Catholic] last week. We were 0-0 at the half which is a little frustrating, and even here, we scored, which is great, but 50 seconds later they’re back in the game.
“So we need to do a better job of [focusing] because, No. 1, we’ve still got three more games to go in the conference. No. 2, if we do that in the regional, that could be the end of our season. So we have to be smarter about managing the game.”
Things got off to a great start when senior Bri Carlson knocked in a cross from Annie DiVenere at the 38:25 mark of the first half.
But the Celtics caught the Corsairs napping just 30 seconds later and Jamie Noonan scored on a breakaway to tie the game 1-1.
“We were coming out strong like our coach was telling us to, to kind of shut them down early and get the game over with,” Carlson said. “When we got that first goal, we really set the tone, but when they came back and scored right away, we realized we needed to focus a lot more.”
Noonan’s goal proved to be a wake-up call for the Corsairs, who tightened up their defense and went right back on the attack.
The visitors took the lead for good with 29:43 left in the first half when Sadie Jung ran onto a high-bouncing ball from sophomore defender Kayla Handel and lifted a shot over hard-charging Providence goalie Katie Rash.
Carlson made it 3-1 when she scored her second goal of the game at the 6:57 mark. A pass from freshman Erin Johnston – Meegan’s sister – sprung Carlson on a breakaway up the right wing and she beat Rash to the far post with a shot from a tough angle.
“I think we just come out strong for every game,” Meegan Johnston said. “We try not to underestimate every team we play and [treat them] like they’re the best team we’re going to play. That way we won’t make mistakes.
“We did have that goal [against] but I think that was just a lack of focus the first couple minutes of the game.”
The Corsairs dominated most of the action after that and outshot Providence 18-5 for the game, though the Celtics did have a couple of chances to pull within a goal.
A 32-yard free kick by Kyleigh Maday struck the crossbar 4:40 before intermission and then 10 minutes after the break a 15-yard shot from Hannah Nichols just missed wide left.
Meegan Johnston buried her free kick two minutes after that and then Elizabeth Bream finished the scoring with 17:26 to go off an assist from Erin Johnston.
“They are a quality team,” Providence coach Dan Potempa said. “Every year we know we have to play our best against teams like this and we did play our best.
“We made them realize, wait a minute, this team’s not going to lay down, it’s going to fight. We made them play their best and they did.”
