Late scores doom Knights in SCC home match with St. Edward

 

CLICK HERE FOR CHICAGO CHRISTIAN'S TEAM PAGE

 

By Ted Powers

Chicago Christian came up short in an exciting match against Suburban Christian Conference rival St. Edward in Palos Heights on Tuesday.

Things were tied at 2 apiece when the Green Waves' Monica Ramirez ripped the ball into the Knights net to give her team a 3-2 victory with 54 seconds left in the second overtime period.

Ramirez also scored a goal with just over a minute remaining in regulation play to prevent the hosts from wrapping things up through 80 minutes.

"This was a tough loss for us but we played well as a team," Knight Kayli Deckinga said. "We actually had our fundamentals down as we stayed compact on offense and took good shots. We just didn't score the last goal."

The first five minuets of the overtime was well defended by both teams and the pattern continued into the second overtime.

However, as the second overtime reached its final minute, Rameriz got open and blasted a shot past Knights keeper Becca Hook to give the visitors the win.

"We needed a good game because we have been very rusty lately and we made some timely shots today," St. Edward coach Tim Brieger said.

"Their defense was awesome and kept the ball from us most of the game, especially numbers 16 (Lauren Kuipers) and 19 (Kayli Deckinga)."

Ramirez got on the Knights' radar just two minutes into the second half when she rattled a shot that was turned away by Hook.

With 35:37 left, Ramirez was turned away again by Hook and got the rebound, however Deckinga put her body in the path of the shot and kept things tied.

Christian (10-10-1) responded with 29:10 left in regulation when Megan Wise put a shot past Cannon to give the hosts their only lead.

"It felt good to get my team the lead. We played a great game and we are happy with the way we played today," said Wise.

The Green Wave wwent back on the attack and threatened to tie things back up after getting several shots on goal.

With 13:35 left, Allison Kruk sailed the ball toward the net but Hook was able to tap it away. A short time later, she stopped another try by Ramirez.

Just as the Knights looked like the might be able to escape with a 2-1 win, Ramirez found net with 1:10 left to send the game it into extra sessions.

Christian was on the attack in the early going after Wise fired a rocket that Green Wave goalie Paige Cannon turned the shot away just 4:23 into the match.

The Knights threatened again as Julie Michaelis sent a rocket towards Cannon who contained the ball about five monutes after that.

One sequence during the early going typified the frustration that Christian experienced in trying to put the ball into the net.

Wise shot a sinking ball that was caught by Cannon with 29:10 left in the first and then Amber Voss was on a breakaway that a defender blocked with 22:39 left.

A short time later, the Knights saw the frustrating run end when Voss was clear up the middle and Cannon comes out of the net and makes a great saving slide.

"Our offense was having great success at moving the ball down field. We spread our shots around and that is what we have to do to stay in games," said Knights coach Trevor Schans.

Eventually the heat was turned up on Hook, who also had some work to do in the first as she turned away three good shots, beginning with a great save on Jordyn Madden’s corner kick with 16:10 left.

With 10:00 left in the first half, the Green Wave finally got a shot past the Knight keeper as Kelly Tripicchio connected to give her team a 1-0 lead.

If you blinked you would of missed the equalizer when Carolyn Richards blasted one past Cannon to tie things just five seconds later to end the first-half scoring.

The Knights host Mt. Assisi on Thursday at 5 p.m. The two squads are top seeds in Christian's Class 1A Regional, which has its finals on Tuesday, May 17.