Lions maintain edge over visiting OPRF

 

CLICK HERE FOR LYONS TOWNSHIP'S TEAM PAGE

By Matt Le Cren

Lyons and Oak Park and River Forest have a history of playing close games.

Lyons has a history of winning those matches.

Both trends continued Thursday as the host Lions edged the Huskies 1-0 to bring the race for the West Suburban Conference Silver Division championship into clear focus.

LT (16-3-1, 5-0) remained in a first-place tie with defending Silver champion York (13-4-1, 5-0), which visits the Lions Tuesday for the match that will decide the league title. OPRF (10-4-1, 4-2), which saw its five-game winning streak snapped, finished in third place.

“We have a really great team,” Lyons freshman forward Emily Lange said. “It’s going to be a great game and I know that York is good, but I think we have a pretty good chance to win conference.”

Lange made sure of that by scoring the game’s only goal, which came with 5:32 left in the first half and finished a play that saw five Lions touch the ball in navigating 70 yards through the Oak Park defense.

Defender Sarah Mazur, who suffered a hip pointer in the second half but remained in the game, won the ball in the back and then Kelsey Holbert advanced it up the middle to Juliet Lusson, who found Coco Corrigan on the right wing. Corrigan dribbled into the box and crossed to Lange, whose one-timer from 10 yards out beat Oak Park goalie Darcy Hargadon inside the right post.

“Coco made a great run out wide and she just played a great ball,” Lange said. “I was just hoping to get a foot on it and get it around the (goalie).”

That was the only thing ball that got around Hargadon, who kept the Huskies in the game despite being peppered with 16 shots in a first half that was completely dominated by the Lions. The Princeton-bound Hargadon came up with eight of her 11 saves before intermission.

“We have some above average kids in front of her and she’s really good about organizing them and coaching them on the field,” OPRF coach Paul Wright said.

But no amount of great goalkeeping or the tenacious defense of Dorothe Franklin and Renata Voci was able to stop the Lions’ recent dominance of the Huskies. The Huskies are now 1-8 against LT during Wright’s tenure. All of those games have been decided by one goal and three of the Lions’ wins have come in sectional play.

“We’ve been so timid,” Wright said.”At halftime we said play free and whatever happens, happens, and I felt the second half we had like four or five chances and put them on their heels a little bit.

“It’s frustrating but this is such a rivalry. They’ve had the upper hand, so we’re just trying to gain some confidence. I felt that second half we came out there with a little bit more confidence and looked good. We had chances, which was good to see.”

But in the beginning, it was the Lions who were brimming with confidence, attacking relentlessly behind Holbert and Lusson in the midfield and Lange and Lauren Moberg up front.

“We had a lot of adrenaline coming into this game,” Corrigan said. “We knew they were a big conference opponent.

“It was a nerve-wracking game. We had to come out and play strong right away and we knew we had to be strong the whole way through.”

The Lions have been strong throughout the season, stronger than anybody thought they would be.

“I’m surprised that we have done such a good job,” Corrigan said. “The seniors are doing such a good job being leaders on and off the field. We’re really happy to have (Lange). As a freshman…she’s doing a good job.”

The emergence of young players like Lange has allowed the Lions to win games even when opponents manage to keep the immensely skilled Holbert off the scoresheet.

“It’s a real big step up,” Lange said of playing with the varsity. “I have a pretty good club team and it’s really nice getting out here and playing with really top players like Kelsey and everyone. I’m really glad that I’ve gotten the opportunity and hopefully have a good career at LT.”

Opportunities were scarce for the Huskies in the first half but a bit more plentiful in the second half, when the visitors outshot the Lions 9-5 and creating some nervous moments for the host squad.

“The last 15-20 minutes they started winning every ball and kept it deep in our end and they were dangerous,” LT coach Bill Lanspeary said. “They’ve got some players up top that were able to create.”

One of those players was Emily Gullo, who leads OPRF with 16 goals and just missed scoring her 17th when she sent an 18-yard free kick sailing a foot over the crossbar with 5:35 remaining. Another was fellow senior forward Shelby Cozette, who threaded a lead pass through the defense toward a wide-open Jessica Luttrell in the box, but LT goalie Maggie Orlowski sprinted off her line to get to the ball first. Orlowski made four of her six saves after intermission to record her 15th shutout.

“I think (in the second half) we started to mark better and we had more confidence,” Cozette said. “I think in the first half we were playing off them too much and were just kind of nervous. But in the second half I think we were able to come out with more confidence and step it up a little bit.”

That was important to Wright because the two sides could meet again in the Class 3A York Sectional final on May 27. LT is the top seed while the Huskies are No. 2.

“It would have been nice to get a tie for conference,” Wright said. “We’re consistently coming into that 2 or 3 spot, but the big thing is if we can probably see these guys in a sectional final, now we’re going in knowing we can play, so that’s a big weight off of us.”

Cozette is of the same mindset.

“It’s tough,” she said of the loss. “It’s always close and it’s a really bad feeling to lose when it’s that tight, but I think it just makes us more excited to play them the next time and really try to get the win. We really hope we will.”