Lions keep pace in ESCC with home win over JCA

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By Gary Larsen

As a forward last year, Katelyn Hammarlund posted 19 goals and 14 assists for Class 2A state runner-up Saint Viator. She played a central midfield role to start this season and has spent her entire soccer career at every level victimizing defenders as an attacking player.

But Hammarlund has found a new home on the field, in the unlikeliest of places.

The Lions (10-7, 4-1) won 5-1 over visiting Joliet Catholic Wednesday, in an East Suburban Catholic contest in Arlington Heights, with Hammarlund busy directing from the back and keeping things clean in front of Lions keeper Morgan Hess.

“A world of difference since we moved Katelyn back to sweeper,” Lions coach Mike Taylor said. “This is her third game back there and it happened by pure default. We moved her back there in the last 20 minutes against Hinsdale Central, and she liked it.

“She takes control back there. She has size, speed, confidence, composure. She gets the ball, gets her head up, and she doesn’t panic. She dribbles herself into tight spaces sometimes but gets lucky and gets out of it, but that will come. I’d rather she does that instead of just kick the ball.”

“I like playing back there,” Hammarlund said of her new role leading the defense. “It’s easier to see the entire game and I can help the team back there. The only problem I’d have is goalie. That wouldn’t be for me.

“I’ve never played (defender) before. You have to be organized back there and make sure the players in front of you are marking and working really hard, and my teammates always work hard so it’s good having them in front of me.”

The Lions’ Taylor Skala started the day’s scoring as fans were still arriving, and JCA tied the game before they’d settled in. Molly McMahon found Skala in the game’s first minute and the senior striker buried a shot from point-blank range.

Joliet Catholic’s Maddie Kennedy put Saint Viator fans back in their seats when she raced onto a ball sent diagonally over the top from midfield and broke in on Lions keeper Morgan Hess, less than two minutes after Skala scored.

The tie held to halftime, and through 15 minutes of the second half.

“We were getting it to the corner and we’d slide it across, but it would hit off the goalie or no one would be there,” Skala said. “Or we’d be too slow and their defense would clear it. (JCA) was a physical team so you need to go harder into your tackles, and we finally ended up doing that today.”

Sophomore striker Chloe Luthringhausen finally gave the Lions a 2-1 lead when she ran onto a through-ball sent forward by Siobhan Klinkenberg, and sent a shot past sprawling Angels goalkeeper Katie Ibarra.
Finally.

“We were getting opportunities and we just weren’t finishing them,” Taylor said. “We won 5-1 but we didn’t really finish. Now we’ve got four games left that will decide the conference, and we’ve got to win if we want to win conference. It gets us ready for the playoffs and that’s the way I’d like it.”

And Taylor’s girls place a high priority on the ESCC crown. Wednesday’s win kept the Lions in the hunt for this year’s title, with conference games against Benet, Bishop-McNamara, Marist, and Nazareth left to play.

“We want to defend our title,” Hammarlund said. “We brought back the tradition last year and now we want to keep it.”

The Angels stayed within striking distance of a tying goal for the next 15 minutes, before Viator was able to dash their hopes with a pair of quick goals.

If there’s a ball to be chased after in the final third, nobody gets to it any better than Skala, and the senior striker twice got to the ball first on feeds sent ahead by Katie Gavin and Luthringhausen and scored with less than 20 minutes left to play.

The Lions’ fifth goal came when Luthringhausen pressured Ibarra late in the game, the ball deflected out and Klinkenberg teed off on it from 14 yards out, ending the day’s scoring.

“Siobhan’s getting better and better,” Taylor said. “She’s coming off that knee surgery from last year and she’s getting some of her speed back and some of her edge back. She’s not being as tentative.”

“She’s not where she was last year yet, or where she wants to be but she’s getting it back,” Skala said of Klinkenberg.

Junior defender Erin Malone moved to marking back since Hammarlund took over at sweeper and played well, while sophomore Micaela Lonigro filled in nicely at the other marking back spot on Wednesday.