Lions tie with Nazareth in LaGrange

 

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By Dave Owen

Saint Viator received a harsh wake-up call in its Saturday morning game at Nazareth.

Just 2:45 into play, junior midfielder Molly McMahon suffered a head injury in a battle for a mid-air ball and never returned.

That hit and another injury to sophomore sophomore Erin Renee Murphy in the second overtime was part of a painful two hours for the Lions (11-7-1, 5-1-1 in ESCC play). But senior forward Taylor Skala eased the pain a bit with two goals to earn Saint Viator a 2-2 tie with Nazareth and extend its unbeaten streak to five games (four wins and this tie).

The Lions were already out of sorts even before adversity hit.

"We were basically not awake, just not here," Skala said. "We could not connect, and then Molly went down and all the positions got switched and everyone rotated.

"We have a lot of young girls on the team and that might have affected them more than me or some of the other seniors on the team because we're used to dealing with adversities. Then Murphy got hurt and I think that got us fired up even more because she's one of our young girls (a sophomore) and nobody does that. She got cleated in the face or something."

The McMahon injury had the Lions scrambling early.

"We just had to change up our positions, fixed the holes and the gaps we had and just adjusted to everything," St. Viator midfielder Keegan Griebel said.

"Losing Molly McMahon five minutes into the game killed us," Saint Viator coach Mike Taylor said, "because that's our starting center midfielder who does a lot of stuff, and it takes away our depth coming off the bench. I thought that hurt us her getting hit in the head.

"We've got girls who can come off the bench (after injuries). The biggest adjustment was the size of the field, 64 (feet) wide when we're used to a 76-foot wide field. We knew it was going to be a tough game."

The early going was tough in injuries and on the scoreboard. Nazareth dominated play for the first 20 minutes and grabbed a 1-0 lead with 20:17 left before the break. Ironically, that goal came on a Saint Viator mistake on the counterattack after the Lions' Chloe Luthringshausen had generated a great chance at one end.

But Skala would quickly answer, breaking free off a nice Luthringshausen pass upfield and touching a low shot past the charging Nazareth goalkeeper to forge a 1-1 tie with 14:59 left in the half.

The momentum was brief. Nazareth retook a 2-1 lead with 12:38 left, continuing a series of counterpunches over an eight-minute stretch between the two teams on the narrower field.

Nazareth goalkeeper Melissa Stawicki and other defensive stalwarts Katelyn Hammarlund, Erin Malone, Victoria Danner, Emily Zahrebelski and Kathleen Kane were tested throughout, with Stawicki making three nice saves on goal kicks (two during the overtime periods. Zahhrebelski also made a nice block of a Nazareth attempt close in with 22:20 left in regulation.

But Skala and the Lions had the better of play in the second half, highlighted by a beautiful score to tie the game with 30:59 left in regulation.

Receiving the ball out of a midfield scramble that included teammates Siobhan Klinkenberg and Griebel among others, Skala fielded the ball at the top of the box and, with a great spin move, powered a 15-yard blast just under the crossbar to tie the game at 2.

""I trapped it, faked, turned this way and nailed it,"Skala said. "I just know when I feel a girl on my back and know that she's the last defender, then I realize it's either I think I'm going to shoot it and I go or I take a shot. But  I was beating her a lot so I switched it up and it worked."

Later Lion attacks produced plenty of near misses of a win. After an earlier shot off the post seconds into the second half, Sklala sent a header just over the net from inside the crease with 10 seconds left in the second and final overtime.

Griebel's great cross to Luthringshausen with 6:15 left in regulation was also headed barely over the net.

"We dominated the game in shots, hit the post and bar but that's not good enough," Taylor said.

The wide open game also featured goals disallowed off corner kicks for each team, first by a rare offside ruling on a corner and then a foul.

While the end result was a never celebratory tie, it was another step forward for a team that has picked up its level of play in May.

"I think we're starting to come together more and more each game," Griebel said, "In the beginning we had a little bit of a rough patch, but now everyone is learning their positions and we're all coming together."