Larson, Corsairs post 5th straight shutout at Joliet Catholic

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By Bill Scheibe

Maybe the earth did not move. Maybe the sky did not open. But in the final 17 seconds Wednesday night, Carmel’s Ashley Orth came up with her goal-scoring equivalent of Moses parting the Red Sea.

While the junior midfielder/forward actually opened with a goal in the latter stages of the first half, her battle in climbing that steep soccer ladder known as a breakaway carried over into the second half.

Frustrating? Ah, yes.

“Oh my gosh, I struggled a lot with my breakaways tonight,” Orth said, shaking her head in remembrance. “I don’t know why. I was just off and I was just panicking at the last second. So, definitely, that was really exciting when I got that second one on another breakaway right at the end of the game.”

Overall, Orth found a righteous way to end each half of the wind-swept and frozen East Suburban Catholic Conference game at Joliet Memorial Stadium. She delivered a goal and an assist in the final 11 minutes of the first half, sparking the Corsairs to a 3-0 victory over host Joliet Catholic Academy.

On top of that, after JCA (5-6-2, 0-5-2) controlled a majority of the pace during the second half, Carmel (7-5-2, 4-2) applied the icing on the cake of a fifth consecutive shutout when Orth converted her unassisted breakaway. Sophomore goalkeeper Katie Larson notched the shutout, making 5 saves.

Complementing Orth for the Corsairs was junior midfielder Shannon Jung, whose save-and-run down the left sideline set up Orth’s first goal at 10:04 to go in the first half. Then, with 4:11 left, Jung scored on a taut feed from sophomore midfielder Brianne Carlson after Orth’s quick pass kickstarted the play.

Defensively, seniors Helen Wagner and Shannon Kouba and juniors Sarah McHugh and Caitlin Jung were as good as the Beatles for Larson’s shutout bid, becoming a Fab Four of defenders that kept the Angels from the back of the net. And with Orth continuing upward growth, the turf was theirs for the taking.

Surprising? That too.

“I’m happy for her,” Carmel coach John Halloran said. “She has been a nice surprise for us this year. Last year, she had a lot of athletic ability, but she has really turned a soccer player and that’s fun to see. She has a put a lot of work in, and when you see a kid take their game up a notch, it makes you happy.

“She had a couple of chances in the first half, a couple of breakaways, that I think she probably wishes she would have done better with, but she also had the opening goal, too. And I would 100 percent agree with that – I think, overall, we really left a lot of chances to score some goals out on the field tonight.”

Likewise, JCA was limited to a handful of chances, including a terrific run by Western Illinois-bound senior defender Lindsay Condon in the first half. Her through-ball pass sent in sophomore forward Maddie Kennedy, whose shot went wide of the far-left post by inches with only 11:25 remaining.

After Orth helped the Corsairs gain the 2-0 edge, it was up to Larson to preserve the whitewash. She snuffed out a point-blank attempt and a booming 25-yard shot, both from the rocket foot of sophomore midfielder Rachel Zampa – the latter spinning toward the right corner with 5:22 to go in the second half.

“Like I told the girls after the game, they should really thank Katie,” Halloran said. “She kept us in the game after we let up to start the second half and made a bunch of fantastic saves toward the end.”

“Katie made some awesome saves,” Orth nodded in agreement. “I thought Sarah McHugh took control of everything and shut them down in the back. And five shutouts in a row? That’s pretty incredible.”

For JCA, it was a credible performance despite the score. The Angels were outshot 19-12, with a 9-5 difference in shots on goal, and Carmel also owned the differential in corner kicks at 5-2.

However, as goalkeeper Katie Ibarra celebrated Senior Night with 6 saves, consideration had to be given.

“I don’t think we’ve played this well in the last eight games,” JCA coach Oscar Valdez said. “Carmel is a very good team, and the way we played in the second half, it shows we have something once we get everybody really, really healthy. We need to work more on our stamina and passing the ball around.

“As you could see, Carmel was faster than us, and a lot of things change after you score a goal. You can’t reflect on that. But for me, the positive thing was seeing how the girls played and responded to our practices this week, and that should be good for us heading into the Rosary Tournament this weekend.”

Making sure that JCA headed into the second half down 2-0 was Shannon Jung. She chased down the through ball on the sideline and crossed a pass that Orth buried under the crossbar for the winner. Carlson then slid a pass over that Jung trapped and a shot into the seam around the far-right post.

“I really like playing outside mid, that’s what I played my entire life until I got here, and it’s a lot of fun,” said Jung, who started and munched primary minutes as a center midfielder. “And that’s typically what an outside mid does. They overlap, get to the ball, make the pass and cross it in. I like doing that.”

Although Halloran certainly liked the pair of goals Orth scored, he was as pleased with the ticket punched by his defense. Five straight shutouts will get a team into a supersectional, and with the regular season nearing the close, putting up zeroes has caused the Carmel coach to search for new adjectives.

Good? Great? Outstanding?

“Unbelievable,” Halloran said. “Our defense, especially our back four, has been unbelievable since we’ve gotten healthy. It’s the best Wagner has ever played, Caitlin Jung has been a rock, Shannon Kuba has been awesome, McHugh has been awesome. And I think five shutouts in a row speak for itself.”