Boyich shines but penalty kick dooms Griffins in OT

CLICK HERE FOR THE GRIFFINS' TEAM PAGE

By Bill Scheibe

Before overtime, before a brutal call in the box led to a penalty kick, before Bolingbrook junior defender Haley Ochromowicz scored into the lower-right corner, Lincoln-Way East’s Emily Boyich burst from her goal line with reckless abandon and snuffed freshman forward Nikia Smith on a pair of breakaways.

And that was the worst.

“Absolutely,” said Boyich, a senior goalkeeper who finished with five mostly spectacular saves. “Coming out on breakaways, I think it’s often 50-50, and it’s the scariest position to be in because the net is completely exposed. But I saw that she was going one way, I took a chance and, luckily, I got to the ball.”

Luck, however, would not be a lady Wednesday night for the Griffins’ girls soccer team. Senior midfielder Gabby Pontarelli was ruled to have been knocked down on a corner kick from junior sweeper Katy Rees and Ochromowicz then took advantage of the PK in the first overtime as the host Raiders prevailed 2-1.

Stymied twice thereafter by Boyich, Smith still scored the go-ahead goal for Bolingbrook (10-4-1, 1-0-0) with 9:45 remaining in the first half of its SouthWest Suburban Red opener. Pontarelli’s original point-blank shot was blocked, but Smith netted the juicy deflection – furthering East’s bad-luck evening inside the box.

But showing that the conference race this spring will be as contested as the Kentucky Derby, Lincoln-Way East (2-8-2, 0-2-0) responded with 5:23 left in the first half when freshman forward Samantha Fiorella dribbled to the end line and junior midfielder Morgan Pigusch converted her cross underneath the crossbar.

How the Griffins got from there to here, the penalty kick in OT, was a crystal-clear credit to Boyich. After colliding with Pontarelli on an earlier partial break, Boyich stopped Smith with 9:33 left in the first half after Smith stole a defensive misplay. Only 4:21 into the second half, Smith sped in for a second 1-on-1 battle.

And that was the best.

“Emily kept us in the game,” Lincoln-Way East coach Brian Papa said. “They had two breakaways where she came out and stopped No. 2 (Smith), who kept the pressure on us, and none was better than the second one. 

“But we had opportunities to score and we didn’t do anything with them. We could have put this game away, we should have, and we didn’t. It was a delayed call on the referee’s part for the PK and what can you do?”

Basically, it is spilled milk, and Papa also pointed to the chance created by North Central College-bound senior midfielder Erin Mangia with 6:01 to go in the first overtime. Her beautiful through-ball pass sent in the streaking Fiorella, but she could not unleash a shot against sophomore goalkeeper Karissa Jones (6 saves).

“I don’t know why,” Mangia said about the Griffins’ inability to capitalize. “It’s tough, but we’re still working on it. And, yes, it’s tough that we’re this far into the season and we still can’t get it done. We’re getting there, and we’re definitely getting better, but we just have that one thing we’re missing and it’s the scoring.”

The goal the Griffins did score should be placed under glass for observation. It was a pretty play, with Fiorella finding her way deep into the box on the left flank and delivering a tight cross. Barreling in toward the far post, Pigusch worked the weak-side play to her advantage and one-timed a shot into the wide-open net.

“I thought Sam made a great play,” Pigusch said. “She definitely brought it over and the team moved the ball well to get it up there just to have a chance. We definitely gained momentum off of that – we came back and we played a good game after that. But it just didn’t end up exactly how we would have liked it to end.”

The start? Well, that too.

Practically nothing happened for the initial 20 minutes of the first half, with both teams attempting to adapt to the bone-chilling temperatures, face-whipping wind and quicker-than-a-cat turf. Mangia’s booming shot that Jones bobbled and a shot by senior midfielder Kelly McGovern toward the left post were the best bets.

In the second half, though, the Griffins gave the Raiders fits, notching eight of their 15 shots. Complementing the long-range offerings of Mangia and McGovern was the late floater by sophomore forward Jessica Bicek and the wide whacks of sophomore midfielder Megan Grady and Fiorella, the latter on a corner kick.

Some of it Papa admittedly expected, considering East fielded an even younger lineup without senior forward Nicole Ernat and senior midfielder Kelsey Kurey. Defensively, the Griffins were good in the age department with Boyich, fellow senior Cassidy Cassello and juniors Stacy Sons, Stephanie Budzinski and Rebecca Dobrich.

“We’re hurt,” Papa said. “Ernat is out, Kurey is sick, and that’s two key starters. We’re asking sophomores to play at the varsity level, too many of them, and this is a frosh-soph team we have going right now, especially on that front line. But like I told the girls, somewhere along the line, they have to start stepping up.”

Count Boyich, a co-captain, among the Griffins who stepped up to the challenge and went beyond. She barely missed thwarting the PK winner by Ochromowicz, who punched a skimmer of a shot past the goalkeeper’s outstretched fingertips in a game that seemed to own a destiny of culminating in a session of penalty kicks.

Much like the Charles Dickens classic “A Tale of Two Cities”, East experienced the best of times and the worst of times, and if not for Boyich, OT would have been out of the question. And far from feeling helpless, Boyich understood the impossibility of smothering another big-time scoring opportunity for Bolingbrook.

“It was little bit out, so what can you do?” she said about Ochromowicz’s goal. “It was a good game, but it stinks to lose on a call like that in overtime. And I didn’t see the foul in the box. I saw the play that happened, but it didn’t look like a foul to me. Obviously, it’s a judgment call that could have gone either way.”

This time, not Lincoln-Way East’s way.