Golden Eagles take fifth at Springfest Classic

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By Gary Larsen

Jacobs outside midfielder Monica Orjuela dove to her left to swat away a shootout attempt and then landed on the unforgiving artificial surface of Schaumburg’s Olympic Park.

When you’re a field player standing in for your team’s usual starting keeper, landing hard on your side isn’t something you’ve practiced much.

“I’m definitely aching,” Orjuela said. “My ribs and hip are hurting right now.”

Orjuela’s save came just before teammate Lizzie Travis’ PK conversion to give Jacobs a win over Fenwick and a fifth-place finish in the inaugural 10-team, St. Francis Springfest Classic tournament on Wednesday.

The two teams tied 1-1 and played two overtime frames before Orjuela and Fenwick keeper Sydney Galvez-Daly took turns trying to stop penalty kicks.

And anyone who doesn’t think girls can show toughness needed to watch Galvez-Daly limp around in pain but still throw her body around in net during the shootout.

“She’s going to need some rest – bad ankle, bad knee, and she got hit in the head,” Friars coach Robert Watson said. “I think she’s got a sprained wrist and she’s coming off a dislocated thumb, too.”

Wednesday’s shootout was the exclamation point for both teams on the five-game, three-day tournament. Benet won the tournament crown with a 3-0 win over Cary-Grove, while Metea Valley placed third with a 2-1 win over host St. Francis.

“To get five games against quality opponents this early in the season is very helpful. Now we hit our schedule next week and we’ve already got seven games under our belt,” Jacobs coach AJ Cappello said.

The fifth-place game saw Jacobs’ Catie Sherman test Galvez-Daly early with a hard-hit shot from 20 yards out and teammate Shannon Grady send in a long shot soon thereafter.

Orjuela stopped a point-blank shot in the first half before Clare Madden put Fenwick on the board with a run at goal just 15 minutes played in the game.

A Fenwick defense led by sweeper Mia Patrevito kept Jacobs out of net through one half of play. “She’s one of our captains and she’s the real deal,” Watson said of Patrevito.

“We’re missing some players on spring break and have a few injured, so we’re still putting the pieces together. But our defense played real well. I thought Meredith St. Clair played phenomenal. The tournament was a lot of fun but we’re ready for some rest now. We’re a little banged up.”

Fenwick won 2-0 over Cary-Grove and 1-0 over St. Francis in pool play before meeting Jacobs in the fifth-place game.

"It’s a brand new team and we’re missing players, but we played pretty well,” Patrevito said. “We have to get ready to play York on Saturday and that should be a very good game.”

Jacobs tied the game early in the second half when central defender Marge Rivera sent in a corner kick, Cassidy Sherman located it at the far post, and sent it home. “That was nice because Cassidy works her tail off in the middle for us,” Cappello said. “It’s nice to see her get rewarded.”

The first overtime saw Cassidy Sherman blister a ball just over the crossbar and Lauren Grady send one just wide of the post. Rivera ripped a free kick from 25 yards out that Galvez-Daly tipped over the crossbar in the second overtime.

Each keeper saved once during the first round of penalty kicks before Orjuela made the game’s big save in the second round, and Travis ended the contest.

The Golden Eagles’ other tournament wins came 2-1 over Marian Central, 1-0 over Metea Valley, and 3-1 over Addison Trail. A 3-1 loss to Benet kept them out of the championship game but all was not lost in the loss.

“We got progressively better as the week went on. Even though we lost 3-1 to Benet, that was the best game we’ve played to date,” Cappello said. “From front to back we improved.”

Orjuela saw good things throughout from her unfamiliar position in net.

“With each game we started connecting our passes better,” Orjuela said. “We were stringing seven or eight passes around and that wasn’t there in our first game. And our communication was better. The communication between the outside mid and the defender is crucial, over who is going to get the running player, and that has definitely improved.”

With regular starting keeper Megan Minogue absent for the tournament, Cappello chose Orjuela from a trio of field players and put her between the pipes.

“She was more than willing to step to the plate and take on that responsibility,” Cappello said. “Even the goals she got beat on, she was there. And she gave us something with her feet, too, when we played the ball back to her.”

When told she'd be the team's goalkeeper for the next five games, Orjuela simply put the gloves on and headed for the net. “I like playing the field better but for the team I’ll do whatever coach thinks gives us the best chance possible,” Orjuela said.

Several Golden Eagles stepped up to the plate during the five-game tourney.

“Lauren Grady had a great little tournament up top. For five games, she never stopped working,” Cappello said. “And (forward) Melanie Duda, a little sophomore, really stepped it up. She’s picking up on the pace and the physicality of the game. Cassidy and Catie Sherman found each other in the middle, and of course Marge (Rivera) played well.

“She reads the game as well as anyone at center back. She can pick up the slack on anyone and she’ll challenge any ball. She’s not afraid of anyone. She doesn’t shy away from anything and this year she’s communicating more as a sophomore.”

After Madden's early goal, Rivera led a back line that kept the dangerous Friar in check to the end of regulation and through the overtime periods. Rivera went into every tackle with reckless abandon against Fenwick, which comes with the job when you’re on the last line of defense protecting your goalkeeper.

“You know when you’re in the back that you have to get it, because if you don’t then it’s going to go through,” Rivera said. “Then the pressure is on you and you feel like you did it to your goalie, who’s back there all alone.

“Our whole defense played well. For the entire tournament we’ve been keeping them to the outside, holding them, clearing the ball up and finding our passes out of the back, so we can get those chances for our forwards and midfielders to score. We’ve found out what we can do with the girls we have.”