Chicagoland Soccer

Lions post second consecutive win at Lake Forest
By Dan Santaromita

Players like Katie Gavin aren’t easy to find. The St. Viator senior played a holding midfield role to perfection to help the Lions hold on for a 1-0 win at Lake Forest after a first half goal from Katelyn Hammarlund.

Gavin has a knack for reading the game well and puts herself in the right position to stop an attack and is capable to starting an attack herself. The Scouts had much of the possession in Monday’s match, but were rarely able to get a good chance at goal thanks to the work of Gavin and the rest of the Viator defense.

“She’s solid,” Lions’ assistant coach Bryan Dahlquist said of Gavin. “She is a bruiser right there in the midfield. She clogs up the middle and she’s really technical and really good on the ball.”

Gavin, who is still undecided about college but plans to continue her career, started her career as a defender and knows her new role is more intricate than simply stopping the opposition.

“They moved me from center defender to holding mid because they thought I’d help out the midfield more,” Gavin said. “When I notice when (the other team) come up I step back into the middle in case any balls go through there. When it gets up field I try to play up.”

With solid play from goalkeeper Morgan Hess (6 saves) and Liz Graff, Micaela Lonigro, Abby Moynihan and Katelyn Hammarlund on the back line along with support from Gavin, Viator (2-1) was able to fend off a tough Lake Forest (3-2) squad for its first shutout of the season.

Hammarlund and senior Lauren Rooney, recently brought up from JV, connected on an effective one-two at the edge of the box to set up Hammarlund with an open shot in front of goal. Her low shot beat Lake Forest keeper Liz Clark (1 save) in the 12th minute and after that the Lions played a clean enough game to walk away winners.

“Lake Forest, I give them a lot of credit,” Dahlquist said. “They got a good team. They came at us. We didn’t play as well as we would have liked to. We wanted to try to connect a little more and work the ball out of the back, but I give our girls a lot of credit that was a hard fought win against a good team.”

The goal was the Lions’ first crack at goal and one of just a few chances they had in the final third. However, for all of the Scouts’ possession they didn’t create many quality shots either.

Lake Forest put just one shot on frame in the first half. The Scouts’ best opportunity in the half came on an indirect free kick in the box after Hess handled a back pass in the final minute of the half. However, the ensuing shot was denied by the Lions’ wall.

That was Hess’ only mistake of the game. The senior keeper came off her line well to stop potential breakaways on multiple occasions and did well to hold onto Abby Shipp’s close range effort at 55 minutes.

Viator’s hard-working defense came through with a number of key plays during the hosts’ final push. Carly Hoke appeared to have a clear angle to shoot in the 74th minute, but her effort was blocked by a well-time sliding tackle by Graff.

“It’s our first shutout of the year so that’s a plus,” Dahlquist said. “Team defense was exceptional today. I liked it when we got the ball out and knocked it around a little we played some good soccer, but we got a lot of stuff to work on.”

Hammarlund moved from central midfield to defense to help preserve the victory down the stretch.

“I think our back line is pretty much mixed around a lot and I think today we found a solid line with Katelyn Hammarlund in the back there,” Gavin said.

Viator, now winners of two in a row, hosts Crystal Lake South on Thursday at Celtic Park.