Ackermann's late goal gives Barrington the MSL Cup
By Gary Larsen

 

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Barrington’s defenders and bench players will love this.

After she scored a dramatic, late goal against Hersey that gave Barrington this year’s Mid Suburban League Cup title, Fillies sophomore Elli Ackermann was asked how it felt to be the game’s bona fide hero of the moment in her team's biggest game of the year thus far.

“It feels great but it’s not just me,” Ackermann said. “It’s a team effort. All the defenders – Sam Frank, and Emily Decraene, and Emily Morin, and Abby Taplett – they all won head balls out on Hersey’s free kicks, they kept winning balls and playing them forward. And we know players will come off the bench and give great effort.”

Ackermann received a ball in the post from Taplett, deep in Hersey’s penalty area, with regulation time running out in a scoreless draw. She whirled and fired the game-winner with only 28.5 seconds left on the clock.

It was left to Ackermann’s coach to point out her role in the win.

“She helped us maintain possession throughout the second half because she plays great with her back to the goal and completed passes for us,” Barrington coach Ryan Stengren said. “And her ability to turn her energy up in the second half, and chase the other team when she didn’t get the ball, was at a pretty high level.

“And obviously the turn was great, and the finish was great.”

Wednesday’s game between last year’s MSL champion Hersey (15-6-2) and 2010 champion Barrington (15-5-0) was a rematch of a 1-0 Hersey win in a game played on April 25. That game also featured a late game-deciding goal, when the Huskies’ Nicole Pietro scored off a Lauren Gierman assist with nine minutes remaining.

“Tonight they got the one, and we didn’t,” Hersey coach Brad Abel said. “But credit Barrington.  Any team coached by Ryan is very organized, he’s a planner and he adjusts so nicely. They’re very deserving of this. They went 11-1 in the conference and that’s a tough thing to do.

“But I’m proud of our effort. As a coach, that kind of effort is all we can ask for. This was a great effort. I told our girls to use this as motivation and hopefully this will help us make a run into the playoffs.”

Each team played without a few key injured players Wednesday. Molly Pfeiffer was absent for Barrington while last year’s MSL East MVP in Hersey defender Olivia Stasiuk was also unavailable.

Hersey dropped forward Gierman back to midfield and slid central midfielder Megan Boyle to the back line against Barrington.

“I thought the first half we controlled it pretty well but in the second half we started relaxing a little bit. It was back and forth,” Gierman said. “From the first time we played them, with Molly Pfeiffer out in the middle we thought we could control it better. But we’re also missing (Stasiuk) so this was our first game with a different lineup. But we did great. We fought.”

Hersey earned a good handful of potentially dangerous freekicks through 40 minutes, and sent a diagonal serve rolling past the far post early on in the contest. Pietro went wide from 10 yards out at 36 minutes with Barrington keeper Hannah Luedtke charging her, and a Barrington defender raced back and made a sliding tackle on the Huskies’ Meg Cerniglia near the goalmouth just before halftime.

“We kicked it a little bit and I’ll be the first one to tell you we were looking to counter with our speed up top in Kaitlyn (Smetana) and Meg,” Abel said. “It worked better in the first half but then (Barrington) started to gain more possession, and their work rate picked up.”

Barrington’s core of walking wounded players nearly added a member just before halftime when senior outside mid Aimee Pierce rolled her ankle at 39 minutes and had to be helped from the field.

But Pierce returned in the second half and made her presence felt, laying off a ball to Jenna Szczesny at 62 minutes that Szczesny shot off the crossbar, and then breaking up a Hersey threat in the Fillies’ penalty area after she slid to the backline when Decraene cramped up and briefly left the game.

Szczesny went wide with a head shot in the second half and at 71 minutes the freshman dribbled e up with a defender on her hip and broke behind the Hersey backline, only to see Hersey keeper Morgan Harris make a fine sliding save, 15 yards off her line.

Barrington’s second half was carried by more energy throughout.

“We felt pretty good about what we were doing in training, but then we didn’t do anything in the first half,” Stengren said. “I don’t know if it’s because we have a lot of young players that might have been nervous, but I told them at halftime that we’re a lot better technically than what we were showing.

“Maybe we weren’t going to play a lot more technically in the second half, but I knew we could play with a lot more energy and enthusiasm, and we did. It wasn’t great at times in the second half but there was a lot more purpose behind our play. Whether we won or lost, I can feel good about that second half.”

The game-winner was set up when Taplett crossed midfield on the right side and served a ball in to Ackermann, who spun and fired.

“I don’t really know what happened. I just placed the ball like I was told in practice,” Ackermann said. “We had been working on that and we learned how to switch the ball, and our team worked really well together tonight.”

For Hersey, Wednesday’s game was a third consecutive loss after the Huskies secured the East on April 27. Abel wasn’t happy with his side’s energy in a 2-1 loss to Elk Grove, he saw that energy improve in a 2-1 loss to Conant, and the Huskies returned to the intensity-driven play that allowed them to reach a fifth consecutive MSL Cup game.

“We definitely picked it up here,” Gierman said. “I think after we clinched the conference we got a little cocky, took practices a little lightly, but we worked our way back up and we’ll use this game for motivation for the playoffs.”

Abel wants to see his girls do exactly that.

“We’re definitely not happy with the result but I want to use this as motivation to make a run in the playoffs,” he said. “We’ve got a great group of girls, they fight hard, and unfortunately we just came out on the losing end.

 “Our forwards – Meg Cerniglia, Kaitlyn Smetana, Emily Custer when she was in there – they’re runners and they ran for us tonight. I felt like we lose more possession up top by taking Lauren away. And obviously we lose that engine in the middle with (Boyle) but she played great in back. She’s very versatile and it looked like she’s been playing there for the last 23 games.

“Not having (Stasiuk) hurt but it also allowed someone else to step up, and they did.”

One of the unique aspects of the MSL Cup game each year is the honoring of all MSL players named to the all-conference list for the season. A large group of players from around the league were present for a hafltime ceremony, and below is the list of this year's all-MSL players:

Emily Basten, Fremd/Megan Boyle, Hersey/Kaitlyn Burke, Palatine/Mia Calamari, Barrington/Sidney Castillo, Wheeling/Leah Celarik, Conant/Sara Condon, Barrington/Teegan Eberle, Schaumburg/ Kelsey Foss, Conant/Lauren Gierman, Hersey/Tyler Roth, Buffalo Grove/Kelli Hubly Elk Grove/Kelli Iovino, Prospect/Amanda Kelly, Schaumburg/Jessica Kovach, Buffalo Grove/Ann Marie Lynch, Rolling Meadows/Katelyn Mayer, Palatine/Megan McCabe, Prospect/Maggie Moran, Rolling Meadows/ Emily Morin, Barrington/Katie Naughton, Elk Grove/Shannon Norris, Fremd/Mary Pettit, Hoffman Estates/Molly Pfeiffer, Barrington/Aimee Pierce, Barrington/Nicole Pietro, Hersey/Courtney Raetzman, Conant/Kelly Regan, Elk Grove/Alison Schmalz, Schaumburg/Brooke Schocker, Schaumburg/ Elena Cukurs, Prospect/Olivia Stasiuk, Hersey/Kelsey Steenstrup, Schaumburg/Kellie Strauss, Palatine/Sammie van de Linde, Conant/Emily Wary, Elk Grove/Drew Wentzel, Conant/ Casey Weyhrich, Hersey/ Colleen  Zickert, Buffalo Grove/Kelli Zickert, Buffalo Grove

The MSL Sportsmanship Award winners were Prospect from the East and Hoffman Estates from the West. The Player of the Year in the East was Elk Grove's Katie Naughton and Conant's Courtney Raetzman in the West.