Lions fall to Benet at Benedictine
By Matt Le Cren

 

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Jamei Borges and Katelyn Hammarlund will be teammates at St. Louis University in the fall, but on Tuesday night they were on opposite sides of the ball in a key East Suburban Catholic Conference match.

Both played outstandingly and figured in the scoring for their respective teams, but it was Borges who earned some bragging rights, scoring the go-ahead goal as host Benet defeated Saint Viator 3-1 at Benedictine University.

The result did a lot to clear up the muddled race for the ESCC title. Benet (14-4-3, 7-1-1) kept its slim hopes alive while eliminating Saint Viator (9-7-4, 5-1-2) from contention.

The race will be decided Wednesday as Nazareth (15-0-2, 6-0-2) will win the crown for the first time by beating Providence. If the Roadrunners are upset in that contest, then Benet and Carmel (12-3-1, 7-1-1) will share the title. Both of those teams have completed their conference schedules.

Benet coach Bob Gros has already put the conference race in his rear-view mirror.

“My whole focus right now is developing the team and improving some problems,” Gros said. “We played okay in the second half. I thought in the first half we were struggling in the midfield, but we put in three goals [in the match] and they were all legitimate goals.”

Benet’s first goal came against the run of play when a perfect pass from Catherine Caniglia sprung Borges on a breakaway and the senior forward beat charging Lions goalie Morgan Hess for her 11th goal of the season with 7:26 left in the first half.

“I thought Caniglia-to-Jamei was one of the best goals I’ve seen this year,” Gros said. “Jamei Borges played a great game. She was holding balls, she was beating people in the penalty area. She was really a handful.”

The Redwings seemed to gain confidence after the goal and started taking control of the midfield after a helter-skelter start.

“Viator obviously is always a conference rival and everyone came in really hyped up,” Borges said. “We came in with so much energy that we almost got ourselves out of the game.

“We have a solid team of players when we play our game and we were kind of getting into Viator’s style of play, which is hustling. They’re just a strong team running the ball, but once we settled the ball down and actually moved it and played our style, it definitely benefitted us.”

Benet continued its strong play after the break. Hess kept her team in it with a couple of great saves, including a point-blank stop on Borges in the 50th minute, but the Redwings made it 2-0 at the 25:24 mark when Colleen Lewellyan bagged her third goal by heading in a corner kick from Madie Burke.

Burke finished the scoring with 21 seconds left, ripping a 35-yard free kick into the upper left corner for her ninth goal.

It was a disappointing end for the Lions, who began the day in control of their own destiny, needing wins in their final two league games to secure at least a share of the title.

“We came into it knowing this was a huge game,” Saint Viator junior Chloe Luthringshausen said. “We knew this was the biggest game of our season and we wanted to win conference, but the result was unlucky.

“I think it was their energy up top. Our defense was struggling to contain them up top. We’re not down because we played really well as a team.”

That was especially true in the final 20 minutes, when Saint Viator was clearly the better team. The visitors attacked relentlessly and cut the gap to 2-1 on a Luthringhausen’s ninth goal of the season.

Hammarlund triggered the play by poking a pass behind the defense to Luthringhausen, who sprinted into the left side of the box before sending a sharp shot from a severe angle over the head of Benet goalie Emma Hlavin and just under the crossbar with 13:04 to go.

“It was a great pass from Katelyn and I just looked up and punched it in,” Luthringshausen said.

The Lions continued to put the pressure on, but several long throw-ins from Erin Renee Murphy were cleared by the Benet defense and Hlavin stopped a 25-yard shot by Liz Graff with 5:20 left. Luthringshausen had the final chance, running onto a long ball on the right wing, but her shot from the right wing rolled wide of the left post.

“I knew we’d come back and score one eventually,” Saint Viator coach Mike Taylor said. “I thought Katelyn and Chloe played very well. Katelyn worked hard and she’s worked hard all year, so for those two to combine together and get a goal was nice.

“And then we pushed and pushed and pushed and I think had we caught a couple of breaks on the long throws when it came across, then maybe we could have caught one.”

Hammarlund said it was a matter of too little, too late.

“They pounced on every mistake that we made,” Hammarlund said. “We made very few mistakes but the mistakes we did make, they countered us right away and we were slow to recover. We have to work on picking it up earlier than the last 15 minutes, because we should always do it from the start of the game.”

But the game was noteworthy for the Lions in that it was the first time all season they were nearly at full strength. Taylor has yet to field his entire starting 11, but Tuesday he had 10 of them on the field. The only missing starter was senior midfielder Molly McMahon, whose career is over after suffering her fourth concussion in the past three years.

“It’s good to get everyone back on the field that we know are getting back,” Taylor said. “A couple of them were out of shape and we knew that so I’ve got three games this week and they’ll get back in shape ready for the playoffs.

“But I’m excited. It’s going to take a lot for teams to stop Hammy and Chloe up top. They’re dangerous up top together.”

The Lions are the No. 1 seed at the Class 2A Lakes Sectional, where second-seeded Lake Forest (12-4-2) is their strongest competition. Could a long playoff run like the one of two years ago, when Saint Viator finished second in the state, be in the offing?

“As a team we think we have it in us, but if we keep making the little mistakes like we do, then that’s what could take it away,” Hammarlund said. “Other than that we think we have a really good chance of going far.”

So do the Redwings, who are the top seed at the Class 2A Nazareth Sectional, where Benet and second-seeded Nazareth could meet in the final. The two squads tied 3-3 on April 18.

“I think we definitely feel that we are a strong seed, especially going into the playoffs as a No. 1 seed,” Borges said. “We’re not intimidated by Naz, having tied them, and we’re going to be coming out strong for that game like we are the No. 1 team.”

The Redwings have a bye in the first round, meaning their first playoff game will be the Argo regional final on May 19 against No. 8 seed Kenwood or No. 10 Kennedy.

“I think a lot of [the key to success] is attitude,” Borges said. “If we come out with that confidence that we earned the spot we got and take advantage of that. Our first game is the regional final, which immediately is a big game, but if we take advantage of our practice time, play hard every day like we want to win it, then we definitely will.”