Holbert's OT goal gets Lions past Huskies

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By Gary Larsen

Now that was a sectional title game.

Two local conference rivals, home field advantage challenged by an insanely boisterous visiting student fan section, hard play, great individual performances, and a few overtime periods tossed in for good measure.

Friday’s 3A title game between host Lyons Township and Oak-Park River Forest had it all, as a rematch of a 1-0 win for LT in a West Suburban Conference game played on May 6.

Even though her side lost, it’s hard not to first acknowledge the downright courageous effort in net put forth by OPRF senior Kate Elgie. The Huskies’ back line battled in the face of a menacing second-half attack by the Lions, but it was converted field player Elgie that kept LT from netting four or five goals in the second half.

“She played her heart out,” OPRF coach Paul Wright said of Elgie, a defender forced to step in when starting keeper Katie Oldach was lost for the season due to injury. “She has played three games in net and this is her twelfth day of being a goalkeeper. She had the game of her life.”

After Elgie turned away countless hard-hit shots and follow-up attempts throughout the second half, it was ironic that the game ended thanks to a perfectly hit cross in the second overtime by the Lions’ Kelsey Holbert.

Holbert’s serve from deep on the right side was so perfect, in fact, that it floated under the crossbar near the far post. “It was an attempt to get a goal. It was a cross,” Holbert said. “Sometimes that’s the way soccer happens.”

Lyons Township coach Bill Lanspeary has his side perched one super-sectional win away from the state’s Final Four. But the Lions’ sectional title didn’t come easy.

“We were hoping we’d get enough opportunities and we knew she wasn’t their top keeper,” Lanspeary said. “But their defense did a great job of not giving us many good looks. Even the looks we had in the second half – most of them weren’t great looks other than some great individual efforts by our kids, trying to get in.”

“(Elgie) made the stops she needed to. She came up big for them.”

Huskies defenders Maggie Tansey, Dorothe Franklin, Stephanie Sullivan, and Rennata Voci fought tooth-and-nail towards not hanging Elgie out to dry, with the Lions’ attack in fifth gear throughout the second half.

The first half was another story, as second-seeded Oak Park-River Forest (14-8-1) gave top-seeded Lyons Township (18-4-1) all it could handle.

“In the first half, they outplayed us. They were beating us to balls,” Lanspeary said. “We talked about it at halftime and stepped up our game. We started winning those balls, and in the first ten minutes of the second half we were all over them.

From then on I think our confidence grew. We knew if we kept going that we’d get one and we’ve got an awful lot of confidence in our backs and in our keeper to shut them down.”

Despite the Huskies’ strong first-half play, Lyons Township’s girls in back also played a solid game. Huskies senior striker Emily Gullo fired on a pair of shots through the game’s 7th minute, but LT’s defenders kept keeper Renata Butikas well-protected.

“I think our entire back line did a great job,” Lanspeary said of Ari Kowalski, Sarah Mazur, Steph Condon, and Elise Gordon. “They always handle the pressure back there with poise.”

At halftime, the Lions knew they needed to step up their play. The Huskies also won the majority of fifty-fifties the first time the two teams played.

“Maybe it was nerves. Maybe it was the atmosphere that made us nervous,” Holbert said. “Our style of play in the first half definitely wasn’t the way we like to possess. We were kind of just kicking it and playing more defensive-minded.

We talked at halftime about calming down and just playing soccer. Our halftime speech was kind of ‘this is our seniors’ last time ever playing on our home field, there’s so many people here, and there’s forty more minutes so lets win this’.”

Right at the outset of the second half it was clear that the Lions were playing in another attacking gear. They pressured their way to a barrage of corner kicks early on, and Elgie stopped a hard-hit shot and then dove to smack the follow-up shot past the post and over the end line.

The Lions have one of the most dynamic attacking players around in Katie Nasenbenny, and she began regularly testing Elgie in the second half.  Nasenbenny and Holbert sent a pair of chances just wide before a hustle play by Holbert earned a corner kick in the 67th minute, which Elgie punched away at the near post.

With Elgie having a career night in net, the Huskies’ counterattack managed to threaten. Oak Park-River Forest earned a handful of corner kicks in the second half and sent a good chance just wide in the 70th minute.

“In the second half we were a little gassed. We came out and did everything we could,” Wright said. “We had a couple opportunities we couldn’t finish.”  

Elgie was on the spot to field a Lauren Moberg rip at the near post in the 76th minute, and the Lions intercepted a goal kick in the final third and fired a one-hopper right at Elgie in the 79th minute.

Nasenbenny broke in on the right side with regulation ticking away, but Elgie charged off her line and stuffed the shot attempt to send the sectional final into overtime.

Holbert and Mackie Furlong tested Elgie in the first overtime, before Holbert won the game in the 7th minute of the second overtime.

“Anything you put on goal is dangerous,” Lanspeary said. “That was the message for the couple days leading up to the game – just put things on goal.

“Tonight, especially in the second half, our kids were just determined to not let them beat us to those fifty-fifties. You could see it in their individual efforts that they were not going to be beaten to balls.”

The Lions last advanced downstate in the spring of 2007, when their current crop of seniors were freshmen. The girls’ program at Lyons Township advanced downstate to the Elite Eight from 2003 to 2006 under former coach Alex Hernandez, placing fourth twice.

Friday’s win also put this year’s Lions in a group of the state’s final eight teams still alive in Class 3A, but with the implementation of super-sectional play two years ago, only four teams now advance downstate in each of three classes.

Tuesday’s game against Waubonsie Valley will be the first super-sectional game for the girls’ program at LT. The Lions’ boys won an Illinois state title in the fall.

“We know they’ve got (Vanessa) DiBernardo,” Lanspeary said. “They’re very good. They play good soccer and in the first game of the season I thought we matched up real well. I think we will again come Tuesday.”

The Lions lost 2-1 to Waubonsie Valley in their first game of the season, way back on March 18.

“It was our first game and we had a lot of adjustments to make. We’ve made those adjustments,” Holbert said. “And they’ve got some really good girls on the ball that we need to stick to and try to shut down, but we’ve also improved a ton since then.”

Wright will say goodbye to seniors Sullivan, Elgie, Tansey, Alex Neumann, Jackie Huntley, Emily Plourde, Bianca Bonfirm, and Sydney McCormack, but 8 of his 11 starters will return next season.

“We had chances. It is what it is,” Wright said. “We had a couple near-misses but I told the girls that with that type of effort, I hope the seniors go on in life and approach things the same type of way. Because good things will happen.”

“I wish (the Lions) the best as they move on. It’s a quality program with quality coaches.”

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