Corsairs struggle on offense in ESCC loss to Fenwick

By Rusty Silber

No team wants to fall into a slump but that's where Carmel's soccer team seems to find itself now.

The Corsairs are lacking scoring punch and have made some mistakes defensively in recent matches.

It cost them on Tuesday afternoon as the Corsairs dropped a 2-1 decision to Fenwick in an East Suburban Catholic conference match in Mundelein.

Carmel (5-1-3, 2-1) suffered not only its first loss in the ESCC but also its first loss of the season while Fenwick improved to 3-6-1 and 2-2.

Over the last three games the Corsairs have scored just three goals, which is been below their output at the start of the season.

"We've got to have someone step up," said Carmel coach John Halloran, whose team tied Zion-Benton 0-0 last Saturday and got past Nazareth 2-0 on Monday.

"We need somebody or anybody. It doesn't matter if it's a single player, two players or three players."

Trying to narrow down the problem, Halloran doesn't exactly know what's been lacking recently. But, he knows that something has to change among the girls.

"We've got four or five girls working into attacking spots," Halloran said. "None of them have generated in the last three games.

"We seem to be kicking it. If we don't get it connected up top and get passes together, we're not going to break anybody down. It's true of any team.

"I think it's our front players and we're not getting connected. Not sure if it's a lack of focus, ability or athleticism. Something is not clicking for us right now."

Maybe Carmel has hit a stretch where it has needs to have a wake-up call that will boost it for the remainder of its season.

One of the Corsairs players, Lauren Bowles, has seen some of the problems right before her very eyes.

"Finding the feet has been a major part," Bowles said. "We've been having a hard time doing it and looking for the through ball. We really need to focus on picking our heads up and find our feet.

"We just need to find composure in the final third. We need to take care of our opportunities individually and put away shots early."

On Tuesday, Kassidy Brown scored her fifth goal of the season on a free kick that found itself going inside the near post in the 14th minute to give the hosts a 1-0 advantage.

But Fenwick bounced back to tie things up about 12 minutes later and then got the go-ahead score roughly 50 minutes after that.

In the 26th minute, Jane Tedesco connected on a free kick, which got through the Carmel defense and past keeper Maddie Allen (10 saves).

The other came in the 76th minute, when the Corsairs couldn't clear the ball out of the back and the Friars' Molly Wallach capitalized and scored the game-winning goal.

"I thought we pushed the game in the second half and deserved the win," Fenwick coach Daryl Shore said. "We just felt like if we played soccer, things would come together. It was total team effort."

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