Falcons edged by Glenbrook South in Pepsi Showdown quarterfinals

By Matt Le Cren

Senior goalkeeper Shannon Malahy continued her fine play between the pipes for Wheaton North on Thursday, but she was a little busier than she would have liked.

Malahy, who has been scored on just four times in the first 10 games this spring, made eight saves behind a great defensive effort by the Falcons, but it wasn't enough to prevent a 1-0 loss to Glenbrook South in the Pepsi Showdown quarterfinals at Barrington.

Glenbrook South (6-1-2), the No. 2 seed in the 48-team tournament, advanced to Saturday’s semifinals to play third-seeded New Trier, which beat Homewood-Flossmoor 3-0. Loyola will take on Barrington in the other semifinal at Olympic Park in Schaumburg.

For Wheaton North, which won the inaugural edition of the prestigious tourney in 2008, the quarterfinal loss ended an unexpectedly good run that included a third-round victory over No. 8 seed St. Ignatius. The Falcons (7-3) were seeded 10th.

"I think we did very well, actually," Malahy said. "I wasn't quite sure how well we'd do. Last year we didn't do so well [losing in the first round] and this year we went way [farther] than I expected. We did really well."

Defensively, the Falcons did well against the Titans, who are faster and more athletic and proved it throughout the match.

Defenders Anne Denz, Kate Wiegman, Natalie Waterman and Amy Larque were constantly under pressure and gave up 18 shots, but none were particularly dangerous and Malahy had a relatively easy time cleaning up.

But a corner kick in the 47th minute proved to be Wheaton North's undoing.

Glenbrook South senior Jessica Blair swerved a left-footed service from the left corner toward the far post, where Titans star Jannelle Flaws was poised for a header.

Malahy went up to punch the ball out and she got a hand on it but the ball deflected off the inside of the left post and along the goal line where Melissa Schakowsky tapped it in.

"I was just kind of aiming for back post because Jannelle usually runs on to it," Blair said. "She's our strongest header and she was there but I think it deflected off someone."

"I got a piece of it," Malahy said. "I just didn't get enough of it. It was really close inside the box. It was a perfect ball."

Though the play was a difficult one, Wheaton North coach Tim McEvilly would not have been surprised to see Malahy knock the ball away.

"I think she makes that play nine times out of 10," McEvilly said. "She just didn't get the punch on it like she wanted to."

The Falcons, whose three losses have all been 1-0 decisions, didn't mount an attack like they wanted to.

North managed just one shot, a grounder in the 55th minute by Monica Rush that Titans goalie Jessica Campobasso handled easily.

The Titans held the ball in North's end for all but five minutes of the contest as Blair and the Illinois-bound Flaws played tough up front and Kelly Brait dominated the midfield.

"They won the punts, they won the goal kicks," Malahy said. "They had some girls who can play really well in the air. We just couldn't keep up with them."

"They have high-quality, talented kids, but through the center of their play, whether it's [Flaws] up top or [Brait] in midfield, they are extraordinary athletes and they took it to us because they won every single ball in the air," McEvilly said.

"They had a different level of energy that we just didn't match for the entire 80 minutes and you're not going to beat [Brait] in the air consistently. You just can't get down about losing those balls. You've got to challenge the next one and not assume and we lost a little composure because of that."

Even so, the Falcons played well enough in the early going to make Glenbrook South coach Seong Ha a little nervous.

"The first 5-10 minutes I thought we were in for a long day, to be honest," Ha said.

"I think Wheaton North won four of the first six balls in the midfield and then finally we started kind of understanding what they were trying to do and match their intensity. I think the girls started finding that niche and finally get into the attack."

That's something the Falcons were not able to do.

"We stayed composed defensively," McEvilly said. "We just never got composed offensively during this game.

"[The Falcons] did not take confidence out of [weathering] the storm. We got behind them a couple times but we just didn't pull the plug, and that's because they had more energy in the back than we did."

Wheaton North meets Huntley at 11:30 a.m. on Saturday in Schaumburg before hosting rival Wheaton Warrenville South on Monday in a 6:30 p.m. match.

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