Taste of victory sweet for Lake Park
Lancers snap skid with win at Knights Invitational
By Ken Keenan
MOUNT PROSPECT -- After Lake Park saw its record fall to 1-12-0 overall with a pair of pool-play losses in the Knights Invitational on Friday night, Lancers' head coach Sean Crosby noticed that exasperation had replaced his team's usually upbeat mood.
But the smiles returned in full force Saturday morning, thanks to a 1-0 win over McHenry in a match between the third place finishers in Pool A and Pool B.
"Obviously, no matter your spirit or character, losing is not easy," said Crosby, whose squad was topped 4-0 by Lake Zurich and 2-0 by University High in a pair of 40-minute pool-play games Friday. "That's why we play -- to win. So it's definitely frustrating, and Friday night seemed like the breaking point. But winning solves a lot of the struggles. Today (Saturday), it's totally elating.
"We needed to take advantage of this game and feel how enjoyable it is to get a positive result. Our team motto is 'Strength, Support and Family,' and we kinda got that back today."
Sophomore forward Cynthia Martinez potted the winning tally against McHenry, chipping the ball over the Warriors' goalkeeper from close range around the 60-minute mark.
"She hit it with enough power to get it over the keeper's head," Crosby said.
"I took the ball and thought about shooting into the corner, and I was able to get it in," Martinez said. "To win, it feels so amazing. We were giving it our all ... very aggressive."
The game was played on a secondary field at Prospect, with a thick grass surface aesthetically miles apart from the main stadium's FieldTurf layout.
"The grass was long, but we were able to keep up and adjust," Martinez said.
"Being on the grass was different," Crosby said. "We could overhit the ball to build the attack. We were trying to run up and attack, and we possessed the best we did in the entire tourney. We had a little more energy that game. After the first 10 minutes, we were sending the ball and making runs ... trying to beat (McHenry) with speed.
"At halftime, we said, keep knockin' on the door -- crash and get corners. The message was to attack directly, continue to get numbers up. We haven't been scoring goals lately, so we didn't want to settle for 0-0, and we didn't want PKs to decide it either."
Lake Park maintained its high-octane attack after grabbing the lead, which led to a handful of chances on the counterattack for McHenry -- most notably a shot that just missed the crossbar with about 2 minutes to go.
Lancers' sophomore keeper Sarah Yochem made a couple of key saves down the stretch as well to earn the shutout.
"We were a little unorganized near the end, so we dropped (junior forward) Bri McAloon to defensive midfield to follow some forwards and make sure they didn't get behind us," Crosby said. "(Stephanie) Zachemski and (Elizabeth) Guenther (both junior defenders) battled quite a bit in the back, too. Those three working together helped us protect the lead."
Returning to action in the consolation bracket against the host Knights less than 30 minutes later, and on the same grassy pitch, Lake Park ran out of gas. The Lancers lost 4-0 to Prospect, which came off a hard-fought, 3-1 loss to eventual tourney champion Lake Zurich. The Knights scored in the 10th and 25th minutes for a 2-0 lead, and increased the margin to 3-0 on a Lake Park own-goal just before the break.
The Knights concluded the scoring in the 75th minute on a goal by junior forward Shawna Stokes, assisted by junior midfielder Sarah Mulvihill. Mulvihill also tallied a goal in the game.
A scary moment for the Lancers occurred around the 12-minute mark, when Yochem made a leaping, one-handed save at the left post, banging the bridge of her nose off the pipe in the process. Bloodied a bit from the blow, Yochem stayed down for a spell before bouncing back to remain in the game.
Crosby replaced his gritty keeper with senior Caterine "Cat" Vitale, typically a defender, in the second half. But Yochem didn't stick to the bench, she played at forward during stretches of the second half.
"Sarah didn't want to quit, so she played up-top," Crosby said.
Vitale and Yochem weren't the only Lancers playing out of position against the Knights. With his team competing in its fifth game in less than 48 hours, Crosby mixed things up quite a bit, "trying to utilize whatever energy we had left," he said.
"Prospect had a lot of the game, but you could tell our legs were heavy," Crosby continued. "It was a challenge, by far, so our goal was to have fun, play some different positions, and get minutes for everybody. And it was great to see our spirit with girls playing different positions and coaching each other up out there. They embraced it and had fun with it."
But not as much fun as notching the 'W,' ending what was a six-game skid.
"To come away with a win, and a split (on Saturday), we get our spirit back a bit," Crosby said. "There was frustration, but the win gets us back to being a team."
Starting lineup
Lake Park
G: Sarah Yochem
D: Amber Sedwick
D: Stephanie Zachemski
D: Caitlin Lang
D: Dana Skiera
M: Chloe Harris
M: Jaclyn Lamz
M: Lauren Tarchala
M: Natalie Morales
F: Cynthia Martinez
F: Bri McAloon
Chicagoland Soccer MVP of the Match: Cynthia Martinez, so., MF, Lake Park
Officials: Kazazis Emmanouil; George Politis
Lancers snap skid with win at Knights Invitational
By Ken Keenan
MOUNT PROSPECT -- After Lake Park saw its record fall to 1-12-0 overall with a pair of pool-play losses in the Knights Invitational on Friday night, Lancers' head coach Sean Crosby noticed that exasperation had replaced his team's usually upbeat mood.
But the smiles returned in full force Saturday morning, thanks to a 1-0 win over McHenry in a match between the third place finishers in Pool A and Pool B.
"Obviously, no matter your spirit or character, losing is not easy," said Crosby, whose squad was topped 4-0 by Lake Zurich and 2-0 by University High in a pair of 40-minute pool-play games Friday. "That's why we play -- to win. So it's definitely frustrating, and Friday night seemed like the breaking point. But winning solves a lot of the struggles. Today (Saturday), it's totally elating.
"We needed to take advantage of this game and feel how enjoyable it is to get a positive result. Our team motto is 'Strength, Support and Family,' and we kinda got that back today."
Sophomore forward Cynthia Martinez potted the winning tally against McHenry, chipping the ball over the Warriors' goalkeeper from close range around the 60-minute mark.
"She hit it with enough power to get it over the keeper's head," Crosby said.
"I took the ball and thought about shooting into the corner, and I was able to get it in," Martinez said. "To win, it feels so amazing. We were giving it our all ... very aggressive."
The game was played on a secondary field at Prospect, with a thick grass surface aesthetically miles apart from the main stadium's FieldTurf layout.
"The grass was long, but we were able to keep up and adjust," Martinez said.
"Being on the grass was different," Crosby said. "We could overhit the ball to build the attack. We were trying to run up and attack, and we possessed the best we did in the entire tourney. We had a little more energy that game. After the first 10 minutes, we were sending the ball and making runs ... trying to beat (McHenry) with speed.
"At halftime, we said, keep knockin' on the door -- crash and get corners. The message was to attack directly, continue to get numbers up. We haven't been scoring goals lately, so we didn't want to settle for 0-0, and we didn't want PKs to decide it either."
Lake Park maintained its high-octane attack after grabbing the lead, which led to a handful of chances on the counterattack for McHenry -- most notably a shot that just missed the crossbar with about 2 minutes to go.
Lancers' sophomore keeper Sarah Yochem made a couple of key saves down the stretch as well to earn the shutout.
"We were a little unorganized near the end, so we dropped (junior forward) Bri McAloon to defensive midfield to follow some forwards and make sure they didn't get behind us," Crosby said. "(Stephanie) Zachemski and (Elizabeth) Guenther (both junior defenders) battled quite a bit in the back, too. Those three working together helped us protect the lead."
Returning to action in the consolation bracket against the host Knights less than 30 minutes later, and on the same grassy pitch, Lake Park ran out of gas. The Lancers lost 4-0 to Prospect, which came off a hard-fought, 3-1 loss to eventual tourney champion Lake Zurich. The Knights scored in the 10th and 25th minutes for a 2-0 lead, and increased the margin to 3-0 on a Lake Park own-goal just before the break.
The Knights concluded the scoring in the 75th minute on a goal by junior forward Shawna Stokes, assisted by junior midfielder Sarah Mulvihill. Mulvihill also tallied a goal in the game.
A scary moment for the Lancers occurred around the 12-minute mark, when Yochem made a leaping, one-handed save at the left post, banging the bridge of her nose off the pipe in the process. Bloodied a bit from the blow, Yochem stayed down for a spell before bouncing back to remain in the game.
Crosby replaced his gritty keeper with senior Caterine "Cat" Vitale, typically a defender, in the second half. But Yochem didn't stick to the bench, she played at forward during stretches of the second half.
"Sarah didn't want to quit, so she played up-top," Crosby said.
Vitale and Yochem weren't the only Lancers playing out of position against the Knights. With his team competing in its fifth game in less than 48 hours, Crosby mixed things up quite a bit, "trying to utilize whatever energy we had left," he said.
"Prospect had a lot of the game, but you could tell our legs were heavy," Crosby continued. "It was a challenge, by far, so our goal was to have fun, play some different positions, and get minutes for everybody. And it was great to see our spirit with girls playing different positions and coaching each other up out there. They embraced it and had fun with it."
But not as much fun as notching the 'W,' ending what was a six-game skid.
"To come away with a win, and a split (on Saturday), we get our spirit back a bit," Crosby said. "There was frustration, but the win gets us back to being a team."
Starting lineup
Lake Park
G: Sarah Yochem
D: Amber Sedwick
D: Stephanie Zachemski
D: Caitlin Lang
D: Dana Skiera
M: Chloe Harris
M: Jaclyn Lamz
M: Lauren Tarchala
M: Natalie Morales
F: Cynthia Martinez
F: Bri McAloon
Chicagoland Soccer MVP of the Match: Cynthia Martinez, so., MF, Lake Park
Officials: Kazazis Emmanouil; George Politis