Loyola states its case with win over SCN
Host Ramblers win battle of top 10 teams
By Dave Owen
WILMETTE- In an opening week of statement wins, Loyola had the last word.
After St. Charles North, ranked sixth in the Chicagoland Soccer Top 25, avenged its 2015 sectional final loss to Conant with a 1-0 win over the Cougars on Thursday, no. 3 Loyola (3-0) showed its own big-time potential with a 2-0 victory over the North Stars on Saturday.
“We’re really optimistic about the season,” Loyola senior defender Lauren Chrisman said. “We have 10 seniors this year, and there are five of us who have been playing together (on varsity) since freshman year. To be together these four years will make us pretty strong.
“It’s early in the season, but one of the things this (win) does is give us a little confidence and shows us what we can do. And against a team like St. Charles North that is so good and has been so successful, it shows us what we need to work on as well.”
Defense doesn’t appear to be an area in need of work, as Loyola consistently shut down strong attacks by a powerful St. Charles North offense.
“If you start with St. Charles North, the two sophomores (midfielder Hailey Rydberg and forward Gia Wahlberg) jump off the page at you,” Loyola coach Craig Snower said. “I know them from club, so I know what they’re capable of doing.
“We don’t really man mark anyone per se, but there was a concerted effort that we were going to recognize those two players. And when they were in our zone, we weren’t going to let them have free passes. They’re so talented that they both got themselves good chances anyway, which speaks volumes of them as players.”
Loyola’s defensive four of Chrisman, Alex Yasko, Riley Burns and Jillian Jensen helped keep the potent Stars off the scoreboard.
And at the offensive end, a late first half set-piece and the continued strong comeback by mega scorer Devin Burns were difference makers for the Ramblers.
Off an Emily Chrisman corner kick in the 38th minute, Yasko was on the spot for a rebound.
“Emily Chrisman crossed it in,” Yasko said, “and then Bella Broccolo was able to come to it right at the top of the 18. It came to me, and I was able to turn and get a shot on it.”
For Snower, the finish off a restart continued a Loyola tradition.
“We take a lot of pride in our set pieces,” he said. “It’s something we’ve been great at for years, but not as good the last two years. Three years ago we probably scored 30-40 set-piece goals out of our 90 goals, and the last two years we were probably under 10. And we were under three or four (goals) in what I would call these big ticket games against top 10 opponents.
“Alex’s run was to the far post, so she came back and got in position for that rebound, and she sends a great shot inside the post,” Snower added. “And no one’s saving that one, side netting with spin.”
Before the Yasko goal, a big time play by goalkeeper Maggie Avery in the 33rd minute was another exclamation point to the half.
“You have to look at two things in the first half, the set-piece (goal) and the save on their header by Maggie Avery five minutes before that,” Snower said. “If she doesn’t make that save, it’s 1-0 and the whole complexity of the game changes.
“Credit to Maggie keeping us in, and then to Alex for knocking a good one.”
Another big factor in Loyola’s big finish to the first half was freshman Emily Chrisman’s play off the bench.
“Emily Crisman is really a defender,” Snower said, “but since we’re so deep there we’re using her as a holding mid. In the first half when we were getting beat up at midfield she went in there and did a really nice job of winning 50/50 balls.
“The 20 best minutes we had were at the end of the first half when we were putting constant pressure on them, and Emily was a big part of that. She’s done well for us so far.”
The finish to the first half gave the Ramblers critical momentum, and a cushion against a second half St. Charles North onslaught.
“They were really pressing us and in our end a lot,” Lauren Chrisman said. “To get a goal with so little time left kind of relaxed us and let us get back to playing soccer like we’re best at.”
The goal was Yasko’s second of the season.
“I think it helped a lot with our team, just pushing us to try harder and keep going,” Yasko said. “When it’s 0-0 close to the half, a lot of teams struggle trying to get that first goal. Getting that helped us a lot and pushed us into the second half to get our second goal, which Devin successfully did.”
Devin Burns’ goal came with just 55 seconds left in the game, as Joyce’s nice send upfield connected with Burns for a rush and eventual 10-yard drive inside the right post.
After missing last season with a knee injury, Burns has picked up her career-long amazing offensive pace without skipping a beat.
“She had 35 goals as a freshman and 21 as a sophomore,” Snower said. “She’s at 60 goals in 47 (career) games.
“She’s worked really hard, and we’re happy she’s healthy. By December-January club she was up to 90 percent, and then she had mono and now I think she’s about 85 percent. By May you might see 100 percent, and 100 percent of Devin Burns would be very good.”
May could be very good for both teams.
St. Charles North showed that potential by defeating Conant on a Gia Wahlberg goal, and displayed plenty of firepower at Loyola as well.
Among the waves of chances in the second half, Rydberg drove up the middle with 30:05 left and dished to Morgan Rerko, whose 10-yard left-footed drive was denied on a diving Avery save.
An Amanda Czerniak race up right wing with 17:50 to go freed Wahlberg for a strong attack into the box – only to be denied by a nice steal by Loyola’s Stephanie Ramsay.
A pair of 38-yard free kicks by Lauren Willis in the final 13 minutes also generated threats. A Yasko block in the box denied the first, then a Lauren Chrisman header near the top of the box off Willis’ restart with 5:30 left ended with a long Wahlberg shot that deflected on goal.
“I’m proud of the way the girls came back and fought in the second half,” North Stars coach Brian Harks said. “Loyola’s a talented team, a physical team, and that’s a really great challenge for us early in the season.
“Especially early in the season you expect to make a couple mistakes, and our hope is to learn from those mistakes moving forward.”
Czerniak was a catalyst to the increased chances.
“I felt Amanda Czerniak on the outside gave some pretty good minutes,” said Harks, a longtime North Stars assistant in his first year as head coach. “In the second half you could see the fight and intensity pick up in her play.
“Overall as a team I thought we played better as a team and took the fight to them rather than sitting back.”
Despite the eventual setback, Czerniak saw plenty of reasons for optimism.
“It’s our second game, so we obviously have a lot of things to work on,” she said. “That was evident in different phases. But we really worked hard, and I don’t think there was a time that we got down on each other.
“It was a disappointing loss, but I know that we can come back. It’s only our second game, so we have all season to fix things. I believe in us.
“Our thing was needing to get a better first touch and being able to switch the field better,” Czerniak added. “That’s kind of our focus right now, to improve upon that.”
Up 1-0 at halftime and facing increased North Stars pressure, Loyola hardly sat back on defense.
Jensen’s nice block of a cross into the box with 35:50 left sprung Devin Burns on a partial breakaway to the other end. But defender Willis and goalkeeper Leanne Stahulak combined to deny the chance.
Lauren Neslund’s nice steal 12-yards out with 26:20 left squelched a nice attack by Loyola’s K.K. Phelan.
Stahulak punched away a well-placed Emily Chrisman corner kick with 21:20 to go, and a Phelan pass to Ramsay with 16:40 to go resulted in a 22-yarder just wide right.
Phelan later sent her own liner just wide of the right post with 4:45 to play.
Then after repelling a North Stars last-minute push, the Ramblers put the win away on Burns’ goal.
“Today (the goal) was to stay strong on the defense,” Yasko said, “and whenever we had a chance to push up and get our offensive plays in and get goals.
“I think this helps our team in general,” Yasko added about the win. “Obviously it’s an amazing team we played, so getting this win means something to us.
“It’s a time to practice our runs, become a better team together and just help us push throughout the season for the even bigger games when it comes to the playoffs.”
The Ramblers have outscored their first three opponents by a 12-0 count, in a challenging early season schedule.
“We’ve upped our schedule over the last few years,” Snower said, “and our conference got a lot better with the addition of Fenwick, Wheaton St. Francis and Providence.
“But these games against Glenbrook South a couple of days ago (a 3-0 win), St. Charles North and Evanston on Tuesday are huge games we want to win. The more games like that you play early in the year get you playoff ready. We want to play top-10 teams, and this is certainly one of them.”
For St. Charles North, similar March challenges should also pay off.
“Conant (ranked 13th) was the team that knocked us out last year, and we beat them two days ago so that felt really good,” Czerniak said. “We worked hard, and we were ready for it.
“We have a really strong group of girls, and we think of ourselves as a very versatile team because we’re very deep and so many people can play so many places. When it comes to playoffs, I think we’ll go far.”
Harks agrees.
“Overall we’re really optimistic for the season,” he said. “This is a great opportunity to learn and to grow as a team, and I’m excited to see what they can do in the future.”
Starting line-ups
St. Charles North
GK: Leanne Stahulak
D: Lauren Neslund
D: Lauren Willis
D: Dmi Petrusha
D: Claire Barresi
MF: Katy Kusswurm
MF: Amanda Czerniak
MF: Elli Wahlberg
MF: Morgan Rerko
F: Hailey Rydberg
F: Gia Wahlberg
Loyola:
GK: Maggie Avery
D: Alex Yasko
D: Jillian Jensen
D: Lauren Chrisman
D: Riley Burns
MF: Natalie Joyce
MF: Stephanie Ramsay
MF: Bella Broccolo
MF: Cate Shellenback
F: Devin Burns
F: K.K. Phelan
MVP of the Match: Alex Yasko, D, Loyola
Host Ramblers win battle of top 10 teams
By Dave Owen
WILMETTE- In an opening week of statement wins, Loyola had the last word.
After St. Charles North, ranked sixth in the Chicagoland Soccer Top 25, avenged its 2015 sectional final loss to Conant with a 1-0 win over the Cougars on Thursday, no. 3 Loyola (3-0) showed its own big-time potential with a 2-0 victory over the North Stars on Saturday.
“We’re really optimistic about the season,” Loyola senior defender Lauren Chrisman said. “We have 10 seniors this year, and there are five of us who have been playing together (on varsity) since freshman year. To be together these four years will make us pretty strong.
“It’s early in the season, but one of the things this (win) does is give us a little confidence and shows us what we can do. And against a team like St. Charles North that is so good and has been so successful, it shows us what we need to work on as well.”
Defense doesn’t appear to be an area in need of work, as Loyola consistently shut down strong attacks by a powerful St. Charles North offense.
“If you start with St. Charles North, the two sophomores (midfielder Hailey Rydberg and forward Gia Wahlberg) jump off the page at you,” Loyola coach Craig Snower said. “I know them from club, so I know what they’re capable of doing.
“We don’t really man mark anyone per se, but there was a concerted effort that we were going to recognize those two players. And when they were in our zone, we weren’t going to let them have free passes. They’re so talented that they both got themselves good chances anyway, which speaks volumes of them as players.”
Loyola’s defensive four of Chrisman, Alex Yasko, Riley Burns and Jillian Jensen helped keep the potent Stars off the scoreboard.
And at the offensive end, a late first half set-piece and the continued strong comeback by mega scorer Devin Burns were difference makers for the Ramblers.
Off an Emily Chrisman corner kick in the 38th minute, Yasko was on the spot for a rebound.
“Emily Chrisman crossed it in,” Yasko said, “and then Bella Broccolo was able to come to it right at the top of the 18. It came to me, and I was able to turn and get a shot on it.”
For Snower, the finish off a restart continued a Loyola tradition.
“We take a lot of pride in our set pieces,” he said. “It’s something we’ve been great at for years, but not as good the last two years. Three years ago we probably scored 30-40 set-piece goals out of our 90 goals, and the last two years we were probably under 10. And we were under three or four (goals) in what I would call these big ticket games against top 10 opponents.
“Alex’s run was to the far post, so she came back and got in position for that rebound, and she sends a great shot inside the post,” Snower added. “And no one’s saving that one, side netting with spin.”
Before the Yasko goal, a big time play by goalkeeper Maggie Avery in the 33rd minute was another exclamation point to the half.
“You have to look at two things in the first half, the set-piece (goal) and the save on their header by Maggie Avery five minutes before that,” Snower said. “If she doesn’t make that save, it’s 1-0 and the whole complexity of the game changes.
“Credit to Maggie keeping us in, and then to Alex for knocking a good one.”
Another big factor in Loyola’s big finish to the first half was freshman Emily Chrisman’s play off the bench.
“Emily Crisman is really a defender,” Snower said, “but since we’re so deep there we’re using her as a holding mid. In the first half when we were getting beat up at midfield she went in there and did a really nice job of winning 50/50 balls.
“The 20 best minutes we had were at the end of the first half when we were putting constant pressure on them, and Emily was a big part of that. She’s done well for us so far.”
The finish to the first half gave the Ramblers critical momentum, and a cushion against a second half St. Charles North onslaught.
“They were really pressing us and in our end a lot,” Lauren Chrisman said. “To get a goal with so little time left kind of relaxed us and let us get back to playing soccer like we’re best at.”
The goal was Yasko’s second of the season.
“I think it helped a lot with our team, just pushing us to try harder and keep going,” Yasko said. “When it’s 0-0 close to the half, a lot of teams struggle trying to get that first goal. Getting that helped us a lot and pushed us into the second half to get our second goal, which Devin successfully did.”
Devin Burns’ goal came with just 55 seconds left in the game, as Joyce’s nice send upfield connected with Burns for a rush and eventual 10-yard drive inside the right post.
After missing last season with a knee injury, Burns has picked up her career-long amazing offensive pace without skipping a beat.
“She had 35 goals as a freshman and 21 as a sophomore,” Snower said. “She’s at 60 goals in 47 (career) games.
“She’s worked really hard, and we’re happy she’s healthy. By December-January club she was up to 90 percent, and then she had mono and now I think she’s about 85 percent. By May you might see 100 percent, and 100 percent of Devin Burns would be very good.”
May could be very good for both teams.
St. Charles North showed that potential by defeating Conant on a Gia Wahlberg goal, and displayed plenty of firepower at Loyola as well.
Among the waves of chances in the second half, Rydberg drove up the middle with 30:05 left and dished to Morgan Rerko, whose 10-yard left-footed drive was denied on a diving Avery save.
An Amanda Czerniak race up right wing with 17:50 to go freed Wahlberg for a strong attack into the box – only to be denied by a nice steal by Loyola’s Stephanie Ramsay.
A pair of 38-yard free kicks by Lauren Willis in the final 13 minutes also generated threats. A Yasko block in the box denied the first, then a Lauren Chrisman header near the top of the box off Willis’ restart with 5:30 left ended with a long Wahlberg shot that deflected on goal.
“I’m proud of the way the girls came back and fought in the second half,” North Stars coach Brian Harks said. “Loyola’s a talented team, a physical team, and that’s a really great challenge for us early in the season.
“Especially early in the season you expect to make a couple mistakes, and our hope is to learn from those mistakes moving forward.”
Czerniak was a catalyst to the increased chances.
“I felt Amanda Czerniak on the outside gave some pretty good minutes,” said Harks, a longtime North Stars assistant in his first year as head coach. “In the second half you could see the fight and intensity pick up in her play.
“Overall as a team I thought we played better as a team and took the fight to them rather than sitting back.”
Despite the eventual setback, Czerniak saw plenty of reasons for optimism.
“It’s our second game, so we obviously have a lot of things to work on,” she said. “That was evident in different phases. But we really worked hard, and I don’t think there was a time that we got down on each other.
“It was a disappointing loss, but I know that we can come back. It’s only our second game, so we have all season to fix things. I believe in us.
“Our thing was needing to get a better first touch and being able to switch the field better,” Czerniak added. “That’s kind of our focus right now, to improve upon that.”
Up 1-0 at halftime and facing increased North Stars pressure, Loyola hardly sat back on defense.
Jensen’s nice block of a cross into the box with 35:50 left sprung Devin Burns on a partial breakaway to the other end. But defender Willis and goalkeeper Leanne Stahulak combined to deny the chance.
Lauren Neslund’s nice steal 12-yards out with 26:20 left squelched a nice attack by Loyola’s K.K. Phelan.
Stahulak punched away a well-placed Emily Chrisman corner kick with 21:20 to go, and a Phelan pass to Ramsay with 16:40 to go resulted in a 22-yarder just wide right.
Phelan later sent her own liner just wide of the right post with 4:45 to play.
Then after repelling a North Stars last-minute push, the Ramblers put the win away on Burns’ goal.
“Today (the goal) was to stay strong on the defense,” Yasko said, “and whenever we had a chance to push up and get our offensive plays in and get goals.
“I think this helps our team in general,” Yasko added about the win. “Obviously it’s an amazing team we played, so getting this win means something to us.
“It’s a time to practice our runs, become a better team together and just help us push throughout the season for the even bigger games when it comes to the playoffs.”
The Ramblers have outscored their first three opponents by a 12-0 count, in a challenging early season schedule.
“We’ve upped our schedule over the last few years,” Snower said, “and our conference got a lot better with the addition of Fenwick, Wheaton St. Francis and Providence.
“But these games against Glenbrook South a couple of days ago (a 3-0 win), St. Charles North and Evanston on Tuesday are huge games we want to win. The more games like that you play early in the year get you playoff ready. We want to play top-10 teams, and this is certainly one of them.”
For St. Charles North, similar March challenges should also pay off.
“Conant (ranked 13th) was the team that knocked us out last year, and we beat them two days ago so that felt really good,” Czerniak said. “We worked hard, and we were ready for it.
“We have a really strong group of girls, and we think of ourselves as a very versatile team because we’re very deep and so many people can play so many places. When it comes to playoffs, I think we’ll go far.”
Harks agrees.
“Overall we’re really optimistic for the season,” he said. “This is a great opportunity to learn and to grow as a team, and I’m excited to see what they can do in the future.”
Starting line-ups
St. Charles North
GK: Leanne Stahulak
D: Lauren Neslund
D: Lauren Willis
D: Dmi Petrusha
D: Claire Barresi
MF: Katy Kusswurm
MF: Amanda Czerniak
MF: Elli Wahlberg
MF: Morgan Rerko
F: Hailey Rydberg
F: Gia Wahlberg
Loyola:
GK: Maggie Avery
D: Alex Yasko
D: Jillian Jensen
D: Lauren Chrisman
D: Riley Burns
MF: Natalie Joyce
MF: Stephanie Ramsay
MF: Bella Broccolo
MF: Cate Shellenback
F: Devin Burns
F: K.K. Phelan
MVP of the Match: Alex Yasko, D, Loyola