Goal before break holds up for Young
1st half goal the game-winner in CPL semi against Northside
By Dave Owen
CHICAGO -- Last second shots and unlikely comebacks are usually the stuff of basketball.
But both those elements and others spilled from the court to the pitch in Tuesday’s Public League semifinal at Lane Stadium.
Young (15-7-1) improbably scored with just eight seconds left in the first half to head into the break with a 2-0 lead.
But Northside (14-6-1) answered with an all-out blitz over the final four minutes of play, rallying to the brink of forcing overtime in an eventual 2-1 Dolphins win.
“We fought all the way through,” Northside coach Robert Albritton said. “As one of our former players here said, five more minutes and who knows what happens.
“But the biggest thing is giving up that goal with eight seconds left in the half.”
Between that last-second score an earlier incredible strike by Young star Gaby Schwartz, the Dolphins ended the first half in command in both score and momentum.
Schwartz’s 25th goal of the season with 14:34 left in the half was as good as they come.
Off a pass from Sarah Heise, Schwartz launched a high, 30-yard, straight-on shot just under the crossbar that even 2014 Young graduate and current NBA center Jahlil Okafor may not have been able to block.
“That was probably the best shot, I’ve hit all season,” Schwartz said. “Sarah had the ball in the middle. I saw the opening, and I screamed for the ball.”
Having been denied by Northside goalkeeper Cassandra Brown on a similar laser shot in the 17th minute, Schwartz created enough open space to put away this long distance strike.
“I was getting man-marked,” she said, “so as soon as I realized I had gotten her off my back I knew I could hit it. I saw the opportunity, and I just struck it with one touch.”
Young coach Spero Mandakas has come to expect such finishes.
“Gaby’s a great player,” he said. “They were man-marking her the whole game, so we told the girls we had to distribute through other players in the midfield and try to get her free. She got a good pass from Sarah Heise, and she’s a great striker. When she gets some space with a good shot on her left foot, it’s going to go in.”
Albritton saw a deflating impact on his team after that goal.
“To Whitney’s credit, Gaby Schwartz is one of the best players to come out of Chicago,” he said. “That goal was fantastic.
“When they got that first goal we mentally went out of the game for about 20 minutes. When we checked back in down 2-0, it was a different game.”
All the attention paid to Schwartz would pay off for Young just before halftime. But not before Northside’s own big-time scorer Sarah Mullen (28 goals) made her presence felt.
On a long Mustangs send 2:30 before halftime, Mullen raced in 1-v.-1. With a half step on the Dolphin defender, she sent a 12-yarder just over the net to keep the score 1-0.
With just eight seconds left, Sara Woods burst in on right wing and sent a cross to the front of the net. Heise was there for a touch put-away inside the left post and a 2-0 Young lead.
“Sara Woods came down and put a negative ball, and I just put it in the corner,” Heise said.
That play was a pure case of practice made perfect.
“We work on that every single practice,” Schwartz said.
Said Mandakas: “We’ve been practicing all year attacking the end line and finding that negative ball. Sara Woods made a great run, and Sarah Heise was in the right place, made the right run and was able to put it away.
“We played OK in the first half. Offensively it wasn’t anything creative until the last 10 minutes, when we were able to connect on some passes and get everybody into the possession. They did a nice job denying our midfielders the ball, so we had to go through other channels. Once we found those channels, we started getting creative play.”
The big finish to the half followed a nervous start for Young.
Two minutes in, Nothside Mullen took a shot in the box was blocked by defender Cameron Herman. Then in the 10th minute, Mullen’s right side drive was denied on a diving one-handed deflection by Young goalkeeper Sloane Kistinger.
In the 65 minutes between that Northside offensive surge and the Mustangs’ late all-out rally, the Dolphin defense hung tough.
“I think we did OK,” Young senior defender Madison Ekern said. “We kind of fell apart a little bit in the second half and in the first half in the first 10 minutes, but Sarah (Mullen) is a really good player, and Jess (Skol) on the outside was really good and physical.
“So we knew we had to contain them, and just get it out as soon as we got it and make sure they didn’t get any turns and shots off.”
Down 2-0, Northside began to find some momentum with 26:30 left. Rebecca Skipper’s pass from the end line set up a high 20-yard shot by Kelsey Tsonton, which Kistinger caught.
Young answered with a flurry of four-corner kicks in five minutes midway through the half, capped by Schwartz’s tip just wide of an Ekern corner with 17:45 left.
The Northside defense also came up big with 18:50 to play, when Audrey Howaniec’s shot off a long Schwartz send was deflected near the goal line by the Mustang defense.
But if the Mustangs appeared to be quietly en route to a shutout defeat, they had other plans.
Off a Skipper corner-kick with 14:15 to go, a well-marked Mullen leapt high over a defender to put a 6-foot header on goal. Then with 6:40 left, Megan Sobolewski’s tough angle high shot from the side 8-yards out was grabbed by Kistinger.
The Northside effort finally paid off with 3:39 left. Mullen raced in up the middle of the field and powered an 18-yarder into the upper right corner of the net to make the score 2-1.
Mullen would likely be Taylor Swift's favorite player. Kicked in the face with the ball with 10 minutes left, Mullen was able to shake it off with barely a frown and take over the final minutes of the match.
“I think at halftime we were really frustrated,” Mullen said, “especially letting in the goal in the last minute. We laid it all out on the field – we were there physically skill-wise. Mentally we were getting down on ourselves, and that can cause problems. But I’m really proud of my team.”
That pride and pressure grew in the final moments. Kistinger outraced a Mustang attacker to a Northside send to the box with 2:50 left.
Then came a final Northside flurry off a Sobolewski throw-in and passes by Skol and Ava Sherry, Skipper’s 10-yard shot from left of the net with just five seconds left was saved by Kistinger to finally seal the Young win.
“I was like ‘We need to get the ball out,’” Schwartz said. “It was frantic, but I knew we could rally. We just had to organize, take a deep breath, realize we were the team on top, and we just had to keep the lead.”
Said Ekern: “They came out strong, and we knew they would. “We were lucky we came out on top.”
While coming up short, Northside carries valuable never-quit lessons into next week’s regionals.
“Hopefully what we can take away is the need to play 80 solid minutes in the game,” Albritton said. “With this team and what they showed in the second half, that gives us a little bit of a push going into that (regional) game.
“I’m proud of my girls. Sarah played a fantastic game – with a little luck she has three goals. She made a lot of things happen up there.”
Mullen summed up the Mustangs’ last-minute approach Tuesday.
“When it’s 2-0 you think, ‘Let’s not lose,’” Mullen said. “When it’s 2-1 it’s ‘Let’s win.’ So we really wanted to put another one in the back of the net, to get overtime and then magic happens.”
Young hopes to have its own magic Thursday, when it faces host Lane in the Chicago Public League finals. The Dolphins fell to Lane 3-1 on April 27, and also in last year’s city title match.
“I’m nervous but also confident,” Ekern said. “We played a really good game against Lane during conference. We just need to execute, get goals and keep the shutout.”
Schwartz hopes the final Public League match of her career is very memorable.
“As the third (city) championship in a row we’re going to, I’m really pumped, especially against Lane,” Schwartz said. “I want the redemption from last year. I’m excited.”
Starting line-ups
Northside
GK- Cassandra Brown
D-Ava Sherry
D- Callin Coleman
D- Alexandra Sobor
D- Andrea Lin
MF- Megan Sobolewski
MF- Arly Escamilla
MF- Kelsey Tsonton
MF- Rebecca Skipper
F- Sarah Mullen
F- Jessyca Skol
Whitney Young
GK- Sloane Kistinger
D- Mariah Helm
D- Madison Ekern
D- Quinn Gorman
D- Cameron Herman
MF- Keila Vega
MF- Sophie Leib-Neri
MF- Gaby Schwartz
MF- Sarah Main
F- Sarah Heise
F- Audrey Howaniec
MVP of the Match: Gaby Schwartz, MF, Whitney Young
1st half goal the game-winner in CPL semi against Northside
By Dave Owen
CHICAGO -- Last second shots and unlikely comebacks are usually the stuff of basketball.
But both those elements and others spilled from the court to the pitch in Tuesday’s Public League semifinal at Lane Stadium.
Young (15-7-1) improbably scored with just eight seconds left in the first half to head into the break with a 2-0 lead.
But Northside (14-6-1) answered with an all-out blitz over the final four minutes of play, rallying to the brink of forcing overtime in an eventual 2-1 Dolphins win.
“We fought all the way through,” Northside coach Robert Albritton said. “As one of our former players here said, five more minutes and who knows what happens.
“But the biggest thing is giving up that goal with eight seconds left in the half.”
Between that last-second score an earlier incredible strike by Young star Gaby Schwartz, the Dolphins ended the first half in command in both score and momentum.
Schwartz’s 25th goal of the season with 14:34 left in the half was as good as they come.
Off a pass from Sarah Heise, Schwartz launched a high, 30-yard, straight-on shot just under the crossbar that even 2014 Young graduate and current NBA center Jahlil Okafor may not have been able to block.
“That was probably the best shot, I’ve hit all season,” Schwartz said. “Sarah had the ball in the middle. I saw the opening, and I screamed for the ball.”
Having been denied by Northside goalkeeper Cassandra Brown on a similar laser shot in the 17th minute, Schwartz created enough open space to put away this long distance strike.
“I was getting man-marked,” she said, “so as soon as I realized I had gotten her off my back I knew I could hit it. I saw the opportunity, and I just struck it with one touch.”
Young coach Spero Mandakas has come to expect such finishes.
“Gaby’s a great player,” he said. “They were man-marking her the whole game, so we told the girls we had to distribute through other players in the midfield and try to get her free. She got a good pass from Sarah Heise, and she’s a great striker. When she gets some space with a good shot on her left foot, it’s going to go in.”
Albritton saw a deflating impact on his team after that goal.
“To Whitney’s credit, Gaby Schwartz is one of the best players to come out of Chicago,” he said. “That goal was fantastic.
“When they got that first goal we mentally went out of the game for about 20 minutes. When we checked back in down 2-0, it was a different game.”
All the attention paid to Schwartz would pay off for Young just before halftime. But not before Northside’s own big-time scorer Sarah Mullen (28 goals) made her presence felt.
On a long Mustangs send 2:30 before halftime, Mullen raced in 1-v.-1. With a half step on the Dolphin defender, she sent a 12-yarder just over the net to keep the score 1-0.
With just eight seconds left, Sara Woods burst in on right wing and sent a cross to the front of the net. Heise was there for a touch put-away inside the left post and a 2-0 Young lead.
“Sara Woods came down and put a negative ball, and I just put it in the corner,” Heise said.
That play was a pure case of practice made perfect.
“We work on that every single practice,” Schwartz said.
Said Mandakas: “We’ve been practicing all year attacking the end line and finding that negative ball. Sara Woods made a great run, and Sarah Heise was in the right place, made the right run and was able to put it away.
“We played OK in the first half. Offensively it wasn’t anything creative until the last 10 minutes, when we were able to connect on some passes and get everybody into the possession. They did a nice job denying our midfielders the ball, so we had to go through other channels. Once we found those channels, we started getting creative play.”
The big finish to the half followed a nervous start for Young.
Two minutes in, Nothside Mullen took a shot in the box was blocked by defender Cameron Herman. Then in the 10th minute, Mullen’s right side drive was denied on a diving one-handed deflection by Young goalkeeper Sloane Kistinger.
In the 65 minutes between that Northside offensive surge and the Mustangs’ late all-out rally, the Dolphin defense hung tough.
“I think we did OK,” Young senior defender Madison Ekern said. “We kind of fell apart a little bit in the second half and in the first half in the first 10 minutes, but Sarah (Mullen) is a really good player, and Jess (Skol) on the outside was really good and physical.
“So we knew we had to contain them, and just get it out as soon as we got it and make sure they didn’t get any turns and shots off.”
Down 2-0, Northside began to find some momentum with 26:30 left. Rebecca Skipper’s pass from the end line set up a high 20-yard shot by Kelsey Tsonton, which Kistinger caught.
Young answered with a flurry of four-corner kicks in five minutes midway through the half, capped by Schwartz’s tip just wide of an Ekern corner with 17:45 left.
The Northside defense also came up big with 18:50 to play, when Audrey Howaniec’s shot off a long Schwartz send was deflected near the goal line by the Mustang defense.
But if the Mustangs appeared to be quietly en route to a shutout defeat, they had other plans.
Off a Skipper corner-kick with 14:15 to go, a well-marked Mullen leapt high over a defender to put a 6-foot header on goal. Then with 6:40 left, Megan Sobolewski’s tough angle high shot from the side 8-yards out was grabbed by Kistinger.
The Northside effort finally paid off with 3:39 left. Mullen raced in up the middle of the field and powered an 18-yarder into the upper right corner of the net to make the score 2-1.
Mullen would likely be Taylor Swift's favorite player. Kicked in the face with the ball with 10 minutes left, Mullen was able to shake it off with barely a frown and take over the final minutes of the match.
“I think at halftime we were really frustrated,” Mullen said, “especially letting in the goal in the last minute. We laid it all out on the field – we were there physically skill-wise. Mentally we were getting down on ourselves, and that can cause problems. But I’m really proud of my team.”
That pride and pressure grew in the final moments. Kistinger outraced a Mustang attacker to a Northside send to the box with 2:50 left.
Then came a final Northside flurry off a Sobolewski throw-in and passes by Skol and Ava Sherry, Skipper’s 10-yard shot from left of the net with just five seconds left was saved by Kistinger to finally seal the Young win.
“I was like ‘We need to get the ball out,’” Schwartz said. “It was frantic, but I knew we could rally. We just had to organize, take a deep breath, realize we were the team on top, and we just had to keep the lead.”
Said Ekern: “They came out strong, and we knew they would. “We were lucky we came out on top.”
While coming up short, Northside carries valuable never-quit lessons into next week’s regionals.
“Hopefully what we can take away is the need to play 80 solid minutes in the game,” Albritton said. “With this team and what they showed in the second half, that gives us a little bit of a push going into that (regional) game.
“I’m proud of my girls. Sarah played a fantastic game – with a little luck she has three goals. She made a lot of things happen up there.”
Mullen summed up the Mustangs’ last-minute approach Tuesday.
“When it’s 2-0 you think, ‘Let’s not lose,’” Mullen said. “When it’s 2-1 it’s ‘Let’s win.’ So we really wanted to put another one in the back of the net, to get overtime and then magic happens.”
Young hopes to have its own magic Thursday, when it faces host Lane in the Chicago Public League finals. The Dolphins fell to Lane 3-1 on April 27, and also in last year’s city title match.
“I’m nervous but also confident,” Ekern said. “We played a really good game against Lane during conference. We just need to execute, get goals and keep the shutout.”
Schwartz hopes the final Public League match of her career is very memorable.
“As the third (city) championship in a row we’re going to, I’m really pumped, especially against Lane,” Schwartz said. “I want the redemption from last year. I’m excited.”
Starting line-ups
Northside
GK- Cassandra Brown
D-Ava Sherry
D- Callin Coleman
D- Alexandra Sobor
D- Andrea Lin
MF- Megan Sobolewski
MF- Arly Escamilla
MF- Kelsey Tsonton
MF- Rebecca Skipper
F- Sarah Mullen
F- Jessyca Skol
Whitney Young
GK- Sloane Kistinger
D- Mariah Helm
D- Madison Ekern
D- Quinn Gorman
D- Cameron Herman
MF- Keila Vega
MF- Sophie Leib-Neri
MF- Gaby Schwartz
MF- Sarah Main
F- Sarah Heise
F- Audrey Howaniec
MVP of the Match: Gaby Schwartz, MF, Whitney Young
