CHICAGO – University (Chicago) has been one of the most successful local Class A schools in the past decade. With fourth place state finishes in 2018 and last season, and six regional titles in the past eight years, the Maroons have been a tough opponent.

And it appears they remain that. Despite graduating six seniors, three of whom are playing collegiately, University returned three-of-its-four top-scorers. 

A schedule featuring four schools that are either in larger Class AA or 3A to start the season was planned to help the team prepare for tougher contests down the road and to help it learn more about itself. 

After tough losses to Class 3A schools Mother McAuley and ranked Fenwick to start the year, the Maroons started to turn the corner with a 2-2 tie against Class AA St. Laurence on April 3.

“You just have to compete,” University (Chicago) manager David Vadeboncoeur said. “As players, they have to look around and write their own chapter as part of the program, because those players we had last year are gone.

“I know pound-for-pound we favor us against most opponents. What I came down to for these last couple of games, what I asked them is not to make excuses, not to point fingers. It’s up to them to succeed on the field. They have to find the collective urge to compete together on the field, and they’ve done that these past few games.”

“This really isn’t new for us, because in the beginning of seasons, our coaches usually schedule these games to get us ready,” University’s Lucy Aronsohn said. “I think of it like in baseball … you swing with a donut when you get ready for an at-bat, and that’s what we do with the games against bigger teams. We use them to get us ready for games further into the season.”

The Maroons followed the tie with a huge 6-3 huge win over Payton on Saturday morning at their home pitch of Jackman Field in Hyde Park.

“It was a good game for us,” Aronsohn said. “I think we had some trouble playing down to their level. We knew we were the better team. I’m sure they knew it too.

“Now that we’ve got this first win, we have the confidence to build on it. These first couple of games have been tough, and we can build on this.” 

“Our week was very difficult, it’s been a heavy schedule,” Vadeboncoeur said. “We had a game last Saturday (March 29), Tuesday (April 1), Thursday (April 3) and now today. 

“That’s a pretty heavy schedule, especially coming off of a two-week spring break, so a lot of rust and not a lot of time to prepare or training.

“I’m proud of them getting through this stretch. They were feeling depleted from the first two results, but the girls knew they were better than they showed and really have done a great job the past couple of matches.”

University (1-2-1) got on the board in the sixth minute on a goal from senior Alex Giles, and the Maroons were on their way.

Payton (0-2-0) fired back quickly. Senior Jasmine Zhang took a through-ball from Zara Lau not even a minute later to tie the score at 1.

“I’ve been practicing dribbling around and past defenders and finding corners of the net to shoot at,” Zhang said. “The goalie (Olive Bracken-Saenz) came too far out, and I had to just dribble past her.”

The lack of a response to an early deficit hindered the Grizzlies in their season-opener against Amundsen. 

“Getting the goal right away was big, especially after the loss on Wednesday (April 2) where that didn’t happen,” Zhang said. 

“Within a minute, we made it 1-1,” Payton manager Dylan Pender said. “But if we’re going to give up this many goals, we’re going to make it pretty tough on ourselves. I’m a defensive player myself, so … we’ve got to try to keep the ball out of the net. 

“The key to turning the tide is keeping the ball.”

After Payton’s glimmer of hope, University kept the ball in the Payton half for the majority of the first half. The Maroons limited Payton to a single shot the rest of the first 40 minutes.

The offensive pressure came to fruition twice more for the Maroons, both courtesy of Devin Moubayed.

With just over 10 minutes, 30 seconds, remaining, she made a run into the box and got fouled near the end line for a penalty kick.

The junior converted to give the home team a lead it wouldn’t relinquish.

Four minutes later, the junior got a ball from Leyla Yates, last year’s leading scorer, and extended the lead at halftime to 3-1.

“Sending players out wide and finding a good spot to let the ball across my body, so I have an easy target, worked really well for me on my second goal,” Moubayed said. “We like to isolate our wingers out wide for 1-v-1s. Once they beat their defensive players, cross it into the trailing players in the box.

“I feel like we were the better team. We’ve got a lot of confidence, and I knew that if we kept taking shots, eventually they would go in.” 

University took Payton out of its offensive rhythm.

“Their defense was really strong. Their centerbacks knew how to dribble around us, hold the ball until we got in too deep,” Zhang said.

University appeared to put the game away in the first 12 minutes of the second half after Yates’ score on a header after a free kick from Orly Eggener, and Ana Rossi’s unassisted tally.

About two minutes later, Payton showed its fight. Samantha Pilgrim tallied her second goal of the season on a crazy play.

The junior popped the ball up in the air toward the goal, which forced the University keeper off her line. The ball took a strange bounce and caused the Maroons keeper to fall out of position.

The offering continued into the net with 25 minutes, 27 seconds, remaining in the contest.

Payton had more of an offensive rhythm in the last 40 minutes, partially because of a formation switch.

“During halftime, we talked about different strategies we can use and how we can build up from the back, and about communication,” defender Violetta Nevarez said. “When we put all that together, it worked out better for us.”

“We changed our formation so that we could be more compact in the middle and stop the balls going through the middle,” said Zhang. “We changed it to a 3-5-2, and it somewhat worked. It’s still new, so we’ve got to work on it more.”

The adjustment paid off again when Nevarez scored off of a pass from Lau, who has assisted on three of Payton’s four goals on the season. The finish in the 64th minute put the momentum squarely in the Grizzlies’ favor.

“We had a really good build-up from our defense and made our way up the middle,” Nevarez said. “Zara passed it to me. I saw a bunch of space and took the shot.”

“The second half we went with two main forwards instead of one or three,” Pender said. “When you’re in a 4-3-3 or 4-5-1, you can change that depending on whether you have the ball.

“I told them at halftime that we couldn’t put all the Xs and Os on the scoreboard. We can talk about scoring all we want, but if you don’t come and fight for each other, then what are we here for?

“Everyone was fighting for each other, and we had better results.” 

With just under five minutes remaining, Zhang got a ball in the box, with only the University keeper standing between her and a one-goal deficit, but the Maroons keeper made a great save to keep it at 5-3. 

Thirty seconds later, Yates scored to make it 6-3 and cap the scoring.

Payton’s toughest opponent in the early season has been the weather. The had their first three matches postponed and added a fourth to the list Monday. 

The Grizzlies are starting to see what works after their overdue season debuts.

“We learned a lot from that Amundsen game,” Nevarez said. “We learned where we need to be on the field individually and what works best for us position-wise. 

“Communication is key, we have to talk through the whole field, the entire game, to know where we want to go and how we want to get there.”

“Getting everyone healthy, everyone out there will be big for us,” Pender said. “Our strongest lineup hasn’t emerged yet. Once we get that, hopefully we can continue to improve every day.”

Starting lineups

Payton
GK: Emily Sprenger
D: Alex Park
D: Violet Nevarez 
D: Caylie Kromelow
D: Maya Wojciechowski
D: Marirose Goldman
MF: Dominique Bennett
MF: Zara Lau
MF: Samantha Palmer
F: Jasmine Zhang
F: Maggie Tryggestad

University
GK: Olive Bracken-Saenz
LB: Isolde Wedemeyer
CB: Sohana Schneider
CB: Orly Eggener
RB: Elsa Podszus
MF: Devyn Moubayed
MF: Cecily Bensmaia
MF: Alex Giles
MF: Lucy Aronsohn
MF: Leyla Yates
S: Ana Rossi

Chicagoland Soccer MVP of the Match: Devyn Moubayed, jr., MF, University

Scoring summary

First half
U: Alex Giles (unassisted), sixth minute
P: Jasmine Zhang (Zara Lau), 7th minute
U: Devyn Moubayed (penalty kick), 30th
U: Moubayed (unassisted), 34th

Second half
U: Leyla Yates (Orly Eggener), 44th
U: Ana Rossi (unassisted), 53rd 
P: Samantha Pilgrim (unassisted), 55th 
P: Violetta Nevarez (Lau), 64th
U: Yates (unassisted), 76th