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Chicagoland Soccer Top 25



By Patrick Z. McGavin



What a difference a year makes.

The compressed girls’ season a year ago operated within the narrow confines of pandemic-shortened scheduling that restricted travel, effectively eliminated in-season tournaments and meant teams largely played conference-only schedules.

The return toward normality took another major step forward this week with a couple of significant tournaments, the Windy City Ram Classic and the Wheaton North Kickoff Classic.

The Windy City Ram Classic final turned out to be a closely-held contest of neighboring schools.

Lincoln-Way Central defeated Lincoln-Way East in penalty kicks.

Lincoln-Way Central has given up just one goal in five games. The Knights also defeated Glenbrook South 1-0 in the semifinals.

Lincoln-Way East knocked out Andrew on penalties in the other semifinal.

Andrew beat Glenbrook South in penalties for third place.

That is how closely held the top four teams were. It literally could have gone any way.

“It’s the reason why I love this tournament,” Glenbard East coach Kent Overbey said after his team’s 1-0 loss against Lincoln-Way Central in the quarterfinal round.

Tournaments offer a microcosm of the season, the ability to see different styles and different teams in a compact space.

The top 10 is largely unchanged. 

Metea Valley, which remains 10th in the poll, earned the championship of the round-robin formatted Kickoff Classic.

They finished with 10 points, going undefeated in the tournament. Plainfield North prevented a Mustangs clean sweep of the four-game schedule with a 2-2 tie.

Benet beat Plainfield North and lost to Glenbard West. It was the kind of field that produced topsy-turvy and well-played games.

The other significant storyline this week was the relative absence of games given the number of teams on spring break. That situation continues next week.

Teams that are banged up or dealing with injuries have time to heal and come back strong.

The season plays out in stages. The first two weeks has shown some excellent play. Historically dominant programs like Libertyville, Lyons and the two Naperville schools, Central and North, continue to show well.

Naperville Central has posted five shutouts. Naperville North has conceded one goal in five games against elite competition.

The early powers have established their own order.

It will be interesting to see how the next stage of the season plays out.

The various factors are now jammed together, making for a true season, something we have definitely been waiting for a long time.

​

Rk LW Team W L T Comment
11Libertyville200Lauren Rocco a force of nature
22Lyons300Rielly Chesna is creative midfielder
33Naperville C500GK Abby O'Connor is unscored upon
44Naperville N500Lucy Iverson is a game-changer
55New Trier201Josie Noble is dangerous up-top
67Warren101Reese Mertens is bright young talent
78Barrington110Nicole Gwiasda is nervy talent
89Evanston300Adriana Merriam keys dramatic win at Loyola
911St. Charles N200Sidney Tims is a defensive stopper
1010Metea V401Jordan Lange keys Kickoff Classic title
1113Glenbrook N400Four shutouts to start season
1214Stevenson100Gracie Wingfield a talent to watch
1316Lane300Jocelyn Ramirez a superb 2-way threat
1412St. Charles E310Yazmin Martinez has skill to burn
156Loyola221Eva Pattison is ferocious defender
16HML-W Central500Windy City Ram Classic champions
17HML-W East410Falls to rival on Pks in title game
1817Andrew410Only loss came on penalties
1919Oswego E110Taylor English is bright offensive force
2015Benet320Katie Lewellyan a dangerous offensive talent
2121Deerfield300Ally Lin is dynamic with the ball
22HMCarmel000Anna Hartman is an elite scorer
2320Geneva310Kya Trejo is skilled in the middle
2424Hinsdale C301Ava Elliott is a disruptive stopper
2518Glenbrook S321Anna Durow a quality 2-way talent
Look out for: Glenbard West, Plainfield North, Timothy, Lincoln-Way West, Young, Wheaton North, Neuqua Valley, Batavia, Oswego, Joliet Catholic, Morton, Fremd, Crystal Lake Central, South Elgin.
 

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