Girls soccer: Scoreless draw for St. Viator, Benet in key ESCC matchup
Benet Academy and St. Viator have either won or shared 14 East Suburban Catholic Conference girls soccer trophies since 1996.
And in all the other years since then, one or both have managed to play key roles in deciding the title race.
The two prestigious programs met Wednesday afternoon in Arlington Heights at Robert Morris Field. After 80 minutes and two extra sessions, in ended in a 0-0 draw.
"It was your typical Benet-St. Viator game," said Redwings coach Gerard Oconer. "I really felt we had most of the play today, but credit St. Viator. They were dangerous in the counter and have a great keeper who saved them a couple of times to keep us out of the back of the net."
Oconer had to wonder from the onset if it was going to be one of those days for the Redwings (10-3-1, 3-0-1), who had a glorious chance in the opening moments when Jackie Schuman broke into the box - only to have Anna Johnston save the close-range attempt.
After that initial warning shot, the game settled down, both teams testing one another but never really generating quality chances through the run of play.
"It was a fairly even first half, but not after the break when (Benet) was all over us, creating a bunch of chances and forcing us to just defend, and not really get anything going forward," said Johnston, who will play next fall at New Hampshire.
The Lions (7-3-2, 2-0-1) began to lose the battle in the middle of the park near the half-hour thanks in part to the work of Maddie Becker, Mia Ullmer and Schumann, who ramped up the Benet pressure as the second period began.
"It was the high pressure that helped us put them under and also led to some really good chances for us, especially in the second half," Becker said. "But we just were not sharp enough in the final third to put any of those chances in."
"Benet is a very good team," said St. Viator coach Mike Taylor, "and when we struggled in the middle, a lot of that was them. But some of it was us because we gave the ball away too many times, and we couldn't possess."
The Redwings dominated the early exchanges of the second half, inspired by some terrific combination work by Becker and sophomore Mia Tommasone. One of those chances ended with Tommasone whipping a cross toward the 6-yard box that Johnson pushed around the back post.
St. Viator then defended heroically over the next 15 minutes as Benet, now playing with great confidence, threw everything into the attack. No less than a half-dozen attempts were sent at Johnston, two of which the senior basically pulled out of the back of the net to save the day for the Lions.
"Anna can do it all back there for us, and today that's exactly what she did to help keep us alive," said Taylor.
Johnston's best save of the day came when Becker unloaded a seemingly unstoppable blast from 30 yards. The St. Viator senior produced a world-class effort to push the shot up and over the bar.
Both before and during the Benet onslaught, Payton McDonnell nearly surprised the visitors with a trio of near misses, all of which were taken within 20 yards of Redwings keeper Evan Frantzen and went just wide of the post.
Taylor switched to a 4-5-1 formation six minutes from the end of regulation, hoping to spring Brinley McVeigh. And in the closing moments of the second overtime, the senior came within a whisker of stunning their guests when she found the bar with a wicked 22-yarder.
"Brinley has been a big difference-maker since coming back for her senior year from club, and Sam DeJulio, who transfered here, has picked up our system so quickly and has been great as our new center-back," said Johnston. "So it's starting to come together for us."
St. Viator will travel to Burlington, Iowa to play in the Adidas Tournament of Champions beginning on Thursday, opening up against 1A power Quincy Notre Dame.
Becker and her Benet teammates continue their recent grueling schedule with Lyons Township next, as part of the Naperville Invite.
"We will have played five games in eight days after finishing up this weekend, but it didn't show tonight," Becker said. "We came out ready to play and did everything really well, which is something we'll take from this game as we go forward."