Carmel falls to Benet in Mundelein

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By Gary Larsen

Unfortunately for Carmel, Wednesday marked the sixth time the Corsairs have been kept out of net this season. Coach John Halloran has a quality team whose effort matches any of the teams that won the last four conference crowns.

This year’s side just doesn’t have a high-flying scorer.

“All year, we’ve been a 1-0 team,” Halloran said. “It just didn’t go our way today. We can only score if we build up through combo play, and we didn’t do that enough.”

Kassidy Brown, Lauren Bowles, Leah Einarsen, Lauren Lehman, Sarah McHugh and company are all skilled players, but Wednesday's 1-0 loss to visiting Benet saw a team-wide struggle to find the combo play that serves Carmel best.

“We had a lot of opportunities to play to feet, or switch the point of attack, but we kept going right back into traffic,” Halloran said. “And you’re not going to beat a good team that way.”

“Playing against better players, they close down angles smarter, they’re a little bit faster, and if you don’t have a good first touch they clamp down on you quicker. It’s hard to quantify those things.”

With East Suburban Catholic Conference ramifications hanging in the balance, Benet (12-5, 7-1 in ESCC play) and Carmel (9-5-3, 6-2) squared off in a vitally important late-season game and did what neither team hoped they’d do.

They played a fairly ugly slugfest of a soccer game.

“I thought it would a much more wide-open game,” Benet coach Henry Wind said. “I wasn’t pleased with the way we played but at least we won the doggone game, and that’s the important thing. I’d rather look ugly and win than look pretty and lose.”

“Carmel is good every single year, and we always take it as one of our toughest games,” Benet’s Maria Schwabe said. The Corsairs won the last four East Suburban Catholic titles.

The regular season may be nearly finished, but the ESCC is still technically up for grabs. Carmel, Benet, Nazareth, and Saint Viator all face a final run of ifs and buts that will decide who takes the title.

With its 1-0 win over Nazareth on Wednesday, Viator joined Benet as the only two teams with a single ESCC loss each. Carmel and Nazareth have each lost a pair of games in the conference.

Wednesday’s loss to Benet slimmed Carmel’s hopes for title No. 5, and the math will have to fall just right for the Corsairs to grab a share of this year’s crown.

A Carmel win over Saint Viator next week and a Benet loss to either Marian Catholic or Joliet Catholic could create a four-way tie for the title.

Wednesday’s windswept contest in Mundelein saw Benet get the game’s lone goal in the 22nd minute, when the Redwings’ Brittany Pullen placed a head shot into net from14 yards out. Madie Burke lofted in a perfect corner kick feed, and Pullen capitalized.

“One of the things I’m usually pretty good at is corners, and winning balls in the air,” Pullen said. “We’ve been working on them all year and finally they’ve started coming. It was kind of difficult to judge with the sun in my eyes, but Madie Burke hit an awesome ball.”

One of Benet’s unsung heroes against Carmel was outside defender Maria Schwabe. Schwabe cleared a ball near the post late in the game to help preserve the shutout. Afterwards, Schwabe’s goalkeeper was grateful enough to make this offer:

“I’m indebted to her and I’m going to bake for her,” Munaretto said. “Maria and (Caytin Lewin) have been incredible, and our record would not be as good without them.”
 
Munaretto fielded a few Corsairs’ shots from distance early on, and slid to the far post to break up a play ten minutes in. Carmel's Shannon Jung broke in along the left side mid-way through the first half but sent a shot just wide past a charging Munaretto.

Halloran slid Brown forward into the attack in the second half towards finding a tying goal. But after a few late corner kicks and long flip-throws by Bowles went for naught, Benet had its win.

The Redwings have a feisty and creative central midfielder in sophomore Jamei Borges, and a pair of forwards in Burke and Catherine Caniglia that put in a blue-collar day against Carmel.

Borges ripped a good shot on net from 20-plus yards out in the 29th minute, but Carmel keeper Maddie Allen was on the spot to field it. Allen also made a quality save late in the contest to keep her squad within a goal of tying the game.

“I thought Pullen and Borges both did a pretty good job today,” Wind said. “Our forwards just need to hold onto the ball a little bit better. But (Borges) has had some real good games and I thought this was one of her better ones.

"She’s very smart in the open field and I thought she made some real good decisions with the ball.”

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