Girls soccer: Carmel Catholic wins 2A title

Erin Johnston's biggest moment carried Carmel Catholic to its biggest achievement - a first state championship in girls soccer.

Johnston, who has committed to play at Marquette, scored the winning goal in the 78th minute Saturday afternoon to lift the Corsairs past Chatham Glenwood 1-0 in the Class 2A state title game at North Central College in Naperville.

Good things happened in threes for Johnston - the girl who wears No. 3 scored her third goal of the season in the game's final three minutes.

The decisive goal was set up by MacKenzie Sheehan with a short touch that got past McKenzie Runyan before finding Johnston. She lofted a shot into the far upper corner from her spot at the top left side of the box.

"It felt great in a state championship game," Johnston said. "(Runyan) might have boxed out the ball and let it go to me. I just took my touch shot. I knew there wasn't enough time to take another touch, so I one-timed it."

For Johnston, seeing the ball drop under the crossbar and over the outstretched arms of Titans keeper Morgan Lauher left her with a moment that she will remember for a long time.

"I really can't say, but it was one of the best feelings ever," Johnston said. "I just looked at my other teammate Angie Salvi. It was a great feeling."

Carmel (21-4-3) managed to hold off a final push by Chatham Glenwood (19-5-3) in the remaining minutes as veteran Corsairs coach John Halloran earned his first state title.

"I'm pretty emotional - there's been a lot of time put into this year, and the 15 years that I've been at Carmel," said Halloran, who has also coached the Carmel boys program. "We had a lot of good teams, but to do this, it's incredible."

Halloran was trying to motivate his team in the final minutes as overtime approached.

"I thought (Chatham Glenwood) had the run of play in the second half," Halloran said. "So we did our subs a little earlier than normal. I told the girls, 'Are you up for the last 20 minutes? It's the last 20 minutes of your career.' The longer and longer it went, I thought we were getting frustrated because we couldn't find the goal. Seeing the ball go in with a few minutes left, I thought we were very, very close. I was thinking we had to see the game out."

Carmel's Tina O'Block earned her 15th shutout of the season, and her sixth in the last seven games. She made 8 saves and benefited from reliable defenders Emma Kobitter, Mary Murphy, Haley Miller and support from midfielder Amando Lasso at times.

"It was a hard-fought game, but we came through," Miller said. "But the experience ... there's no way to describe it."

Chatham Glenwood finished runner-up for the second time in the last four years. The Titans won the title in 2013 and finished third last year after losing in the semifinals to Lake Forest.

"(Carmel) was an excellent team," Chatham Glenwood coach Jay Lipe. "They played hard and the game could've gone either way. We had our chances in the second half. They kept us out and they were the ones that capitalized late, at the end."

Lasso put in plenty of hard work in the title game, and the outcome validated a most memorable spring for Carmel Catholic girls soccer.

"It's amazing to be a senior and have a finish like this," Lasso said. "It's undescribable, especially after a season like this one. We've put some much work into this. Right at the end there, when (Erin Johnston) took that shot, I knew that was going in. I'm so glad it ended this way."