Hersey passes tourney test against Mundelein
Hersey got past visiting Mundelein on Tuesday afternoon and advanced into the second round of the Pepsi Showdown with a tournament-opening 3-0 victory in Arlington Heights.
The win sets up Hersey for a matchup with No. 4 seed Loyola, a 4-0 winner over Warren, on Thursday afternoon in Wilmette.
The Huskies (8-2-2), who came into this annual tournament with a rather low No. 13 seed, took advantage of a slow-starting Mustangs side, which was unable to find the same energy it had used during a recent 1-1 draw with 2A power Lake Forest last week.
“I was kind of hoping and expecting the girls to be excited for the start of a new tournament and to be able to build off the momentum from our match with Lake Forest, but we never, ever got going today, and beyond that, I really don’t what to say,” said Mundelein coach Ernie Billittier, who awaits results from around the tournament before finding out where his club will play next.
The hosts didn’t impress their coach in the early stages, as the Huskies struggled both with pace and possession. Yet Hersey still managed to enjoy the run of play leading up to the first goal.
“We didn’t really didn’t show too much in the beginning, and even when we were up (2-0) I never felt that comfortable with things,” said Hersey coach Brad Abel, whose team lay Palatine tonight. “But that third goal shortly after the break really put us in control.”
“Maybe we were looking ahead a little too much to Palatine, because I don’t think we were too sharp for most of this game,” said Hersey junior Lauren Gierman, who had a hand in two of the Huskies goals while creating a handful of chances for herself. “But we’ll have to play a lot better tomorrow if we want to get past Palatine.”
Casey Weyhrich initiated the first goal when she aggressively tackled a Mustangs defender. When the senior calmly collected the loose ball she’d created, it took the Hersey striker just a moment to unload a nasty cracker into the back of the net from just outside the box at 16 minutes.
Two minutes later, Emily Custer, who’d just been brought on by Abel, helped complete a sensational passing sequence by Kaitlyn Smetana and Gierman when she finished on the other end of the two helpers from her teammates past keeper Michaela Valin.
“We haven’t been starting (out) very well at all for most of the season,” said Mundelein senior Kelsey Hiegel, who along with freshmen Michele Chernesky and Cristy Nambo helped the visitors connect at midfield, but not often enough to break through the Huskies with regularity. “When it looked like we would get something going, we just turned the ball over, and that’s kind of how it went throughout the game.”
Freshman Megan Carroll came up the left side to get the first good look and shot on frame for the Mustangs (2-5-1) to force Morgan Harris into her first save of the first half at 36 minutes. But Hersey’s sophomore keeper enjoyed a mostly stress-free 80 minutes thanks in part to her back line of Olivia Stasiuk, Sara Magnuson, Kayla Knauss and Emily Moody, who tackled flawlessly while keeping nearly everything in front of them.
“It’s never about the losing, only about the effort,” said Billittier. “Today we lacked the type of effort that we ask all of the girls to give for 80 minutes.”
“It’s going to be a tough road for us the rest of the way if we cannot come out and give 100 percent. So I am hoping that this is behind us, and that they come out next time with more energy and pace right from the start.”