Sustained effort lifts Lake Forest past Carmel

Keeping your focus can go a long way toward success.

Not keeping it can have the opposite effect, as Carmel Catholic's girls soccer team demonstrated Thursday afternoon.

The Corsairs were right in the match with the Scouts before letting the game slip away from them in the second half. Thus Carmel Catholic lost to visiting Lake Forest 2-0 in a nonconference game in Mundelein.

The Corsairs (2-2) put together a strong first-half effort, doing seemingly everything Carmel Catholic coach John Halloran asked of his team. The second half, however, was a different story.

"Our effort in the first half was great," Halloran said. "Second half, terrible. We decided that we weren't going to play. Right from the first minute in the second half our effort level was nowhere. It was in the basement."

Back to the first half for the Corsairs:

"I loved our effort," Halloran said. "We created chances and were closing (Lake Forest) down. Second half, we lost possession like crazy and there was no mental focus. We couldn't connect passes in the final third. If you can't do that, then you can't break anybody down."

The Corsairs had a few quality scoring chances in the first half, but that was about it for the match.

Sadie Jung, a Carmel senior midfielder, saw a different Corsairs team over the final 40 minutes.

"We were caught off guard and not ready to play," Jung said. "(Lake Forest) worked harder than we did and found 2 goals. We have to do better to keep our focus.

"Just be ready. If we're down then we've got to keep our heads up. We could've gotten a goal back after being down by 1."

Lake Forest (2-1) broke the scoreless tie in the 51st minute. Paige Bourne sent a cross from the left side, and Jenny McKendry finished it for a 1-0 lead.

Kendall Hoke added another Scouts goal four minutes later on a loose ball in front of the Corsairs' goal for the other tally.

Lake Forest keeper Ginnie Ravenaugh made 3 stops for the shutout. Carmel Catholic keeper Mackenzie Burns made 9 saves.

"Both teams had chances in the first half," Lake Forest coach Ty Stuckslager. "I thought we controlled more of the play. (Carmel) had some counter-attacks but didn't take care of their opportunities. Second half, we talked about having some more desire in the box.

"I thought (Carmel's) defense was very organized to go against."

The Corsairs' defenders included Sarah Bowles, Leah Lach, Jung, Kristi Chernesky and Katie Sandecki.