Defensive-minded Carmel shuts out Mundelein

Defense has been a defining trait for Carmel’s girls soccer team season all season long.

The Corsairs have only given up 3 or more goals in a loss once, and they’ve largely kept opponents off the scoreboard this season.

To start the postseason, it was more of the same from Carmel.

The fourth-seeded Corsairs shut out No. 14 seed Mundelein 2-0 in a Class 3A Glenbrook South regional semifinal on Tuesday afternoon.

Carmel (14-3-2) advances to meet either No. 5 Glenbrook South or No. 12 Warren, who play Wednesday, in the regional final round at 11 a.m. Saturday.

Northern Iowa-bound Sarah McHugh is a huge part of the Carmel senior-dominated defense that has held its ground all season long. Others joining McHugh in the back include Caitlin and Shannon Jung and Maggie Karich. Colleen Foley, a junior also has helped out.

“That’s one of our goals, to keep the scoring to a minimum,” McHugh said. “We do have a lot of experience in the back.”

Corsairs keeper Jenna Bauer made 3 stops against Mundelein (6-13-3) to pick up the shutout.

“Our defense does play tough out there,” Carmel coach John Halloran said. “Everybody in the back did well.

“The goals we got might not be the prettiest goals, but it still counts the same.”

Carmel scored twice in the first half. Meegan Johnston got the opening goal in the sixth minute after a pass from Ashley Orth.

Claire Ogrinc scored the other goal, as she took the ball off the foot of a Mustangs defender for an unassisted goal in the 23rd minute.

Carmel won the regular-season matchup between these teams 3-0, but Mundelein wanted to have a better result in this meeting.

“We did have a lot of chances, but it wasn’t our game,” said Mustangs senior midfielder Kelsey Hiegel. “We worked on a lot of strategies coming into this one.”

Mundelein had chances to make a run in the second half, and the Mustangs made a game of it by pushing forward and getting some chances toward Carmel’s end of the field.

“We played well and possessed the ball well at times,” Mundelein coach Ernie Billittier said. “(Carmel) was difficult because they play direct and have some big front-runners. It was a tough thing to stop.

“I thought we had the run of the play, but what’s on the scoreboard is what matters. We struggled to put the ball in the back of the net, and that’s been something that has bothered us all year.”