Rosary tips St. Edward for title

There hasn’t been much to separate Rosary from St. Edward this season, and that mutual closeness continued through Saturday at the Rosary Invitational.

Already this year, the Royals and Green Wave played a scoreless tie in their Suburban Catholic Conference match, a game won by St. Edward in a penalty kick shootout.

Paired together in Rosary Invitational pool play, the squads finished the 40-minute match this tournament uses as its standard tied 0-0.

The Royals and Green Wave met a second time on Saturday in the tournament title game. This time each team scored, but the squads were still knotted 1-1 after the regulation 40-minute match ended. So for the second time in 2011, the teams headed into a penalty kick shootout. This time, Rosary prevailed, scoring twice while St. Edward was thwarted on three of its first four kicks.

The star of the shootout was Rosary goalie Lauren Frasca who saved two of those kicks.

“I was a little nervous because we did this in conference with St. Ed’s and we lost,” Frasca said. “This is my first year of doing this, so I was a little unsure of the rules.”

Frasca got a close-up demonstration of how to dominate a shootout when she watched St. Edward goalie Paige Gannon stymie Willows in the semifinal. The Rosary Invitational uses the IHSA tournament penalty kick format where a goalkeeper is allowed to advance from the end line in an effort to block the shot.

After making the save on the first kick, Frasca’s confidence soared.

“I was like ‘I can do this,’” Frasca said.

The penalty kick shootout marked a slight redemption for Frasca and her defense, which ended in a mix-up with 4 minutes to play and leading 1-0. That mix-up allowed Mallory Malone to move in and score and force the shootout.

“There were players mixed up on who should get (the ball),” Frasca said. “That should never have went in. Maybe more communication would have helped it.”

Rosary had the lead at that point thanks to a powerful strike from 25 yards by Olivia Cozzini.

The win marks the first time in five years that Rosary has won its own invitational.

“They worked hard,” Rosary coach Kevin Callaghan said. “They knew where they were making mistakes, but when they had to do it, they did.”

After defeating Chicago Christian 2-0 and tying West Aurora 1-1 and gaining the scoreless draw with St. Edward, Rosary won Pool A. The Royals then got goals from Molly Piech and Julia Callaghan and defeated IMSA 2-1 to set the rematch with St. Edward.

St. Edward (8-5-3) had mixed experience in pool play, tying West Aurora 2-2, losing 2-1 to Chicago Christian and then tying Rosary 0-0. Then the Green Wave defeated Willows in the semifinals before losing to Rosary in the title game.

“Overall, it was a great day,” St. Edward coach Tim Brieger said. “We learned a lot. A lot of girls stepped up as the day went on.”

West Aurora’s day at the tournament was mixed but improved as the afternoon progressed. The Blackhawks drew all three pool matches — 2-2 with St. Edward, 1-1 with Rosary and 0-0 with Chicago Christian.

Then in the championship bracket matches, West Aurora defeated Immaculate Conception 3-0 and won the consolation championship with a 2-1 win over Chicago Christian and finished the tournament 7-5-7.

“We get to use a lot of our offense,” West Aurora coach Laura Wagley said. “Last year, we weren’t really doing our offense and weren’t as offensive-minded. This year, we changed some things up and we have more people who can attack.”

The Blackhawks spread around their offense. Jessica Saffell scored both her team’s goals against St. Edward and Sam O’Brien netted in the tie with Rosary.

“This tournament teaches us some more patience to get chances,” Wagley said. “Then when we go forward into 80-minute games, we’ll know that we can’t miss those. In our DVC games, we’re only going to get one or two chances in a game.”

Starting this week, the Blackhawks are in the final run of DuPage Valley Conference matches as they prepare for IHSA tournament play.

“This is a good little break,” Wagley said. “It’s just a fun day for our girls to come here and play these shorter games.”