Girls soccer: Benet too strong for Carmel Catholic

Benet Academy has only had one defeat all season and that was against Joliet Catholic in the East Suburban Catholic Conference. Since that defeat, the Redwings have been playing good soccer against very good competition.

They hit the road and had to deal with a conference foe that usually causes a bit of trouble. But Benet came away with a 7-3 victory over host Carmel Catholic in an ESCC matchup on Tuesday afternoon in Mundelein.

"This wasn't an ideal game for us, because we pride ourselves on being good in the back," Benet coach Gerard Oconer said. "We just don't concede that many goals in the back. If you take a look at how (Carmel) plays, a number of their games have been high scoring. We knew that they had a lot of offensive talent. We knew that we're confident in our offense and we can score. when we need to. Anytime you beat Carmel at Carmel it's always a good win, no matter what the circumstances are."

Benet returns to playing in the Naperville Invite reaching the quarterfinal round for the first time. The Redwings will be taking on St. Charles North at Naperville Central Thursday at 7 p.m.

'It's our chance to compete against the best of the best," Oconer said. "This game (against Carmel) let us know some of the things that we have to iron out before we get to Thursday."

The Redwings (13-1, 3-1) also played the game without the services of Abby Casmere, who missed the match because of a family obligation.

On Tuesday, it was a back-and-forth type of match in the first half.

In the 35th minute, Mae Tully scored off a feed from Kate Flynn that put Benet up for good at 3-2. It was Tully's fourth goal this season.

"I was able to get into a spot after getting a pass from Kate," Tully said. "I just wanted to make sure that I got it on the frame. She just found me running to a spot and we timed it perfectly."

Benet took over in the second half with 4 goals. Jaimee Cibulka scored two of them while Cami Picha and Katie Llewellyan had one each.

Redwings' keeper Eva Frantzen made 10 of her 12 saves in the second half that kept the Corsairs from making a comeback.

Mia Ullmer and Mia Tommasone had Benet's first half goals.

Carmel (4-8-3, 1-3-1) got its goals from Zenaya Barnes, Olivia Pullin and Lucy Tarcha,

The Corsairs tried to recover from a long road trip to Joliet Catholic on Monday, which turned into a weather delayed 3-2 defeat.

"Our heavier legs showed," Carmel coach Ray Krawzak said. "At the end the score doesn't show how close the game was. We started pushing up numbers. We still needed a better performance out of our defense. Our offense was there. You get three goals against Benet, it should be pretty good. Benet was good but we weren't that bad. We just let in a lot of goals."