Ursuline holds off late Warren JFK comeback bid
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WARREN -- For most of Tuesday's match vs. Warren JFK, Ursuline head coach Joel Monaco watched as his Irish consistently outplayed their counterparts and successfully built a three-goal lead in the second half.
However, the game, albeit still an 3-2 Ursuline win, changed dramatically when the Eagles scored a pair of goals in the final 10 minutes and nearly tied the contest in the closing seconds.
"I was really happy with the game tonight. I thought we played really, really well. We've been working on a lot of things in practice, and we executed them well tonight, and we were looking good there most of the game," Monaco said. "You're always learning. It's high school soccer. And this is a very young group of young men. So it's one of those learning curves where you go through that experience. Tonight, we're lucky that we got out with a win with that learning experience."
The first half, although not accurately represented by the score, belonged almost entirely to Ursuline.
For the first 40 minutes, the Irish hounded Kennedy, routinely forcing turnovers seconds after the Eagles gained possession. Ursuline, though, struggled to put shots on target, and as the clock ticked under five minutes, the game remained scoreless.
That changed with 4:19 remaining, when an Irish free kick led to Josh Miller scoring a goal. Miller capitalized on Kennedy being unable to clear the ball out of its box following the free kick.
The Eagles immediately proved much more proficient in gaining and maintaining possession of the ball in the second half, although it did not result in goals. In fact, Ursuline widened its lead when JFK goalkeeper Deric Wickham fouled Xavier Glodziak while diving for the ball in the box.
Awarded a penalty kick, Glodziak aimed for the bottom-left corner of the goal, where Wickham deflected the ball, but, unfortunately for the Eagles' keeper, the ball bounced off the inside of the goalpost and into the net to make it a 2-0 game with 24:12 to go.
With a little less than 11 minutes left, the Irish went up 3-0 after Wickham dove on a shot toward the far post and the ball popped out of his arms. Micah McNeil quickly rushed in and buried the ball into the back of the net.
Had the match ended there, both teams would certainly have thought quite differently of their respective showings. But in reality, Ursuline, which had dominated possession and taken advantage of key mistakes by Kennedy, left feeling frustrated. And JFK, which had allowed itself to trail 3-0, finished with a rush of momentum.
The momentum shifted sharply with 8:08 remaining, when Carter Altobelli scored. The goal seemingly energized the Eagles, who went on the attack again soon after.
Five minutes later, Lyric Shields pulled JFK within one. Shields, who had been taken down and fouled just outside of the box, lined up for a free kick and proceeded to drop the ball into the left side of the net, further igniting his team.
Shields had one last opportunity to score with 20 seconds left in the game. But the freshman's would-be tying goal sailed wide right, and the Irish successfully held on for the victory.
"Props to JFK. They are coached extremely well. They have great players, and their players just don't quit. The coaches didn't stop. You could hear it. And they were driving them to continue to play harder," Monaco said. "And I do think we let off the gas. We got a little bit comfortable. And that's just a bad mixture when a team desires to play harder and then we kind of let our guard down and got punched in the mouth there for a couple minutes."
The loss marked Kennedy's first of the season. After going 1-12-2 last season in Brian Stiles' first year at the helm, the Eagles are now 3-1-1 going into next Tuesday's match with city rival Warren G. Harding.
"I thought we did well. I thought we did really well at the end," Stiles said. "I think we were kind of feeling the game out there for 60 minutes, and Ursuline took advantage of it and we kind of dug ourselves too big of a hole to come back. But hats off to Ursuline, they had a great game plan. They played really well."
Ursuline improved to 3-2 with the win, which is its second in a row after defeating Harding on Saturday. The Irish host Lakeview on Thursday.
"We're just trying to string wins together, build our chemistry," Monaco said. "We're missing a few players, so getting those guys back and just building that team chemistry on the field, finding those connections is what we're really looking for right now."