Rosary nets 3rd straight regional soccer crown
By Adam Bartolo
Daily Herald Correspondent
Posted Saturday, May 21, 2005
If Rosary’s girls soccer team was seeded lower than Immaculate Heart of Mary, they sure didn’t play like it.
The No. 5 Royals pressured the No. 4 Tigers from start to finish and came away a 4-0 victory Friday to win the Class A IMSA regional, Rosary’s third regional title in a row.

Rosary will face top-seeded Benet in the Lemont sectional at 11 a.m. today.

“It’s our standard,” said Royals coach Kevin Callaghan, who also celebrated his birthday. “We have set a standard and that’s our minimum. We have made some more history.”

With just over eight minutes gone, Rosary grabbed the lead. Catherine Sokolinski sent a free kick from the corner to the goal box where Sam Stavola headed the ball into the top of the net.

“Soko and I have been working on this all season,” said Stavola. “She got me a good ball.”

The Royals struck again midway through the first half. Liz Mehr dribbled in from the right side and sent a bloop kick off the crossbar. Mehr found her own rebound in front of the net and booted the ball home for a 2-0 advantage. The score stayed the same through halftime.

Despite the offense’s play, the key to this game was Rosary’s team defense.

The Tigers boasted two towering and talented players in Lauren Santos and Debbie Kozlowski. But the Royals intercepted passes, blocked shots, and did whatever they had to do to prevent the Tigers from keeping pressure in the offensive zone.

“I have to give a lot of credit to our defense, said Stavola, a forward. “They really stepped it up and we played like a team.”

Callaghan described the double sweeper strategy his defense used.

“I saw IHM play and they are very strong in overlapping and creating numbers on top,” Callaghan said. “So I decided it’s time to put our stop defense in there. I knew by doing that it would stifle anybody coming through.”

That strategy limited the Tigers to 8 shots on goal compared to Rosary’s 18.

But for the final eight minutes of first half, the Tigers looked like they would roar back into the game. They had five legitimate scoring chances, but not even one registered with a shot on goal. Either they shot wide or Rosary goalie Ally Mielke picked off a pass.

As the second half went on, Rosary regained its edge and controlled possession. The Tigers barely threatened over the final 40 minutes.

The Royals added two late goals, one by Annmarie Stanley with 8:28 remaining and another with just over a minute left when Katie Dienhart scored on a 1-on-1 with the goalie.

Next up is Benet, which will be a difficult match but one the Royals believe they are ready for.

“We’ve played them before,” said Callaghan. “I wanted to get there and play with that team. We’ll play them hard.”
The winner of that game goes to the sectional title against the winner of No. 3 Lemont and No. 2 Wheaton Academy, last year’s state champion.