WESTERN SPRINGS - Corner kick. Corner kick. Corner kick.
And so on.
Riverside-Brookfield had 14 of the restarts in the first half of their Class 3A Lyons Regional semifinal game versus Oak Lawn on Monday night.
Incredibly, 11 of those came in the first 11 minutes of action.
Despite completely dominating the proceedings early on, the Bulldogs couldn’t find the back of the net in the first half.
That was due to a little bit of bad luck, and a whole lot of other-worldly play from Oak Lawn keeper Amanda Manriquez.
The senior was simply spectacular in the first 40 minutes.
“Their goalie made just some tremendous saves,” said Riverside-Brookfield coach Ivek Halic. “We made it a lot more difficult than we had to tonight.”
It looked like Riverside-Brookfield could have been up by at least four or five goals at intermission, but the teams went into halftime deadlocked at 0-0.
At that point frustration could have set in, but the Bulldogs kept their cool.
Instead, they came out energized in the second half and found their scoring touch times in a 4-0 victory.
“We settled down at halftime,” said Halic. “We were able to move the ball a little better, and we refocused.”
Riverside-Brookfield senior midfielder Maddie Bisiules, who delivered most of the corner kicks for the Bulldogs, said that she and her teammates looked at the second half as a time for redemption.
“We kind of talked at halftime about how we had to slow it down and play our game,” she said. “We were getting nervous, frantic that we couldn’t score, (especially) since we had so many opportunities.”
Riverside-Brookfield went on the attack from the opening kickoff at Lyons South Campus stadium, earning three corners in the opening minute alone.
Two of those resulted in shots right on goal by Bulldogs sophomore Michelle Panduro that required great saves by Manriquez.
That was the story of the first half for Riverside-Brookfield. If they weren’t getting stonewalled by Manriquez, they just missed by millimeters getting the ball on frame.
Or, as happened a couple of times, seeing shots bounce off the crossbar.
In the 11th minute, the Bulldogs sent their 11th corner right to the front of the net, where the Spartans keeper made the save of the game.
She dove to her left to make a block on a point-blank shot by Panduro in traffic.
“Amanda was doing everything she needed to do to keep the game close,” said Oak Lawn coach John Faro.
“She was taking charge, sacrificing her body. She was going to make sure that if this was her last game, she was going to go out with a lot of ticks on the scoresheet.”
Riverside-Brookfield kept pressing. A nifty give-and-go between Niamh Larson and Panduro resulted in another shot on goal and another spectacular save from Manriquez.
Then Bisiules led a charge down the field and delivered a crisp pass to sophomore Audrey Raymond, who found senior Hazel Hall. That shot just missed when it curled beyond the left post.
Oddly enough, although the Bulldogs spent almost the entire opening period in Oak Lawn territory, it was the Spartans who almost scored first.
Junior forward Abraar Kandah was knocked down in the box. Teammate Sinead Conroy took the penalty in the 21st minute.
The spot shot zoomed toward the goal, but sailed over the crossbar by just inches.
The Spartans had another flurry near the Riverside-Brookfield goal in the final minute, but Raymond and the rest of the backline made sure there were no quality chances.
That sent the teams into halftime scoreless, which seemed like a win to Faro.
The coach said that the rain that pelted the pitch in the initial half gave his side a big assist.
“That took some finesse and skill out of the game,” said Faro of the elements, “and made it just a little bit about luck. That’s exactly what we had in the first half.”
On the other bench, Panduro felt like Riverside-Brookfield might have been pressing a bit.
“In the first half we were just thinking score, score, score,” said the sophomore. “It was hard to get one in. In the second half, we all put our hearts into getting that first goal.”
Just after the second stanza began, the rain that had been a steady drizzle for the first part of the match turned into a hard, driving, no-holds-barred downpour.
That gave Bulldogs coach Halic a moment or two of concern.
“One little slip up, one little mistake (in this weather) could change everything,” he said.
“The ball was just skidding past us,” said Bisiules, one of the Riverside-Brookfield tri-captains along with Larson and Hall. “That made it difficult, but I think we were able to get a good feel for it.”
In the 47th minute, the Bulldogs finally connected.
Larson sent in a terrific cross that slid right to Panduro at the left corner of the Spartans’ goal.
Panduro chipped it in from two yards away to make it 1-0.
“I just saw a need to kick that ball, I had to go for it,” said Panduro.
“My emotion at that point was just so much happiness.”
Bisiules agreed with her teammate.
“I was so excited, and our whole team was excited,” said Bisiules of the opening tally. “That got us into a good mindset, and then we were able to get more in.”
Less than two minutes later Bisiules, who earned co-MVP of the Match honors with Hall, played the role of helper.
She curled a pass in the middle of the field to Hall, who drove past her mark and delivered a dead-on finish from 17 yards away to make it 2-0.
“This whole season, Maddie has come up big,” said Halic of Bisiules. “She’s been great in the middle.”
That opened the door for Riverside-Brookfield, which found paydirt two more times.
In the 59th minute, Panduro made a nice skip-pass on the left flank to Hall, who finished from 19 yards.
Bulldogs midfielder Ella Caputo finished off the barrage in the 71st minute with an unassisted strike.
The junior intercepted an Oak Lawn clearance attempt, found open space and scored from 19 yards.
Then Riverside-Brookfield (13-7-2) locked down on defense, preserving the shutout by keeping the Spartans pinned down in their own territory in the final minutes.
After the final buzzer sounded and the handshakes were through, the overjoyed Bulldogs players braved the rain one more time.
They raced across the field to the stands to celebrate with their fans.
“I’m so proud of the girls,” said Halic. “They kept their composure.
“We played our game, and we didn’t stray from our game plan. It was great.”
Riverside-Brookfield now moves on to the regional championship game, to be played Saturday at 11 a.m.
The opponent will be host Lyons, which is ranked eighth in the Chicagoland Soccer Top 25. The Lions need just a half to defeat Curie 11-0 Monday in the opening semifinal.
“That’s going to be a tough game,” said Bisiules. “We’ve never played LT, at least in my four years here.
“But I’m thinking we match up with them very well.”
And when asked if she had ever had that many corner kicks in a game before, the senior answered with a laugh.
"No," she said. "That was insane."
Starting lineups
Oak Lawn
GK: Amanda Manriquez
D: Zuzanna Radgowska
D: Bisan Aldeek
D; Maeve O’Sullivan
M: Maci Plata
M: Jaretzy Ornelas-Ramos
M; Cassandra Gutierrez
M: Sinead Conroy
F: Kamila Tobias
F: Ashley Marquez
F: Abraar Kandah
Riverside-Brookfield
GK: Annabel Krueger
D: Audrey Raymond
D: Cassidy Erb
D: Abigail Ford
M: Raleigh Jesswein
M: Michelle Panduro
M: Ella Caputo
M: Niamh Larson
M: Maddie Bisiules
M: Kate Newberry
F: Hazel Hall
Chicagoland Soccer MVPs of the Match: Maddie Bisiules, sr., MF, Riverside-Brookfield; Hazel Hall, sr., F, Riverside-Brookfield
Scoring summary
First half
No scoring
Second half
R-B: Panduro (Larson), 47’
R-B: Hall (Bisiules), 49’
R-B: Hall (Panduro), 59’
R-B: Caputo (unassisted), 71’
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