Girls Soccer: Lyons shuts down York

Updated: April 3, 2012 9:18PM

It was the kind of elemental showdown games are made of.

Christina Ordonez, the most feared offensive player in the West Suburban Silver, controlled a loose ball and squared up to launch a shot against Maggie Orlowski, the league’s most accomplished keeper.

Score one for the defense.

Lyons’ senior goalie smothered the shot to help preserve the No. 13 Lions’ 1-0 victory over the No. 11 Dukes in the teams’ conference opener Tuesday in LaGrange.

The victory was especially sweet for the Lions, who lost twice to the Dukes last year, including a Class 4A sectional title game. “We owed them one,” senior midfielder Sarah Mazur said.

Orlowski withstood a barrage of second-half York shot attempts as she posted her third shutout of the year. “They put a lot of pressure on us in the second half,” she said. “You expect that from York, they’re a great team, and fortunately on the one in front of the goal, I did what I’m supposed and stopped the ball.”

She registered five of her seven saves in the second half.

Junior midfielder Abbie Pasquinelli recorded the game’s only score by alertly collecting her deflected shot and curling the ball inside the far post from about 20 yards in the 25th minute of the first half.

“I shot the first one with my left foot, I saw the rebound and I took the second one with my right,” Pasquinelli said. “It was kind of nerve-wracking, there was still a lot of time left and you never think one goal like that is going to hold up.”

Lyons (4-0-1, 1-0 West Suburban Silver) dominated the opening half. Taking advantage of the strong southern winds at their back, the Lions controlled the early possessions. “I thought we were very sharp in the first half, especially in how quick we were to the breaks and to the (contested) balls,” Lyons coach Bill Lanspeary said.

York (4-2, 0-1 West Suburban Silver) regrouped in the second half and became the aggressor. “In the first half, we were defending not as a team but as individuals,” York coach Chris Halupka said. “In the first half, they were winning a lot of the individual battles to the 50/50 balls and the ball was mostly in their half of the field.

“In the second half, we did a much better job and even controlled the possession time, but we were impatient and could not make the pass that put somebody in the position to score. The time when the ball popped out and Christina had the shot, she didn’t push the shot wide enough that forced (Orlowski) to make a play on the ball.”

Orlowski made a sharp save of a Courtney McHugh header. In the final minutes, Ordonez smashed a left-footer from about 17 yards out that just skipped over the edge of the crossbar.

“She was amazing,” Lanspeary said of Orlowski.

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