40 | sports
Payton’s (new) place
Mickey makes it happen as Scouts successfully defend state title ■ by bill mclean
sports@northshoreweekend.com Payton Mickey played defense for Lake Forest High School’s field hockey team this fall. She didn’t move much. She didn’t have to move much. A bored air conditioner installer in the dead of winter in Nome, Alaska, probably burns more calories in the first few hours of a workday than Mickey did during a typical field hockey game in 2013. “Our midfielders are really good,” Mickey said recently. “They did a great job of keeping the ball at the other end of the field.” But Mickey occasionally had to whack the ball out of harm’s way in front of senior goalie Chandler Scoco. Lake Forest coach Melanie Walsh liked what she saw and moved Mickey up to foreign territory in the practices leading up to the Final Four of the state tournament Nov. 1-2. Mickey got to be offensive — as a member of the Scouts’ penalty-corner unit. “She has a great rip,” Walsh said of Mickey’s mighty slap. “We knew she’d be great on corners.” Mickey came up big on the biggest stage, striking the first and third goals in Lake Forest’s 3-0 defeat of New Trier in the Illinois High School Field Hockey Association championship game at Lake Forest on Nov. 2. Her season goal total before the final: two. Senior forward Emily George tallied the second goal nearly eight minutes after Mickey’s go-ahead tally. The state title was the Scouts’ second straight and 11th overall. It capped a 21-1 season in which LF outscored its opponents 136-13. “I’m thrilled, absolutely thrilled,” Walsh said. But at the half of the championship, Walsh was concerned, absolutely concerned. Neither club scored, and LF played a safe, somewhat timid brand of field hockey. “Our goal was to score early,” Walsh said. “We didn’t do that. With five minutes left in the first half, my feeling was, ‘Let’s get through this half.’ It was not our best half. “We told them [at halftime], ‘Take chances and risks in the second half.’ We reminded them that good things would happen if they played that way.” Ten minutes in, a very good thing happened. Mickey broke the 0-0 tie following a shot by senior midfielder Mackenzie Adams. The assist was Adams’ 25th of the season. “That was such a relief as soon as Payton’s shot went in,” Adams said. “It gave us confidence. It made us believe. We all started thinking, ‘OK, we can win this.’ ” Fourteen of Lake Forest’s 22 players are seniors, including all-state picks Adams, Nicole Beshilas (D), Emily Cavalaris (F), Halle Frain (M), Katherine Kallergis (M) and Mackenzie Mick (M). Ten of the Scouts’ 11 starters are in line to graduate next spring Sophomore starter Elise Wong, a defender, must have felt like a plebe surrounded by decorated generals. But she played like she belonged and disrupted several of New Trier’s attempts to establish a rhythm on offense.
Ecstasy and agony: Lake Forest’s Payton Mickey (center) celebrates her second goal with Emily George (No. 7), Ginny McGowan (left) and Katherine Kallergis (right) during the Scouts’ 3-0 victory over New Trier in last Saturday’s state championship.
photography by joel lerner “She probably felt a lot of pressure today, because she wanted to do well for the seniors,” Walsh said. “Elise had a great game. She’s a phenomenal athlete, a strong athlete. And her stick skills are insane.” Wong started playing field hockey as a second-grader and resident of Vancouver. Her brothers, Tim and Nick, also competed in the sport in Canada. Elise and her family moved to Lake Forest when she was 8. “It’s my passion,” she said. “I hope to play field hockey for as long as I can. “I loved playing on this team. We all connected, on and off the field.” Top-seeded Lake Forest and secondseeded New Trier (23-2-1) each notched a shutout victory in the state semifinals on Nov. 1. LF beat Lake Forest Academy 6-0, and New Trier defeated Loyola Academy 4-0. NT coach Stephanie Nykaza lauded the efforts of her defenders after the championship game. Junior Kristen Nykaza and seniors Molly Klare, Julia Pappageorge and Chloe Madvig made LF earn its ninth state title since 2000. “Our defense, against all the shots we had to face, played really well,” Coach Nykaza said. “Lake Forest played a great game. We just did not generate that much of an attack.” NT placed third at last fall’s state tournament. Klare was grateful she got to play in the state final in her final prep game. “We improved incredibly throughout
the season,” she said. “We worked hard all season.” Depth — along with talent, determination and too many intangibles to count — lifted the Scouts all season. Walsh’s bench players weren’t typical bench players. They were difference makers. “This year’s senior class … strong, it was so strong,” Walsh said. She could put in senior reserves Ginny McGowan, Caroline Blank and Lizzie Zavitz and never worry about a drop-off in skill level or energy. Lake Forest’s other senior champs: defenders Val Wood and Grace von Ohlen. Scoco will graduate as a two-time state champion goalie. Notable: The City of Lake Forest recognized LFHS’s state championship field hockey team at City Hall on Nov. 4. … Klare and Nykaza, along with NT teammates Maddy Burds (M), Jackie Kingdom (M) and Hannah Waldman (F), made the IHSFHA all-state team. … Waldman scored twice and Klare and sophomore Claire Weaver each tallied a goal in New Trier’s semifinal defeat of Loyola Academy. … George and Cavalaris struck for two goals apiece in Lake Forest’s semifinal win over LFA. Kallergis and Adams scored the other two.
Lake Forest Academy Caxys field hockey coach Diane Cooper could have described how her team got fired
up before each game this fall. But she chose instead to let her players provide an impromptu visual and audio after they edged Loyola Academy 1-0 in the game for third place at the IHSFHSA tournament on Nov. 2. “Come over here,” Cooper said on the stadium field at Lake Forest High School’s West Campus. “They’ll show you.” All 14 of them circled up, crouched slightly and recited lines from “Miracle,” the movie about the U.S. men’s gold-medal hockey at the 1980 Winter Olympics. Each line was uttered in the flick by Kurt Russell, who portrayed USA coach Herb Brooks. Each line was from Brooks’ speech to his players before the USA-Soviet Union game. A sampling: “Great moments are born from great opportunity.” “You were born to be a hockey player.” “You were meant to be here.” “This is your time.” LFA senior Margaux Boles — one of four Caxys all-state picks — figured the team had viewed the inspirational movie at least five times this fall. “We all got along. We all liked to hang out, blast music,” Boles said. “We meshed, and in games we never stopped fighting.” LFA’s Final Four appearance was its first in program history. Earlier this season, many of the Caxys field hockey >> page 43