First-half goals carry Lincoln-Way North

Updated: May 3, 2011 10:36PM

Faced with an early deficit Tuesday, Lincoln-Way North’s girls soccer team wasn’t daunted. The Phoenix has developed a knack for coming back.

Jamie Beniac and Marissa Jones each scored a first-half goal to give North the lead and the Phoenix held on for a big 2-1 SouthWest Suburban Red win in Frankfort.

“We’ve given up some early goals this season and been able to come back,” North coach Mike Murphy said. “It shows what kind of heart our girls have. You’ve got to love it.”

The victory kept North (12-4-1, 3-1) alive in the conference race as it handed Andrew (6-9-2, 3-1) its first conference loss and will hope for Stagg, with a 4-0 mark, to trip up against the T-bolts or Lincoln-Way Central.

A great individual effort from Andrew’s Emily Scott led to the game’s first goal. She dribbled through two defenders just outside the box, briefly had the ball poked away but chased it back down and was fouled in the box.

Scott buried the penalty kick with a low shot to the right side, giving the T-bolts the lead just 7½ minutes in.

North responded in fine fashion, however, controlling play the rest of the half. With 18:28 before the break, Beniac split a pair of defenders in the box and scored the equalizer.

With just over four minutes left in the half, North’s Rita Craven tightroped the endline and sent a cross to Jones, who finished for her second goal of the season.

“I keep trying to score, but I’m never in the right place at the right time,” Jones said. “This time I was and I was so excited.”

North dodged one major bullet in a defensive-dominated second half as Andrew’s Lauren Spedale struck a strong shot from 30 yards out that went just over the crossbar.

“(North) was coming at us so fast and so hard,” Andrew coach Loren Zolk said. “We seemed a little flustered. We were scrambling after their second goal to create something, and it just wasn’t there tonight.”

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