A Mannion-made effort for Mother McAuley
Senior gives Mighty Macs more than goals or assists: ‘She knows how to get people going'
Mother McAuley’s soccer team is filled with young stars, but senior midfielder Alina Mannion is the veteran leader who brings it all together.
Mannion encouraged some of her current teammates to join the Mighty Macs before they got to high school and has supported them ever since they arrived.
“The young girls have looked up to her from the minute they first stepped onto the field here, and I feel like every minute they look up to her,” McAuley coach Megan McCauley said of Mannion. “She just has that personality where she knows how to lift people up around her.
“She does it, too, with her game. She knows how to get people going.”
Mannion is doing more than just inspiring her teammates, too. She’s upped her offensive game.
She showed that off Monday night, scoring her third goal of the season and adding an assist to lead the host Mighty Macs to a 2-1 win over Homewood-Flossmoor in Chicago.
Sophomore forward Calli Edwards also scored for McAuley (4-4). Lucy Gray made six saves.
Paris Jones contributed a goal and Cristina Ramirez finished with two saves for H-F (6-2), which had its six-game winning streak snapped.
Edwards became an immediate star for the Mighty Macs as a freshman last season when she scored 30 goals.
Mannion saw that coming. When Mannion returned to St. Linus, where she played soccer in grammar school, and saw Edwards, she knew she wanted to be her teammate.
“We’ve always been wanting her,” Mannion said of Edwards. “She was our No. 1. I was honestly surprised she came to McAuley, but when she did, the coaches, players, everyone was so excited that she came to play with us.”