Junior midfielder Reese MacDonald is Benet’s toughest and strongest player.
She gets that physical strength from her father, Tom, a walk-on football player in the 1990s at Notre Dame who saw action on special teams.
Reese’s toughness, however, comes from a different source.
“I got pushed around when I was young,” she said. “I played football with my brother and some of our older neighborhood friends.”
MacDonald’s brother, Tommy, played hockey at Benet and now plays for Indiana University’s club team. Reese has stuck with soccer, although it hasn’t been without pain.
She missed her freshman and sophomore seasons after twice tearing the ACL in her right knee. Rehabbing from those injuries took a different type of strength.
“It was obviously really tough to get through it mentally and it was hard seeing my friends being able to play soccer,” MacDonald said. “But they included me so much and I was always such a part of Benet, regardless of my injury status, which was awesome.
“That made it leaps and bounds easier to get back to playing soccer.”
A fully healed MacDonald had a goal and an assist Thursday in a 4-1 victory over Joliet Catholic in Lisle that clinched at least a share of the East Suburban Catholic Conference title.
MacDonald has three goals and five assists this season for Benet (13-4, 6-0), which earned its third straight ESCC championship and can take the title outright Monday with a win or tie at home against St. Viator.
Senior midfielder Katie Lewellyan scored two goals against Joliet Catholic, including the winner early in the second half that broke a 1-1 tie. MacDonald assisted on Lewellyan’s second goal.
“We’re all happy to have her back,” Lewellyan said of MacDonald. “She’s super strong. She’s a beast and holds down the middle.”
MacDonald began the season on defense, but Benet coach Gerard Oconer recently had her switch positions with sophomore Bailey Abbott.
Oconer said the best is yet to come for MacDonald.
“She’s still trying to get back in the swing of things,” Oconer said. “She is an incredible athlete, so for her being able to play without any fear or hesitation is key.
“Right now, she’s not quite there, but once she gets there, I think she’s going to be a force for us in the midfield because she is so physically strong and aggressive. We want to allow her to take more chances and be more aggressive without having to worry about a mistake.”
MacDonald isn’t worried about getting injured again, but it would have been natural to be hesitant playing in Thursday’s rainy and muddy conditions.
That didn’t stop MacDonald and her teammates in rallying from a 1-0 deficit to dominate the Angels (12-5-1, 3-2-1) in the second half.
“There was concern with that, but I’ve kind of learned how to not fall on my right leg, which probably isn’t great,” MacDonald said. “I should just learn how to stay on my feet, but I’m not very good at that.”
MacDonald was good at doling out the proverbial pain on the Angels. She capped the scoring with 26:54 remaining by knocking home a corner kick from Rachel Burns. The ball deflected off MacDonald’s twice-repaired right knee.
“We practice corner kicks a lot and I like getting on the end of them,” she said. “We always make jokes in practice about ‘atomic’ knee balls.
“In practice, if a ball is coming toward coach Oconer, he will knee it. I ended up scoring with my knee. It was really fun to come back to the bench afterward because that’s a team joke.”
Matt Le Cren is a freelance reporter for the Naperville Sun.