By Mike Clark

It’s no surprise Georgia Motykowski knew what to expect when Jones/Payton met Lane with the city title on the line May 8.

The Jones/Payton junior went from being on the same side as some of the Lane players during club season to being on opponents in high school.

“So it’s a little weird from going from the winter of playing with them as my teammates to the spring, where they’re like my enemy,” Motykowski said.

It worked out in the end for the Greagles — a mashed-up nickname of Payton’s Grizzlies and Jones’ Eagles — once again.

Motykowski scored four goals as Jones/Payton won its fourth straight Public League title and fifth overall, 9-5 over Lane at the UIC Natatorium.

Sophomore Tatiana Haynes scored all five goals for the Champions, who were seeking their first title since 2022.

It was the second of three meetings this season between the rivals. Jones/Payton won 4-2 in the regular season and beat Lane 9-6 in the Lane Sectional semifinals before having its season end with a 13-8 loss to St. Ignatius in the sectional final.

It was the third straight year Jones/Payton — which finished 16-5 — reached the state’s Sweet Sixteen.

Tight, relatively low-scoring games are nothing new for the city’s big three, which also includes Young.

“Even though we’ve played them before (and) we know some of their players, city is a whole different game,” Motykowski said. “I mean, it’s always this crazy.”

Indeed — after Lane erased 3-1 and 4-3 deficits, Gately Harwood put Jones/Payton ahead to stay at 5-4 with a goal with seven seconds left in the second quarter.

The Champions — who finished the season 13-12 — got within 6-5 in the third, but Jones/Payton outscored Lane 3-0 in the fourth to pull away.

“We had to earn that one, for sure,” Jones/Payton coach Mac Varilla said.

Motykowski leading the way was nothing new.

“She has been playing really well,” Varilla said. “She has a lot of teammates in the club scene that played against her in this one so we had to be very composed. … We had a talk before the game about, ‘Just be composed. You got it. They’re going to try to get the best of you.'”

The teams’ familiarity with each other had something to do with the lack of scoring, according to Varilla.

“We can’t really do what we want to do because a lot of times they know each other’s tendencies,” he said. “And then when you play against your friends, it’s really hard and sometimes your strategy goes out the window.”

Photos by Ashley Harris/OSA

Championship game

Third-place game