Fremd nets fourth straight state trip
Fremd certainly played like a No. 1 seed in the championship game of the Barrington sectional on Saturday.
The Vikings punched their fourth straight ticket to the state tournament’s Elite Eight with about as convincing performance as you’ll ever see in a sectional final: Fremd 14, Barrington 0.
Emily McCarthy scored 4 goals and Sam Del Prado had 3 as Fremd kept alive an impressive four-year unbeaten run against Mid-Suburban League opponents.
Fremd (24-4) will meet Mother McCauley (17-16) at 5:45 p.m. Thursday in state quarterfinal play at Stevenson High School. The semifinals will be Saturday morning, and the championship game is slated for 6:30 p.m. Saturday.
“We came in with the idea that we still had a lot to prove, to other people and ourselves,” said McCarthy. “Getting to state and getting a trophy is always going to be tough, but that’s what we want. So for us, today was about having the right intensity and just making sure we played the right way. I think we did that.”
For Barrington, simply appearing in the championship game was a victory of sorts. The Fillies were seeded No. 6 but earned victories over the No. 2 and 3 seeds to advance to the championship game.
The Fillies (13-11) started three sophomores and a junior against the Vikings. It was too tall an order, but Barrington made steady progress all season and played its best ball at season’s end.
“For lack of a better word, you could call us a Cinderella team,” said Barrington coach Mark Markwell, who can look forward to two more years of varsity play from Kayla Widdowson, Catherine Byron and Lisa Danhauer and one more from savvy goalkeeper Brooke Fanslow. “Today, I guess the slipper fell off.”
Fremd had a lot to do with that. The Vikings’ defense led to numerous fastbreak chances and a decisive edge in shots taken; at the other end, goalkeeper Julie Conrath denied the Fillies on the few scoring chances they had.
“These girls really did just what I expected them to do,” said Fremd coach Brian Newby. “We shut them down defensively, and then we were able to score in transition.”
That’s part of what makes Fremd so hard to stop — the Vikings score by committee. Joining the action Saturday were Samantha Matuszewski (2 goals), Samantha Kirby (2), Lauren Zambelli, Jessica Xenakis and Carly Gessert (1 each).
“We all feel like we can score,” said McCarthy, who twice found the net after following rebounded shots taken by a teammate. “We take pride in the way we’re balanced as a team. Even if we’re not scoring tons of goals, we know we can still play awesome defense and something good will happen from that.”