Marian Central stops Lakes short of state semis

There was a lot the Lakes’ girls soccer program could take pride in this spring, as their postseason run earned the Eagles regional and sectional titles.

For the second time in three years, Lakes put its best foot forward by earning a spot among the Elite Eight teams in the state in Class 2A.

But Marian Central stopped Lakes short of earning a Final Four berth with a 4-0 shutout in the Barrington supersectional on Tuesday.

“It was nice to have an opportunity to play in a game like this one,” said Lakes coach Kevin Kullby, whose team ended its season with an 11-14 record. The Eagles fell to Wheaton Academy in the supersectional round two years ago.

“We made the most of what we could do in those earlier games with remarkable finishes,” said Kullby. “For some reason, we don’t play well, or play up to what we are playing against.

“We saw from the beginning again that we were going to struggle (like two years ago). We struggled against their possession and against a good, quality team, we needed a little luck to break through.”

Marian Central (19-9) controlled most of the possession and managed to cause a lot of problems for Lakes. The Eagles were without midfielder Leah Baker, who had injured her knee in their sectional championship victory over Wauconda last Friday.

“Marian Central was a better team in all facets of the game,” Kullby said. “Keeping the game close, it would’ve been nice to do something with a few restarts. You do something with the restarts, then you can do something with the psychology of the game. Things fell for (Marian Central) and nothing fell for us.

“I have every confidence that Marian Central can win it all this weekend.”

Marian Central won recent meeting between the two schools just a few weeks ago 1-0 before the end of the regular season.

The Hurricanes will be making their first trip to the state’s Final Four in girls soccer.

Marian Central will play Lemont in the Class 2A state semifinals at 11 a.m. Friday at Naperville Central High School.

“Everything is new to us this season,” said Marian Central coach Kristian Rockall, who is in his first year of coaching and has seen his team outscore its opponents 21-1 in the postseason. “Winning a regional was good enough, and everything just kept going.

“We knew enough about (Lakes) and thought we would have enough speed to take them from the last encounter. But we didn’t want to underestimate them from a couple weeks ago and came out hard here in this one. It took us a long time to break them down.”

The Hurricanes managed to get a hat trick from Susan Thimas and another goal from Samantha Koffler. Laura LeFevour had 2 assists and Tess Bottorff had 1.