Lake Forest puts an end to Lakes’ run

For yet another year, Lakes’ girls soccer team reached the sectional semifinals.

The Eagles have made a habit of deep postseason runs in recent seasons, with sectional finals and a supersectional appearance, too.

This spring, fifth-seeded Lakes showed a lot of character and promise reaching the sectional again and played well for about a half of Tuesday night’s Class 2A semifinal match.

But the Eagles (14-10-1) were overwhelmed by the talented No. 2 seed, Lake Forest, in a 5-2 loss in Lake Villa.

“In some ways of getting here was a bit of overachieving,” Lakes coach Kevin Kullby said. “We did have a about a half-dozen players with experience, and a number of younger players.”

Lakes maintained its poise and kept Lake Forest (16-4-2) off the scoreboard for the first half.

“We hung in there with the game plan of waiting for that moment to counter, and then make something happen,” Kullby said. “We did that in the first half. We were patient and defended very well. We avoided some tough situations and did well.”

Leah Baker gave the Eagles a 1-0 lead in the 37th minute. Jessica Cipolla sent a long kick that went off Lake Forest keeper Liz Clark (2 saves). Baker reacted on the loose ball and found the back of the net.

“I kept on running and I was able to get it,” said Leah Baker, who finished the season with 15 goals and a had hat trick against Grayslake Central in the regional final. “I wanted to keep things going.”

The Eagles couldn’t keep match their first-half pace in the first half, and the Scouts scored four unanswered goals in 12 minutes.

“In the second half, (Lake Forest) was pushing us back and kept pushing us back,” Kullby said. “They were getting closer to our goal. We made a few misclearances, which at this point of the season you can’t afford to do. Because of that pressure, more or less we buckled.”

Lake Forest got 2 goals from Catherine Traut and 1 apiece from Kali Polich, Abby Shipp and Kelly Murphy.

Mikaela Brown added a penalty kick goal for the Eagles.

“(Lakes) got behind the ball and defended very well,” Lake Forest Ty Stuckslager said. “They frustrated us and our girls weren’t playing to our game plan.

“Lakes did a great job, I think they were outmatched in the end. Luckily, we were on the winning side.”