Bucaro’s perfect shot hands St. Francis victory

Taylor Bucaro was as close to perfection as she may possibly ever come again in her lifetime.

With the specter of overtime looming in the Class 2A girls soccer state championship match Saturday afternoon at North Central College in Naperville, the St. Francis junior delivered a free kick for the ages.

The 24-yard effort, from the right side with virtually no margin for error, found its target — slightly under the left side of the crossbar and the extended fingertips of the Chatham Glenwood goalkeeper — to give the Spartans their first state championship in program history.

“I just knew that time was close to running out,” Bucaro said of her score with 5:13 remaining that provided the difference in the Spartans’ 2-1 victory. “I was going to cross it, but then saw I had an angle. The shot was perfect. There are no words to describe it. I was numb.”

The Spartans’ ninth consecutive victory to close the season marked only the second state title for a girls sport at the Wheaton school other than its legendary volleyball program, which has eight titles. Jenna DiTusa, the Spartans’ junior keeper preserved the lead with the last of her saves roughly a minute after Bucaro broke the 1-1 draw. Amanda Gaggioli almost single-handedly dribbled out the clock in the waning seconds as St. Francis’ players and substitutes stormed the field in celebration.

But the lasting moment of St. Francis’ season may well have been a critical save — not by DiTusa — but junior defender Kate Roback. Glenwood (20-5-2) had dominated play for much of the first half after St. Francis’ goal in the ninth minute of the contest. The Titans had several quality looks, and Kelly Graves’ shot from inside 10 yards appeared a certain score as DiTusa was out of position. But Roback had the presence of mind to kick save the shot out of danger with 3:45 to play before halftime, and St. Francis withsood the furious Titans attacks.

“I just knew at that moment that if I didn’t get back and stop that ball, they were going to score,” Roback said. “I did not want (the match) to go into overtime. We played four the other day (against Benet in the supersectional).”

“You are going to need to do things like (Roback did) to win a state title,” Glenwood coach Jay Lipe said. “That’s the sign of a well-coached team.” “We kind of hung on by our fingernails,” St. Francis coach coach Jim Winslow said of the Spartans’ sluggishness in the closing minutes of the opening half. “(The Roback play) saved us from going into a complete tailspin.”

St. Francis (24-3) had a great start as Kaity Bucaro served a long ball to Sydney Fox down the right side. Fox deftly dribbled past one defender and fed Andrea Ravlin for a quality strike from 12 yards out.

But the early goal only served to illuminate the collective explosiveness of the start as the Titans wasted little time in garnering the equalizer. Madison Volpert and Kassidy Sheedy collaborated with exactly 25 minutes to play before halftime to force the 1-1 draw. Glenwood ultimately outshot the Spartans 8-7, but it was the Bucaro free kick — awarded after the Titans were cited for a foul on a throw-in — that will be forever ingrained on participants’ minds.

“I knew it would probably come down to something like that,” Lipe said. “You had to figure that whoever scored (in the second half) would win.”