Parker, Warren step up in second half

Haylee Parker waited all season to score her first goal.

The senior defender's paitence was rewarded on Wednesday afternoon, as Parker led a 3-goal second-half outburst from Warren as the No. 7 seed blanked No. 11 Glenbrook North 3-0 in Class 3A girls soccer regional semifinal play in Gurnee. The match had been postponed by storms Tuesday.

The Blue Devils (13-6-2) advance to host No. 3 seed Lake Zurich (17-2-1) in the regional championship at 7 p.m. Friday.

Alliyah Parker and Abby Vrabel had the other goals for Warren against Glenbrook North. Haylee Parker scored in the 44th minute to break a scoreless tie with a chip into the corner.

"That was the first, and it was very exciting," Parker said. "I've been trying - I just hit crossbar, crossbar. It's a good game to get my first goal. I've always tried to score but haven't succeeded until now. It just seemed like a lot of space around me, and I went for it. I really wanted to score so bad, and we wanted to win our first regional game. We had our hearts set on getting on the board first."

Alliyah Parked tallied the second goal in the 56th minute after taking a loose ball in front to make it 2-0. Vrabel added an insurance goal in the 68th minute with an assist from Lindsey Hardiman.

Warren coach Ryan McCabe was glad his team showed the kind of patience required to win the game.

"It's nice to get one," he said. "Going through the lightning delay (Tuesday) was kind of a weird day for us. It took us a while to get back into a groove. We made a couple of adjustments at halftime, just a couple of things to keep an eye on, and the girls did that. We were able to get behind their defense a couple of times and pounce on their defense."

Blue Devils keeper Liz Carrano stopped 4 shots and earned her ninth clean sheet. She had help defensively from Haylee Parker, Alissa Ramsden, Katharine Schwede, Hannah Sislow and Alexis Strothers.

"Warren just possessed the ball way more than us in the second half," said Glenbrook North coach Craig Loch. "They changed their formation and were much more dangerous. I thought they were the deeper team in this one, and the better team in the second half."