Lake Forest tops Stevenson, makes NSC title game

Sheridan Bufe scored in the opening half, as Lake Forest's girls soccer team edged Stevenson 1-0 Tuesday night to earn a berth in the North Suburban Conference championship game.

Lake Forest (10-4-2) will host Lakes at 6:15 p.m. Thursday.

Lake Forest finished 4-1-1 in the North Suburban Lake Division. Lake Zurich, which tied Mundelein 0-0 Tuesday night, also finished 4-1-1 in the NSC Lake, but Lake Forest will move on to the championship game because the Scouts beat the Bears 2-0 during division play.

"It's great," Lake Forest coach Ty Stuckslager said. "We got beat in the last game last year at Mundelein. It goes to show how difficult it is to win the Lake division. I told the girls going into this game (against Stevenson) that we had to win to have a chance."

The Scouts got the game's only goal when Bufe headed in a Paige Bourne cross in the 15th minute.

Finding the back of the net has been a problem for Stevenson (7-6-1, 2-3-1).

"We had the chances and we didn't finish," Stevenson coach Kevin Heffernan said. "Lake Forest is a team that knocks the ball around real well and keeps it in possession. We tried to make some adjustments at the half to keep them going forward. We played a lot higher and it caused them some problems. It gave us a lot more opportunities to go to the goal. (Lake Forest) was fast in the back. It was tough to beat them going forward."

Emma Marx had 10 saves for Stevenson.

Lake Zurich 0, Mundelein 0: Elly Daleske made 5 saves in net for Lake Zurich (13-3-2, 4-1-1), which tied Lake Forest for first place in the North Suburban Lake.

Grayslake North 7, Woodstock North 0: Lauren Davis' first-half hat trick led the Knights in the Fox Valley Fox Division match.

Sammie Villwock assisted on the first three goals. Jocelyn Rodriguez scored a goal in each half, as Grayslake North (16-2-2) built a 6-0 lead by the break. Kayla Hartigan also scored twice and had an assist, as well. Teagan Johnson assisted on both of Hartigan's goals. Kelley O'Brien contributed an assist.

Megan Davis and Abby Rice each made 1 save in sharing the shutout.

Vernon Hills 3, Grant 1: Kristen Guglielmi tallied a goal in each half of the North Suburban Prairie match.

Maddison Guillaume also scored for the Cougars, who got assists from Ashley Favia, Nathalie Orozco and Haley Lieberman.