Girls soccer: Scouting the Class 1A Westminster Christian sectional

Class 1A Westminster Christian sectional

The matchups: St. Edward (13-7) vs. North Shore Country Day, Wednesday, 4:30 p.m. Winner plays Richmond-Burton Saturday at 11 a.m. for the sectional championship.

History: St. Edward makes its fifth-straight sectional appearance whereas North Shore Country Day is back for the first time since 2011. St. Edward defeated Harvest Christian 4-1 and Willows Academy 6-2 in regionals while North Shore defeated Ida Crown 9-1 and Chicago Math and Science 8-0. Both teams share common opponents in Lisle and Willows Academy. The Green Wave defeated Lisle 1-0 and the aforementioned Willows. On the flip side, the Raiders are 0-2 against those teams. The last meeting between these schools occurred in the 2008 Class A Westminster sectional, where St. Edward was victorious 5-0.

Outlook: Although the Green Wave possess strength in many areas, it's too good to pass up the fact that forward Megan Kearney has been a one-girl band in the postseason. The speedy senior has burned her last regional opponents for 6 goals and since April 27 (7 games) she's scored 16 of her 20 total goals this season. It's given coach Tim Brieger another weapon up front along with Chelsea Gnan (12 goals, 9 assists) while Kathleen Duffy has done the same from defense to center-mid. All in all, a nine-game win streak has proved that these adjustments to help a struggling offense were correct. "We started the season (saying) 'if it's not broke, don't fix it,' " said Brieger. "When you're coming off a 26-3 season and returning six starters, you don't want to move the six starters." Now that they have, if you pay closer attention to the right, the Wave can hit you with the left. "This could possibly be a game where Chelsea comes out and has a great game. Duffy's been putting one or two in lately, too," Brieger said in regards to defending Kearney. Unsung heroes like Ashley Lopez (mid) and Casey Gredzielski (defender) also help the Wave go and goalkeeper Paige Dykstra has 7 shutouts to date. The Raiders (9-7) didn't have the likes of St. Charles East, Wheaton Academy, Aurora Central Catholic and Champaign St. Thomas More on the schedule but earned some key wins against Christian Liberty and 1A powerhouse Francis Parker. North Shore is led by three senior captains - Kayla Robinson (5 goals, 1 assist), Debbie Newmark (4 goals, 7 assists) and Annie Knoll (goalie). The Raiders will be without their top midfielder in Newmark, who's on a mission trip in Nicaragua. North Shore still feels good with sophomore forward Lauren Kaplinsky, its leading scorer. "We're excited for Wednesday," North Shore coach Lizzy Giffen said. "We know (St. Edward's) a strong team and we're excited for the competition." And there's a good chance both teams will have more of a blind look of each other going into their first matchup in 7 years. "We don't know anything about them, they don't know anything about us, if we come out and we don't take this game seriously and we don't put forth our best effort, we're done," Brieger said. "At this level, you're not playing a team where you can mail one in and still get away with a win." The winner gets a date with Richmond-Burton (14-8-2), which Brieger says based on his knowledge can strike the ball well, move the ball around and is active off the ball. The Rockets defeated Christian Liberty 8-0 in Tuesday's semifinal and went 1-1-1 against Class 1A Big Northern Conference power Johnsburg. For a more local twist, Burlington Central defeated R-B by scores of 2-0 and 3-0 this season.