St. Edward advances to sectional final again

If there's anyone on the St. Edward girls soccer team who knows all about postseason shootouts, it's senior goalkeeper Paige Dykstra.

Prior to Wednesday's Class 1A Westminster Christian sectional semifinal, Dykstra was painstakingly in the middle of last year's state semifinal loss to eventual Class 1A champion Manteno.

And while that match had much more on the line than a berth to the sectional final, this time around against North Shore Country Day, Dykstra found herself in the same situation but this time she didn't let history repeat itself.

Redemption came Dykstra's way with a key stop that coach Tim Brieger asked for out his keeper in the team huddle and freshman Taylor Gredzielski's walk-off boot in sudden death gave the Green Wave a 3-2 shootout win over the Raiders (9-5) that advanced St. Edward (14-7) to the sectional final on Saturday at 11 a.m. against Richmond-Burton.

"It was a big lift off the shoulders knowing we could relax a little bit more and hit our shots," Dykstra said of her save. "Last year it was a big atmosphere and it was my first real shootout. This year I was more settled and knew what to do and just stayed relaxed."

Dykstra's stop couldn't have been more timely. With the Wave edged 3-2 heading into the fourth frame, Dykstra followed up Olivia Kochanek's shootout-tying boot with her only stop of the afternoon, a shot punched straight across by junior Rachel Gordon.

"I knew she didn't come up very confident," Dykstra said. "If she's not going to come up confident she's not going to kick it confident so I (had) to stay confident in myself and know what to do."

The save gave St. Edward new life and after two North Shore misses high above the crossbar, Gredzieleski's upper-left corner boot sealed a wild game where 100 minutes couldn't settle a 2-2 tie.

"I knew there was a lot on the line and I tried my best to stay calm," Gredzieleski said. "It was a last-minute decision of where I was going. I just walked up there and tried not making eye contact with the goalie because I knew that would kind of freak me out."

"You always worry about putting freshmen out there," Brieger said. "But she stepped up with ice water in her veins and of course, I was hugging Father Butler, desperately."

North Shore's game plan was to hunker down on forwards Megan Kearney and Chelsea Gnan with pressure from defenders Kayla Robinson and Hannah Fortier, who were a successful combo in doing so. The Wave held just an 11-6 shot edge, without any shots on goal in both overtimes.

Added to that, the Raiders received a gift not more than 2 minutes in on a mess in front of Dykstra that Grace Miller chipped in for a 1-0 lead. The Wave followed up with 2 goals from Gnan off two corners from Kathleen Duffy in each half, but Miller came up with the equalizer with 6:33 left on a shot just outside of the 18-foot line that sneaked inside the near post.

"We knew Kearney and Gnan were going to be threats so we made sure we had them marked all the time," Raiders coach Lizzy Giffen said. "And we were just digging in."

But St. Edward battled through and advanced to its fifth-straight sectional championship, where the Wave holds a 4-0 record.

"You win and move on, what can you say," said Brieger. "We played well, but they knew our strengths and they shut down our strengths and we couldn't adjust."