St. Charles East pulls away from Bartlett in 2nd half

Sara Buetow may be diminutive in stature but she certainly stood tall during St. Charles East's 4-0 Class 3A regional girls soccer championship victory over Bartlett Friday night.

Buetow, a 5-foot-1 senior defender, found herself in the right place at the right time as she made a save on a shot by Bartlett freshman Kayla Hare with 8:49 left in the first half to help protect the Saints' slim 1-0 advantage.

With Saints junior keeper Alison Chesterfield down in front of the net, Buetow strategically got in position as the last line of defense.

"I usually stay in front (of the net) just in case it happens and this time it happened," said Buetow. "I put my foot right on it."

Saints coach Paul Jennison was thrilled with Buetow's quick thinking.

"Our defense doesn't really get as much credit as our forward line this year but we've always said that the team is built on our back four and our keeper," said Jennison, whose top-seeded Saints (21-1-1) will face No. 4 Conant in Wednesday's sectional semifinals at Schaumburg.

"She (Buetow) stepped up big tonight. I thought her and Sonia (Ost) were absolutely fantastic for us. Having the mindset to make the run behind the goalkeeper when the ball has broken loose, that's massive."

Ost notched the lone first-half goal during a scramble in front of Hawks keeper Nykia Wetterman (13 saves) with 18:32 remaining before halftime.

Bartlett (12-10-1) would have tied the game if not for Buetow's defensive heroics.

"If it goes in, you lose your momentum," said Buetow.

"If they make it 1-1, I think it's game on," said Jennison. "That definitely took us into the half and we were able to readjust and play a much better second half."

St. Charles East scored 3 second-half goals within an 11-minute span to seal the decision and earn its second consecutive regional title.

Sophomore Kyla Augustine kicked off the flurry when she received a short pass from Kaitlyn Dziubinski and beat Wetterman for the Saints' second goal of the match with 34:45 left.

"We picked up the energy and we started connecting passes through the middle," said Augustine. "We played much more as a team in the second half."

Nearly 6 minutes later, sophomore Hannah Kolb scored on a header off a long feed from Julia Peterson to up the lead to 3-0 and freshman Chantel Carranza capped the scoring on a left-footed touch shot with 23:44 remaining.

"I thought in the second half we simply passed and moved better than we did in the first half," said Jennison. "It definitely suits us when we've got space to run into."

Jennison made his team aware of a few important things during the intermission.

"There were a couple of things said at halftime but the message has been simple - always go back to what we're good at," said the coach. "Believe in each other, relax and play the game that we can play."

"He wasn't exactly happy with us," admitted Augustine. "We definitely knew that we had more in us."

While dominating the second half, the Saints also received a late emotional boost with the return of senior forward Darcy Cunningham, sidelined the past 2 weeks by an ankle injury.

"It's a great lift for the squad," said Jennison. "When you're missing a player of her quality, you're hoping others step up. We held serve but you always want to have the opportunity to have your best players to pick from."

Making its first regional championship appearance since 2009, this marked the end of the line for Bartlett seniors Shannon Brohan, Josie Dombrowski, Melissa Gal and Toria Tomasek.

"We couldn't match the level of intensity that they brought in the beginning of the second half," said Hawks coach Ben Beary. "Even though we didn't get the result, this was not a bad game for us. I thought we played pretty well, especially in that first half."