Richmond-Burton ends St. Edward's run
St. Edward girls soccer fans have been treated to phenomenal postseasons since 2011-12, when coach Tim Brieger's program began its string of four straight appearances in a Class 1A supersectional or better.
It was a run that included a fourth-place trophy in 2011 and a third-place trophy last year.
That streak of consecutive sectional titles came to an end Saturday. The feisty Green Wave battled back from a 2-goal deficit only to drop a 4-2 decision to Richmond-Burton in the Class 1A Westminster Christian sectional final.
Though St. Edward (14-8) didn't bring home a state trophy this time around, the players recognized a Sweet 16 finish was still something to brag about.
"I think a lot of people thought we were going to lose in regionals," said senior forward Megan Kearney, who scored both St. Edward goals. "Nobody really had faith in us because they thought we graduated everyone we had. But we had 11 seniors and a lot of us played together since we were eight, and all in club. We definitely showed people we were a force to reckoned with. We weren't going to roll over just because we lost a bunch of seniors."
Richmond-Burton (15-8-2) opened the scoring less than three minutes into the match when senior forward Jessica Guenther headed a cross from sophomore midfielder Gabriella Ross past St. Edward goalkeeper Paige Dykstra.
The Rockets took a 2-0 lead in the 38th minute when junior midfielder Taylor Enders scored on a free kick from 25 yards out.
Rather than let down, St. Edward doubled down, thanks in part to Kearney. The ball came to her during a physical scramble in front of the R-B net with 27 seconds left in the first half, and she blasted a shot past freshman goalkeeper Lindsay Restis to trim the deficit to 2-1.
Whereas Kearney's first goal lacked style points, her game-tying goal with 16:37 left in the second half was a thing of beauty. With a clean look at the net from 30 yards out, she sent a shot sailing just under the crossbar to knot the score 2-2.
"The other girl was coming on me pretty hard so I knew if I didn't shoot then I wouldn't get the chance," Kearney said. "And it went in. It was pretty nice, I'm not gonna lie."
St. Edward barely had time to celebrate before Richmond-Burton regained the lead 29 seconds later. Senior defender Lauren Otto settled a ball in front of the net and scored on a point-blank attempt sent to the upper-right corner.
"I knew I had to score," Otto said. "They had just scored and I knew if we didn't score quickly our team was going down. I've been working on my composure in the box lately and it definitely paid off. Once I got the ball, I got it to my left foot and I just hit it in. I knew it was going in the minute it was off my foot."
Otto added a second goal in the 74th minute to give the Rockets a 2-goal advantage they wouldn't relinquish. Richmond-Burton advances to the DeKalb supersectional against Rock Island Alleman on Tuesday at 5 p.m. Brieger thinks R-B will go even further.
"This (was) the game to probably decide one half of the state final bracket," Brieger said. "I really think so. One of these two sides would have gone all the way. Unfortunately, it wasn't us this year.
"But I couldn't ask for anything more. I went up to each girl and said there's not one thing I can say I wish you had done this or if only we had done X. We got down 2-0 and a lot of teams would have bailed. They're great kids. Their legacy of titles and awards and honors ... I said years from now we're going to be talking about the last four years."