Cary-Grove nips South Elgin in OT

Cary-Grove forward Genna Sobieszczyk knew the Trojans' girls soccer team could have used another goal in the final 6 minutes of overtime to reassure matters over South Elgin Tuesday night.

But after her clutch goal off a breakaway in the second overtime of a 1-0 Class 3A Huntley sectional semifinal win, the junior striker knew all the pressure was off.

Sobieszczyk capitalized on a through ball from Carli Petersen that she poked past Storm goalie Jackelyn De La Mora with 6:04 left, and Cary-Grove (11-5-1) prevented the Storm any last second miracle in the final moments to advance the Trojans to the sectional title game Friday against the host Red Raiders at 6 p.m. C-G and Huntley shared the Fox Valley Conference Valley Division title.

"It was a lot of pressure but it got there," Sobieszczyk said of her shot." You don't get those too often. It was a great pass from Carli. It felt so last minute. It was the longest last five minutes left in the game. I wasn't sure we were going to get one but we pulled through."

Huntley, which defeated Harlem 4-1 in Tuesday's first semifinal, edged Cary-Grove 2-0 earlier in the season but Cary-Grove isn't concerned about what happened 3 weeks ago.

"Every game in the playoffs is an individual effort, individual battle," C-G coach Ray Krystal said. "Once you're into the playoffs it's its own season, so I'm just looking at it at a focus standpoint, that's all in the past and it really doesn't matter at this point. What matters is the next game ahead of us and as a team that's what we look at."

But how the Trojans survived nearly 95 minutes of scoreless soccer does matter. South Elgin (10-11-2) had its chances, including a 12-9 shot edge and Missy Greco's chance with 6 minutes left in regulation. Cary-Grove's Emma Baker nearly chipped one in with 2:43 left in the first half and the Trojans had free kicks from Katie Conner from 25 and 35-yards out that De La Mora snatched up coming across the goal to her right. De La Mora had 9 saves while C-G keeper Miranda Malone corralled 4 in a game where both defenses and keepers deserved medals for their play.

"Cary-Grove and South Elgin were two teams that had that effort and battled with each other," Krystal said. "We were negating each other's game plan and in that type of situation it can become a matter of those moments where your team has to capitalize."

But in the end for the Storm, who had aspirations for a sectional title and more after losing to Harlem in the sectional semis last year, they knew they put it all on the line.

"At our final break we were talking about how the second half and the overtime of this game was the best soccer they played," Storm coach Tiffany Disher said. "We were knocking on their door the entire time but it's unfortunate we didn't put one in and they got a breakaway and put one in at the end. "