Huntley blows past Harlem, into sectional final

In Deanna Hecht's eyes, when the weather takes a turn for the worse on the Huntley girls soccer team, the team must maintain its focus.

Mother Nature provided many ways to unglue the Red Raiders before and during Tuesday's Class 3A sectional semifinal against Machesney Park Harlem, but the 28-mile per hour wind gusts out of the south and the brief rain showers that included a rainbow to the east of the Huntley stadium never took the team out of its element.

Hecht scored twice in the first half - her second goal in the middle of a downpour - while Taryn Jakubowski and Katie Constantino each scored goals and the Red Raiders moved on to the sectional final with a 4-1 win over the Huskies.

The Red Raiders (18-3) earned a berth into Friday's 6 p.m. sectional final against co-Fox Valley Conference Valley Division champion Cary-Grove, which was a 1-0 winner over South Elgin in the nightcap.

"It's tough, it's definitely tough," Hecht said of the weather. "We did a good job of staying focused. When weather gets bad the main thing is to stay focused."

The Red Raiders were ready for anything after practicing in Monday morning's rain, but were given a gift when Harlem (16-6-2) deferred the wind to the Raiders' backs in the first half believing it was more important to have the wind for the final 40 minutes. The move fell right into what the Raiders had hoped for.

"I kind of looked at the forecast because the weather forecasters are so accurate, and saw the wind was supposed to tame down about four miles per hour and that's a huge difference," Red Raiders coach Kris Grabner said. "That's a difference from shooting from 25 than shooting from 40. That's why we were going to go with it (in the first half). See if we could get off to a fast start."

Not only did Huntley dominate possession throughout the first half, Costantino and Hecht put Huntley up 3-0 by the 19th minute. And they did so from roughly 25-yards out.

Constantino was the first to strike from 25, as her boot from the midfield sailed in uncontested. Hecht had a similar shot, from nearly the same spot, skip off the goalie and Hecht's second goal with 21:48 left in the first half came from just inside the box when the rains scattered fans to shelter.

"I feel we had enough space where we were comfortable with taking the shot," Costantino said. "No defenders stepped up or approached me so I said 'why not?' so I took a shot."

"A lot of teams want to work up the middle of the field and I think we were lucky enough to get our shots off where they were most dangerous," Hecht said.

The Red Raiders outshot the Huskies 12-5 that included 8 on goal. The one blemish came 45 seconds into the second half when Huntley fell asleep on defense and Hannay Scott booted in a rebound to make it a 3-1 Huntley lead. But the Red Raiders pressured Harlem with the wind and maintained their passing on the wet turf.

"We knew Harlem was going to come out strong and give us a run for our money and we had to come out strong and handle what they were going to throw at us," forward Alyssa Kaufman said. "We had to watch our passes, with the conditions we had today we wanted to make sure we capitalized not on their bad passes but the turf and make sure we got to our feet instead of playing each other into nothing."

Costantino wasn't done scoring, as she converted a corner to Jakubowski, who tapped one in with a 1:04 left in the match.