Lake Zurich falls in PKs to Lyons

Lake Zurich's girls soccer team has seen some good competition in its handful of games.

The young Bears opened the season against New Trier, which has won the state title the last two years, and on Saturday they faced an undefeated Lyons squad in the opening round of the PepsiCo Showdown at Olympic Park in Schaumburg. Lake Zurich battled through 80 minutes of regulation, plus two five-minute golden-goal overtimes before falling 3-2 in penalty kicks.

"(Lyons) is a good team," Lake Zurich coach Michael Castronova said. "Hats off to them. It was a good battle all the way. Both teams had chances in the second half. It's just tough to see it come down to PKs."

Lake Zurich (3-2) practiced penalty kicks before the tournament on Friday.

"But something like that is tough to simulate," Castronova said, "especially after playing 80 or 90 minutes."

Lyons keeper Emily Johnson made back-to-back diving saves to her right during the penalty kicks, helping her team improve to 7-0-1.

"Going into (the match), we really didn't know that much about (Lake Zurich)," Lyons coach Bill Lanspeary said. "We looked at a few scores and knew that they were good. I thought they were dangerous in the midfield and attacked really well."

Each team scored twice in the first half. Eileen Murphy put Lyons on top 1-0 in the fourth minute of play, before Lake Zurich got the next two tallies. Madeline Blasko tied the score with a penalty kick in the ninth minute after Rebecca Kubin was tripped in the penalty area. Emily Udelhoven gave Lake Zurich a 2-1 advantage after beating the Lyons defense in the 23rd minute.

Lyons pulled even in the 36th minute, when Emily Vukanic scored on a loose ball in front of the goal.

• Third-seeded Hinsdale Central overcame a quick start by Warren to net a 4-1 win.

"We were fresher than I thought we would be at the beginning of the game," Warren coach Ryan McCabe said after his team played its fourth game in six days. "It's tough on the legs. We came out with a pretty decent game plan for them. We got a goal early off it and then we fell asleep a little bit. It just snowballed from there."

Warren (5-2-1) scored in the fifth minute, when Ellen Szostak finished a pass from Sangjun Hornewer. Hinsdale Central (6-1) answered with two scores before the end of the half and added two more in the second half.

Emma Dannhausen-Brun scored the pair in the first half, as Maddy Swade assisted on both goals.

"Kudos to (Warren). They pressed high on us early," Hinsdale Central coach Michael Smith said. "We made a mistake and they finished. For our girls, it was taking that mental break at the wrong time. But they responded and didn't have their heads down when we were in trouble."

Hinsdale Central's second-half goals came from Emily LaRocque and Abby Cole.

"(Hinsdale Central) was very good at finding the little openings in our defense," Warren sweeper Lindsay Ditmars said. "We thought that we could adapt to that. In a game like this, we need to communicate better and tell each other where to go and where to move."

• Libertyville started tournament play with a 4-1 victory over St. Ignatius on Saturday. It was the second win in a roe for the Wildcats (3-2).

The Wildcats scored three times in the first half. Taylor Underwood had a goal and an assist. Annie Thompson, Natalie Jaroch and Danielle Pacholski had the other goals. Mekenna Yoor and Maddie Olson each picked up assists.