Girls soccer: Huntley tops Bartlett in PKs in PepsiCo finale

Sunday's Gatorade Bracket finale at the PepsiCo Showdown between two of the Fox Valley area's top girls soccer teams certainly lived up to the hype.

And it wouldn't surprise Huntley coach Kris Grabner if Bartlett and his Red Raiders had a rematch at some point during the postseason in Class 3A.

A defensive battle that went scoreless through regulation and two overtimes on the campus of Illinois Tech in Chicago finally went Huntley's way with a 4-2 advantage in penalty kicks - thanks to conversions from Bri Wilder, Alyssa Kaufman, Ali Sunter and Taryn Jakubowski - to down the Hawks 1-0 for their ninth shutout this season.

The Gatorade Bracket is the second highest tier of play in the PepsiCo tournament.

"That wouldn't be a surprise at all. They have the tools and I think they defend very well," Grabner said of Bartlett, which fell to 12-5-1 overall. "We controlled the middle part of the game and they controlled the first 20 and last 20 (minutes). But even with them controlling, it was more in the midfield where we weren't getting anything started."

Huntley keeper Paige Renkosik made 11 saves overall, 2 in the shootout, while Teagan Noesen notched 8 saves for the Hawks. Each team put up 16 shots and certainly had their fair share of opportunities, not to mention the fact that each defense had its hands full.

Bartlett's back four did everything to stop the technically-sound Taryn Jakubowski, who hit two posts and "created problems," according to Bartlett coach Vince Di Nuzzo. Sam Heustis, Steph Noble and Erin Gaitsch had to plug up unselfish Hawks midfielder Mariela Alba and forward Shelley Lyjak. Had Grabner left early and missed what Alba showed in a game against Glenbard West on April 16, the Red Raiders (11-2-1) might've had the wrong the game plan.

"We would've totally mis-scouted the game if we had missed what she could do," Grabner said. "She turned it on and made us aware that we had to be on her. So we had a mark on her the whole game. It was her getting out into space."

"They closed down their spacing earlier than typical," Di Nuzzo said. "It didn't feel like we deserved to lose, and we learned from it. Huntley's a good (team) and they did what they had to do to win the game. Take your hats off to them."