Girls soccer: Huntley overcomes adversity to win 10th straight regional

Huntley girls soccer coach Kris Grabner was ejected from the game with 23:30 remaining in the first half.

After Grabner's ejection, the top-seeded Red Raiders trailed fifth-seeded and upset-minded Hononegah 2-1.

Adverse conditions weren't about to detour Huntley from winning a 10th straight regional title.

Scoring 5 unanswered goals, Huntley rallied from an early deficit for a 6-2 win over the Indians in the title game of the Class 3A Huntley regional Friday night.

The Red Raiders (19-3-2) advance to the Streamwood sectional to play South Elgin Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. South Elgin defeated Elgin 1-0 to win the Rockford Auburn regional.

"Coach Grabner is such an inspiration to this team," said Huntley assistant coach Matt Lewandowski. "The team responded to the adversity and played with great focus. Our goal every year is to win the regional. Our seniors really stepped up and showed great leadership."

Senior Ally Sunter scored her second unassisted goal of the game with 23:02 left in the first half to tie the score at 2.

"We know coach Grabner always has our back at all times," said Sunter. "We were really fired up and upped the intensity after coach got ejected. We have a history of winning regionals and didn't want to let coach down."

The Red Raiders took the lead for good at 3-2 when Creighton-bound senior midfielder Taryn Jakubowski scored on a penalty kick with 16:39 remaining in the half.

Jakubowski scored her second goal of the game off a perfect feed from senior defender Erin Gaitsch with 26:51 left to give Huntley a 4-2 lead.

"We have great chemistry on this team and we were really motivated after coach Grabner was ejected," said Jakubowski. "We had great teamwork and our passing was great tonight. Our communication was really good and we played great defense after Hononegah scored their two goals. It is nice to win the regional but we have a lot of work to do."

The Red Raiders seized control of the game with 2 more goals in the second half. Senior Brianna Wilder scored off an assist by senior Alyssa Kaufman while Kaufman tallied an unassisted goal for the Raiders' final tally of the night.

Huntley outshot Hononegah 11-7. Red Raider goal keeper Paige Renkosik and Indian keeper Alyssa Nicosia each registered 5 saves in the game.