Girls soccer: Glenbard East beats Downers North to claim first regional title
The list of memories and milestones just keeps growing for the Glenbard East girls soccer program this spring.
After Friday night's 2-0 defeat of Downers Grove North, you can now add first-ever regional championship to the Rams' special campaign. Earlier this month Glenbard East claimed the school's first conference crown, winning the Upstate Eight Valley Division, and Friday's effort in the Class 3A regional final in Lombard saw the 20-4 Rams add to their single-season victories mark as well as their shutout record.
"Since the beginning of the season we set goals," said Rams midfielder Amanda Chlebek, a senior who helped seal the historic win with a header that made the score 2-0 in the second half. "Us six seniors sat down and we knew what we wanted to do…we knew we wanted to take conference and to take the regional and that's never happened before. It was great."
The Rams needed to knock off a solid Trojans team that entered Friday's game with a 14-5-1 mark and owned a 3-0 win over Glenbard East this season. Downers Grove North had allowed just 6 goals all season before the Rams notched one in each half and the hosts' defense and goalkeeper Sierra Dana made it stand up. Dana made 9 saves as Glenbard East picked up its 17th shutout.
Dana made a big save on Abby Swanson's close-range shot less than 10 minutes into the contest to keep the game scoreless. A couple minutes later the Rams had their first threat and they turned it into the eventual game-winner when Dana Plotke tapped home a goal set up by a nice throw-in from sophomore Faith Davies and a header assist by senior Brittany Paganucci.
"I just happened to be at the right spot at the right time," said Plotke, who has 12 goals heading into next week's sectionals. "She headed it to me and I just brought it down and tapped it in. We've had all these record-breaking events this year ... scoring records, shutout records, first conference championship and now regionals. We're really excited."
The Rams defense made the lead hold up - with some strong play from Davies, Paige Taylor, Katie Hansen and Sammie Sarles - and then Chlebek's pretty header with 18:58 left to play iced the victory. A perfect corner kick from Sarles was buried into the net by a charging Chlebek, who leapt and headed the ball past Trojans goalkeeper Grace Stevenson.
"We practice them all the time in practice," she said of corner kicks. "(Coach) Overbey had been working with me to improve my headers, so now I wait until Sammie kicks the corner and I run under it so it's more powerful … it really paid off tonight."
After some near misses in recent years, coach Kent Overbey was glad to get over the hump this time around.
"First-ever regional … 30 years and our first one. It feels pretty good," Overbey said. "We've been working towards this for a long time, and we've been in four regional finals now.
"You're one of the top 32 teams in 3A when you win a regional. That's what we're going for. All the work you've done in conference play and all of that, that's great, but it is all centered on milestones to get you here and it's the one."
For the Trojans, who had 9 shots on goal compared to 4 for the Rams, it was a tough loss.
"The game was 2-0 but I thought it was a pretty darn close game," Downers North coach Bob Calder said.
"They finished off the opportunities they had and we had a few opportunities and we didn't finish them. That's how soccer goes. It's a tough pill to swallow. We really wanted to win a regional championship this year."
For Dana, a three-year starter in goal, Friday's milestone was a long time coming. "We've been working for this for my four years," she said. "We had a couple close losses the past couple years. But we're playing better than we ever have. It's just incredible to see all the work we've been putting in and then to see it all come together and have a result."