Girls soccer: Metea Valley perseveres against Naperville Central
Kelly Crowe is a bit of a sharpshooter when it comes to connecting with the crossbar.
On Tuesday it paid off massively for the Metea Valley junior when her 26-yard free kick hit the underside of the crossbar and trickled in to give the Mustangs a 2-1 girls soccer lead late in the second half.
They protected that lead for the final 6:34, prevailing 2-1 to advance to Friday's Class 3A Metea Valley sectional championship against Naperville North.
It's the third consecutive season that the Mustangs (13-7-4) have reached a sectional final, although they still have yet to win one.
"From the very beginning the kids have bought into the idea of never giving up and to keep working and working all season long," Mustangs coach Chris Whaley said. "I know it sounds like something I've said 100 times, but it's true. You see the fight in the girls and it comes from that different mentality."
Whaley said Crowe was overdue for a carom to go her way. She has sent shots off the crossbar a few times this season during free kicks. This time it went in for just her second goal of the season.
"She has had that goal coming for a while now," Whaley said. "She's been real close this year and finally got it in at probably the best moment you can get it. She's scored before this year, but nothing like that."
She actually had only scored one other time, making this goal even more meaningful both for the team and for her personally.
"I didn't want to let anyone down because this might've been our last opportunity," she said. "No one wants it to be their last game. I've hit the crossbar now three times on free kicks, but this one feels really great and I just want to keep going all the way."
Abby Severson had tied the game earlier, just 5:05 into the second half, when she received a pass from Jade Eriksen-Russo. Severson then took a shot just outside of the penalty area that had severe hook to it, but not too much before settling in the net's corner just inside the far post.
"Abby had an awesome shot right there," Eriksen-Russo said. "It all depends on the situation whether to pass or shoot it, and there it worked out to pass it."
Naperville Central (14-5-5) took a 1-0 lead with 12:48 left in the first half on a Kathleen Conforti goal but couldn't score again.
"I would like to think it was the incredible save their kid made on us when it was 1-1 and that ball was ticketed for the goal from (Maggie) Hillman," Redhawks coach Ed Watson said. "We had our chances, but we just weren't sharp enough when we could've gone 2-0."
An inability to do anything off of restarts has plagued the Redhawks all season, and it once again proved troublesome in the loss.
"We've been a program that has lived on restarts," Watson said. "It wasn't as though we didn't get them, we just didn't do anything with them.
"Neither team deserved to lose the game, though. Both teams played very well."