Girls soccer: Kaneland falls to Sycamore again

The Kaneland girls soccer team has only lost nine times over the last two seasons, but five of those losses have come in shutout fashion at the hands of Northern Illinois Big 12 East rival Sycamore.

The Knights had a pair of glorious scoring chances against their nemesis in Friday night's Class 2A DeKalb sectional final, but were turned away on both occasions.

Sycamore ended up earning a hard-fought 1-0 decision on sophomore Ella Holland's perfectly placed shot past the outstretched arms of Kaneland keeper Emily Chapman into the right corner with 5:59 remaining in the first half.

The Spartans (22-2-1) will face Northern Illinois Big 12 West's Geneseo in Tuesday's DeKalb supersectional while Kaneland closed out its season 17-5-2, falling one game short of a second straight supersectional appearance.

"It's not like we haven't had our chances the last two games against them," said Kaneland coach Scott Parillo. "Sometimes you have games like that where it won't go in, but unfortunately it keeps being Sycamore."

Sycamore controlled play for most of the first half and finally cashed in as Cali Carl, Emma Stice and Taylor Meier connected passes before Holland's strike from just inside the box.

"The keeper had a great jump at the ball, but it was just out of her reach and a great finish," said Spartans coach Dave Lichamer.

Kaneland nearly evened the score a minute later when Taylor Zitkus' clean header off a Rachel Lutter corner kick was blocked on the goal line by Spartans' defender Claire Schroeder and cleared out.

"We were really great on corner kicks and every time we had one we got the end of it," said Knights senior Gabby Cano.

The equalizer was once again in sight in the 47th minute when freshman Abbie Lomahan gathered a rebound in front of the net after a strong shot from Cano, but Spartans' keeper Amanda Cook blocked the point-blank shot out of danger.

"I think that one was probably our closest. Abby did a great job getting the rebound and I thought it was going in. It was disappointing," Cano said.

Kaneland maintained pressure throughout the second half with a strong wind at its backs, but the Sycamore back line and backup keeper Maegan Schwartz, who entered with 14 minutes left due to a hand injury to Cook, kept the Knights off the board.

"We had to push. We didn't have a choice," Parillo said. "We were trying to get the equalizer and it just didn't happen."

"Kaneland did a great job winning the ball back in the second half and keeping press on offense," Lichamer said, "Kudos to them for running their backsides off."

While it was a disappointing loss, the Knights were proud of their effort and the season as a whole.

"Gradually this season we held our own against Sycamore and I definitely think we put up a battle," Cano said.

"What we accomplished the last two years is incredibly tough to do, and we've had a great run," Parillo said.