Girls soccer: Glenbard East takes sectional championship against Hinsdale Central
Amanda Chlebek only recently decided she was up to the stress of taking penalty kicks. Glenbard East is grateful she did.
The Rams continued the best girls soccer season in school history with a 4-3 decision in seven rounds of penalty kicks against Hinsdale Central at the Class 3A Hinsdale Central sectional championship game.
Eighty minutes of regulation play and two 10-minute overtime periods ended scoreless.
Glenbard East (22-4) will play top-ranked Naperville North (21-1-1) at 5 p.m. Tuesday at the Lewis University supersectional with a state semifinal berth at stake.
In the shootout the teams were tied at 2 after the initial five shooters. Co-captain Sammie Sarles made her shot for the Rams, and Melanie Sims kept the shootout going for the Red Devils (18-6-0). That put Chlebek on the spot at the spot.
"Usually I'm not a PK shooter," said Chlebek, a senior co-captain who converted the decisive PK. "At the beginning of the season, (Rams coach Kent) Overbey asked our whole team who would like to take one when it comes down to it, and I said no. But recently, for the last two weeks, I've been feeling more confident. So he just looked me in the eye and I just shook my head and I knew I wanted it."
After Chlebek's shot rippled the net, Hinsdale Central's last shot went wide, and the Rams had their first sectional plaque.
"We were really confident," Chlebek said. "The whole season we were practicing PKs. These last two weeks we've just been on our PKs and training our goalie (Sierra Dana), so it really worked out for us."
"We didn't test the goalie enough," Red Devils coach Michael Smith added. "You want to win them in regulation, which is where we do our best. At the same time (goalkeeper) Katy Coseglia for us, on penalty kicks she's always been great. She put her teammates in position to close it and unfortunately we didn't this time."
The Rams dominated the first half, outshooting Hinsdale Central 6-0 with four of those shots forcing saves from Coseglia, who stopped 3 more shots in the shootout. But play was more even after the break, with the Red Devils forcing Dana to make her only save in the 85th minute. That kept the Rams' school-record 18th shutout of the season intact.
"At the beginning of the season, our goals were to get conference and regionals," Chlebek said. "Anything beyond that was just above and beyond. When we got to the first sectional game, we were like, we want this sectional championship. We all really wanted it, and that's what happened."
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