Girls soccer: St. Charles North, West Aurora, East Aurora win Pepsi titles

Three local Fox Valley girls soccer teams had three wild finishes at the 2017 PepsiCo Showdown on the DePaul University campus Sunday. And in the end all three came away with championships for the first time at Wish Field.

East Aurora, St. Charles North and West Aurora each survived penalty kicks to bring home first place trophies in their respective brackets.

St. Charles North and Lake Forest capped the afternoon with a seesaw doozy for the I Grow Chicago title. The North Stars (9-0-1) went ahead 1-0 on Gia Wahlberg's goal in the 12th minute. Lake Forest answered right back 2 minutes later and took a 2-1 lead during the 49th minute. Midfielder Hailey Rydberg, who finished with 2 assists, tied it at 2 in the 56th minute on a penalty shot and Madison Kauffman followed in the 73rd minute for a 3-2 lead.

Lake Forest rallied once more in the final 2 minutes but the North Stars never put their heads down.

"I think there something this team has a lot of and it's resiliency," North Stars coach Brian Harks said. "We got down 2-1 early and kept fighting and kept searching for the next goal and it came. And when they came back and scored with two minutes that could've been an opportunity to get down on yourself, lose focus and to just have a negative attitude going into penalty kicks. But I was really impressed with how the girls went to the next play just said next play. They refocused and just got the task at hand done."

Midfielder Cassidy Joyce was the 10th and final shooter in PKs as she capped a 4-3 edge in kicks with the game-winner while Illinois-bound keeper Sami Sample made 10 saves overall, including 2 down the stretch and 3 PK saves.

"Sami had two pretty big saves down the stretch and three in PKs. She had three really nice saves in the shootout and I thought that was a big factor," Harks added. "Sami has a good mental approach to PKs and she's confident on the line and reads the ball really well. She came up when we needed her and that was good."

The Tomcats (5-10) beat Romeoville 4-2 in PKs to win the Informed Chances bracket thanks to Paola Segundo, Jacklyn Cabrera, Jennifer Garcia and Nathalie Flores shootout goals after 2 scoreless halves. Segudno (1 save) and Daysi Quinonez combined for 10 saves in net.

Later in the day, West Aurora's 13-game win streak looked to be a major jeopardy against Plainfield South in the Girls in the Game bracket final. The Blackhawks (14-1) fell behind 1-0 at the half - a rarity this season - but it was something Blackhawks coach Laura Wagley found as a positive.

"It was bound to happen for us to go down a goal," said Wagley, whose team tired a bit due to the heat and the size of Wish Field. "The past few years we probably would've lost that game at halftime but I told them to relax and we have to learn how to play from behind. Not every team is going to let us beat them. It showed my team a lot of adversity and we pushed through it and finished a full game."

Senior standout Katharine Stephens tied things at 1 on her 16th goal of the season via pass from freshman Olivia McPhearson from the right sideline in the 57th minute. In the shootout, Riley O'Brien and Gracie Prather made their goals while freshman Audrey Stephens sealed it on her shot for a 3-1 win.

But the big story about the PKs was keeper Bailey Ziman, who made 2 huge PK saves that allowed the Hawks to walk off not needing a fifth shooter.

"After Audrey made the shot, everyone ran to Bailey," Wagley said. "Bailey was the MVP of that game, she made two huge saves."