Girls soccer: Glenbard West gets its kicks

Glenbard West senior Bailey Wallace is used to trying to stop goals rather than score them.

Her duties changed during Tuesday's Class 3A Geneva regional semifinal against Wheaton North.

Wallace scored during penalty kicks to help the Hilltoppers to a thrilling penalty kicks victory.

Glenbard West beat Wheaton North 5-3 in the shootout after neither team could find the net after 80 minutes of regulation and another 20 minutes in a pair of overtimes.

"When I was younger I used to play in the field and took penalty kicks so I was used to that," Wallace said, "The ref said to me that there was no pressure so I took a deep breath and soaked it all in. Usually when the keeper dives, she goes to the right. She went that way so I went to the left and just kicked it as hard as I could."

Wallace, whose role is normally that of a goalkeeper, helped extend the Hilltoppers (10-8-3) season with a dramatic victory after double overtime.

"It was a wonderfully played game," Glenbard West coach Morgan Kasperek said. "It's hard to look at that other team because they fought as hard we did. Our defense played great and so did theirs, but we couldn't find anything on them and in an 8 (seed) versus 9 game both teams played outstanding."

Glenbard West (10-8-3) peppered the goal late in regulation and into the overtimes but wasn't clean enough to jump ahead.

Wheaton North (8-10-1), which was tested seemingly every week with a difficult DuPage Valley Conference schedule, was challenged once again. The Falcons created their fair share of scoring chances but also couldn't find the net.

"I think we could've played another 100 minutes and wouldn't have given up a goal," Falcons coach Tim McEvilly said. "They weren't getting behind our defense at all and any shots were from 30-yards out so they weren't going to score. But we also weren't doing much scoring-wise, and when we did they shut it down."

It was a disappointing end for the Falcons, who were trying to put together a nice playoff run to close out their spring.

"We had a nice run of play to start the second half and that first 25 to 30 minutes we got behind them a few tines but we couldn't connect on those crosses," McEvilly said. "We had chances but they stepped in front of us and slowed us down and against tough competition like this, it happens."