Girls soccer: Kaneland handles elements, Sterling
When Abby Taylor took a pass from Holly Collingbourne and buried a long shot into the right corner of the net with 11 minutes left in the Class 2A Sycamore regional semifinals Wednesday, the Knights led 2-0 and looked like they were going to cruise into the championship game.
Sterling had other ideas, getting a late goal from Zoe Ward and pushing until the clock hit 0:00. Taylor's goal ended up being the difference in a 2-1 Knights win.
No. 4 seed Kaneland (11-7-2) will play the top seed and host Sycamore for the regional championship at 4:30 p.m. Friday. The teams met twice in the Northern Illinois Big XII East, tying once 1-1 and the Spartans winning the other 2-1.
"I think it's going to be a really tough game," Collingbourne said. "I'm looking forward to it. It's going to be really crazy."
Sterling (12-11) played into a stiff wind in the first half and didn't have one serious chance to score. The Golden Warriors only used one forward and packed their defense back hoping to keep Kaneland off the board.
Collingbourne fired a couple long shots that went over the net and wide of it in an otherwise quiet first 20 minutes. With all the action by the Sterling goal, Kaneland finally broke through when Collingbourne took a feed from Abbie Lomahan and fired with her left foot to beat the Sterling keeper and give Kaneland a 1-0 lead 22 minutes into the game.
The score stayed 1-0 at halftime.
"It was hard playing with the 40 mile-an-hour winds but we tried to keep it on the ground and use the wind to our advantage," Collingbourne said. "We really wanted to get the ball on the ground because if you kicked it in the air it would just stay there or go back in the opposite direction."
The Knights got a few chances in the second half including a nice run by Sarah Baerenklau who shot over, and Collingbourne's cross to Bailey Prichard. Lomahan took a shot that went just wide.
"It wasn't pretty, was it?" Kaneland coach Scott Parillo said. "We just got a couple goals. It probably should have been more. We'll take it, obviously. A win in the playoffs is a good thing. We'll just have to play better Friday."
Ward's goal came with 2:27 left for Sterling, who set a school record for wins.
"The elements played a huge factor for both teams," Sterling coach Brian Cebula said. "We got a goal late and pressed toward the end. My girls played well, they battled to the end."