Girls soccer: Hinsdale South drops St. Francis

Admittedly, the cards appeared to be stacked against St. Francis in its Class 2A sectional final against Hinsdale South on Friday evening.

The Hornets came into the game with 17 shutouts and just 9 goals allowed all season. Mother Nature was a sourpuss, dumping copious amounts of rain onto the artificial turf at Elmhurst College's Langhorst Field.

And if that weren't enough, the Spartans lost junior defenders Maggie O'Reilly and Alex Preusser to injury midway through the first half.

That's a lot of obstacles to overcome, and while the Spartans held their own, they eventually fell to the Hornets 3-1 to complete their season with an 11-6-3 record.

"This isn't the worst night we've played but among the worst," St. Francis coach Jim Winslow said of the conditions. "The field is so wet and it severely affects (everything) … Well, poor Maggie, the first kid that goes down, catches her foot on a slide.

"That affected how we played, losing two backs so early in the game."

The Spartans lost O'Reilly in the 17th minute, and two minutes later Hinsdale South capitalized. Senior forward Cali Vanderplow drove down the left side, beat one defender and fired a shot into the right corner of the net to go up 1-0.

But St. Francis had opportunities of its own in the first half, including a shot from the right corner from junior forward Kendra Pasquale in the 35th minute that Hornets senior goalkeeper Radhika Patel had to go up high to get.

Three minutes later, junior forward Hannah Rittenhouse nearly got ahead of her defender in the 6-yard box, but her shot was smothered by Patel.

"The ball was fast, and it was hard to deal with, and I think first touches just killed us," said Pasquale, who finished the season as St. Francis' leading scorer with 10 goals.

Pasquale and Rittenhouse worked together to nearly get St. Francis the equalizer in the 50th minute. Rittenhouse came down the center of the field and passed to a wide-open Pasquale, who beat her defender and fired a shot that sailed just wide right of the net.

But seven minutes later, Hinsdale South got the first of 2 goals from senior midfielder Tess Sobol, which turned out to be the game-winner, though Sobol added another in the 71st minute.

Perhaps the biggest moment of the evening for St. Francis was sophomore Jill Ditusa's goal into the left corner of the Hornets' net in the 78th minute, which snapped Hinsdale South's three-game winning streak - all shutouts.

"I think anytime you play a team and you get a goal and no matter who they are, it's always a little victory to score," Pasquale said. "Showing that we did score in those last couple of minutes proved we didn't give up and kept playing as a team."

St. Francis outshot Hinsdale South 15-12, and junior goalkeeper Cortney Kosak had 6 saves.