Girls soccer: King's PK goal enough for Burlington Central

This was playoff soccer - bodies were flying and shots were not.

The combination of physical play and damp conditions led to a dearth of scoring chances for both teams, but Burlington Central found a way to win.

Jordan King's penalty kick goal in the 34th minute proved to be the only score as the Rockets edged Kaneland, 1-0, for the championship of the Class 2A Burlington Central regional Friday.

The Rockets (21-2) will take on Prairie Ridge in the Rochelle sectional semifinals on Wednesday.

Although her goal came relatively early in the game, King realized its importance.

"It was really important to finish it and capitalize, just to get the other team knowing that we could get a goal in the first half," King said. "It was especially important because going into the second half we already had the lead and could kind of breathe a little bit."

The Rockets dominated play early and created some prime scoring chances, but couldn't bury one. Zoey Kollhoff had 3 good shots. Kaneland keeper Emma Ball stopped two and Sophie Ottoson swept in to knock the third away.

Ball also made a diving stop of a shot by King.

King finally put one in following a penalty against Megan Majewski.

She faked left, then fired a shot past Ball.

Asked about the key factor in his team's loss, Kaneland coach Scott Parillo immediately answered, "Burlington Central."

"They're solid, they're fast, and they went after it right from the get-go," he said. "But we fought. We lost on a PK. It's tough for me to sit there and go, OK, we lost on a PK. But, you know, we've won on PKs."

It was doubly sweet for the Rockets to win the title on their home field.

"We worked so hard for this moment," Kollhoff said. "We played a great Kaneland team. It was really physical tonight, so we were able to come out and get a really great team win."

It was a total team effort for Central.

"They did everything I asked them to do against this team," said Rockets coach Jess Arneson, whose team took third at the state tournament last year.

"I would have liked to see a goal, but I'm not going to complain about what we got."

The Rockets' back line of Taylor Abbott and Kirsten Wyse completely frustrated the Knights, who put just 1 shot on Central keeper Erin Rafferty.

"Sometimes I don't even worry about my defense," Arneson said. "They're two racehorses. They're so fast, they're cheetahs back there. They've played together for a full year and their partnership has been really good."

Both teams kind of hunkered down in the second half. The Rockets began to push up late in the half, with King and Madelyn Menke getting shots, but King's first-half goal held up.