Girls soccer: St. Charles East blanks Geneva for regional crown

It wasn't what Kayla Villa meant to do, but it sure worked out well for the St. Charles East girls soccer team.

Villa sent a corner kick to the near post late in the first half of Friday's Class 3A Rolling Meadows regional championship game. She was looking for a teammate to meet the ball, but instead the ball curved and snuck past the keeper just inside the post.

Villa's goal gave St. Charles East a 1-0 lead in a game it went on to win 2-0, netting the Saints their fifth straight regional championship.

It was the 13th goal of the season for Villa and one of the most unusual ones, tying her with Rose Stackhouse for the team lead.

"It was designed for someone else to get it but I'm just glad it curved in," Villa said. "I practice corners a lot."

Saints coach Vince DiNuzzo said they usually run the corner to the far post but made an adjustment because of the wind.

He likes having his left-footed junior Villa take the corners.

"She takes all our shots from that side of the field. She serves a good ball in there," DiNuzzo said.

"With the wind blowing this way we figured not get the ball caught up in the middle so we asked for a near post delivery. I think it was a front post missed assignment, we were trying to play the ball front post. It was a little too front post but we'll take it where we can get it."

No. 4 seed St. Charles East (13-5-6) advances to meet No. 1 seed St. Charles North at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday in the Geneva sectional semifinals.

The win also avenged a 1-0 loss to Geneva in last year's sectional semifinals.

"It's been a year in the making," Villa said. "I remember so clearly last year. This feels so good. I've had that in my mind all year."

After playing Geneva to a recent 0-0 tie, Villa said getting the first goal was especially important.

"We knew we had to get one in the first half because in the playoffs it's so hard to come back from going one down," Villa said. "I felt we had the energy in the first half so it was good to get one and reward ourselves for the energy."

Trailing 1-0 at halftime, Geneva worked hard for the equalizer early in the second half.

Saints keeper Grace Griffin stopped a point-blank shot from Stephanie Howe, and then a rebound attempt by Sydney Gratz sailed over the net.

With 21 minutes remaining, Gratz played a ball ahead to Jenna Dominguez for a good look that Griffin again denied.

St. Charles East then scored its second goal on a free kick from the 9-yard line by Alondra Carranza, who went low to the right post for her first goal of the year.

"Our wall jumped and it went under," Geneva coach Megan Owens said.

"I think both goals were flukes. I don't know how it (Villa's corner kick) slipped through. I thought we played a good game, I thought we dominated especially the second half. We had so many opportunities, just cross bar, side bar. We had so many shots just go wide. That's how soccer is."

Griffin made 9 saves in recording her 13th shutout. DiNuzzo praised the defense of senior Hayley Popiel.

"When we are all panicking she (Popiel) calms all of us down," DiNuzzo said. "I thought Geneva played really good that second half and we had to change what we were doing. We gave away some self-inflicted chances but for the most part I think we deserved to move on today."

Geneva's season ended at 13-7-4.

"We had plenty of opportunities that second half," Owens said. "Luck didn't go our way today. It just didn't fall in for us today."