Girls soccer: Downers Grove North beats Glenbard East in wild finish

In a nutshell, Downers Grove North's second half was better than Glenbard East's first half.

Downers Grove North scored four times in the final 17 minutes of the Class 3A York sectional semifinal, advancing with a 4-2 victory against the Rams on Tuesday night in Elmhurst.

No. 3 Glenbard East (16-5-3) outplayed the second-seeded Trojans (13-6-4) in the first half, firing 7 shots to the Trojans' 2 and scoring in the 27th-minte on Mimi Camacho's beautiful one-touch volley from 20 yards. It was her team-leading 20th goal of the season.

"I thought we were flawless in the first half," Rams coach Kent Overbey said. "I think they made some changes in the second half and certainly we were under pressure a lot. ... And we didn't have an answer for them. We couldn't get anything going getting the ball up to our forwards. (The Trojans) were very well-organized in the back and they did a great job."

The second half the Trojans started controlling play and winning most of the 50/50 balls. Not that the Trojans made any significant changes in the second half. They just started executing their game plan and working harder.

"They have two sound center backs (Katie Hansen and Mattie Pusateri)," Trojans coach Brian Papa said. "We're trying to go through them. I'm going, what are you guys doing? So at halftime the adjustment was, if you guys don't pass the ball to the outside, you're coming out."

The game plan started working for Downers North in the 63rd minute, when Abby Swanson broke through for her first goal. Alexis Parker put the Trojans ahead for good in the 70th minute. Chloe Nowka's goal in the 75th to make the score 3-1 seemed to be enough. It was, but Glenbard East put a scare into the Trojans.

"We moved to three in the back and we knew obviously, if you lose 4-2 or 3-2, it's still a loss. We're just trying to get numbers up the field and get on the end of those," Overbey said.

Elizabeth Toledo poked a loose ball into the Downers North net in the 76th minute to give the Rams new life, but the Trojans put the game away once and for all with Swanson's second goal in the 79th minute.

"We just couldn't keep the hammer down on them," Overbey said.