Girls lacrosse: Neuqua Valley can't stop Platou Huskies

You pick your poison when you play the Naperville North girls lacrosse team.

Try to take out first-team all-state attack Lauren Platou by dropping multiple defenders on her, like Neuqua Valley did Friday in the Metea Valley sectional championship? You've accomplished nothing, because that just opens scoring opportunities for her teammates.

If you focus on her supporting cast, Platou will go off, like she did Friday, with a double-hat trick to lead the Huskies to a 14-7 victory and a date in next Tuesday's IHSA supersectional against St. Charles, a game that will be played at Hoffman Estates. It's the first time the Huskies have ever been in the state's final eight.

"Same as always," said Platou's co-captain Cristin Culbertson, who was one of six others who scored this night for Naperville North. "She always has good plays with everybody. She works with everybody on the field, and she of course wanted to win like all of us wanted to.

"We have freshmen working with seniors," she said. "We had a girl on the team that got her first goal this game. That just shows everybody gets the ball, everybody wants to play, everybody wants to win."

Platou had a hat trick within the first nine minutes of the game, but behind a pair of goals from sophomore attack Caroline Perkins, the Wildcats roared back to knot the game 5-5 at the half.

And then coming out of halftime, the ax just fell for Neuqua Valley (15-3), which was two players down due to penalties. The Huskies (13-5) scored 4 straight, including a Platou goal off a steal with 21:48 left in the contest.

She added another at 12:24 on a drive up top past two defenders, and then another five minutes later driving left and cutting.

"The more people that they pull on one person, the more it's going to free up on our team," Platou said. "If they figure out one of our plays, that means we have cutters they didn't expect, so we can find them and give them a shot."

The Huskies got a pair of goals each from freshman Kate Burritt and sophomore Isabella Taylor, while Culbertson, junior Rachel Goff, senior Audrey Johnson and senior Emily Simmons all scored. It was Simmons' first goal of the season.

Across the field it was a tough end for Neuqua Valley, which had lost a close one to Naperville North 11-8 on April 9, but it wasn't for a lack of effort. After the Huskies scored four to start the second half, juniors Peyton Metry and Christine Corbin got two back to cut the deficit to 9-7 with 14:43 to go.

But the Wildcats couldn't score again.

"We were two men down and that didn't help, and they got up a couple of goals in that situation," Neuqua Valley coach John Scanlan said. "We probably didn't play as cleanly as we had to for them. It is what it is."

Next up for the Huskies is St. Charles - a team the Huskies lost 15-5 to on Friday the 13th in April.

"That was our worst mental and possibly physical game of the year," said Naperville North coach Jessica Hogan. "I believe they had a running clock on us this year. There were a lot of things going against us.

"Hopefully, we go in wanting it."

Naperville North 15, WW South 8:

Seniors Sean Sullivan and Scott Allgood may have scored aplenty Friday night for Naperville North in the title game of the Batavia sectional, but there was much more to the Huskies' effort.

"Those two were hot," Naperville North coach Kevin Benages said. "I'd have to say, though, it really was a team effort. They were the guys that reaped the ball at the end through the other guys' hard work. We put them in position to score. They aren't the ones initiating and going one-on-one. We were a very unselfish team. They are patient and they know the reads."

Sullivan scored five times against Wheaton Warrenville South, and Allgood added 3 for the Huskies (16-3), who advanced to play South Elgin in supersectional play at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at Hoffman Estates.

It's a been a long journey over the past few years for Naperville North that's starting to bear fruit now, Benages said.

"Three years ago, this group was 4-16," he said. "Our goalie, Jake Allgood, was a starting freshman goalie. Everyone else were sophomores or freshmen. The guys committed to coming back bigger stronger and faster. They flipped our record."

Neuqua Valley 11, Lincoln-Way Central 5:

The Neuqua Valley boys lacrosse team parlayed a great night by faceoff specialist John Kubicki to defeat Lincoln-Way Central 11-5 and win the Lockport sectional.

"John Kubicki won the majority of the faceoffs, and that was huge to keep us in possession," said Neuqua Valley coach Josh Maluta.

Next up for the Wildcats (22-2) will be either Glenbard West or Hinsdale Central in the Glenbard West supersectional. Those two teams meet in the Hilltoppers' sectional final at 11 a.m. Saturday. Caiden Perry, Jack Trelo, Brandon Metry, Ben Schink and Dan Curtis each scored for Neuqua Valley.

The win not only put the Wildcats in the supersectional, it avenged a loss to Lincoln-Way Central on May 16.

"We did a lot of prep for this game," Maluta said. "I wanted to see how we would do, and this time it was kind of the opposite. They ran a zone and we put in a zone buster this week that helped offensively.

"Practice-wise it's going to be taking it kind of light in practice as far as contact, we're going to be looking at the film from Glenbard West and Hinsdale Central and making sure our guys are prepared when the game comes."