Girls lacrosse: Naperville North edges St. Charles co-op at end of OT
Lauren Platou doesn't push the panic button when a girls lacrosse game is on the line.
Instead, the Naperville North senior uses that time to shine.
Platou scored the game-winning goal with 8.8 seconds remaining in overtime to lift the Huskies to a 7-6 victory over St. Charles co-op during Tuesday's Hoffman Estates supersectional.
The Huskies (14-5) advance to the first IHSA girls lacrosse state tournament on Thursday at Hinsdale Central where they will face either Lake Forest or New Trier in a semifinal.
"I've always loved games that go to overtime, the ones that are intense," Platou said. "I don't want to play the blowout games. Obviously, these are so much more fun and I think the whole season, especially as a senior, you play for these moments."
It was a moment that nearly didn't happen.
Audrey Johnson had scored with 19:26 remaining in the second half to pull the Huskies to within 6-5, but the all-important equalizer eluded them while the clock continued to tick toward the final minute.
That wasn't anything Platou worried about.
She was totally ready when Johnson found her with a perfectly threaded pass, which Platou buried to tie the game at 6-6 with just 1:03 remaining.
St. Charles co-op (15-3) had a solid opportunity to end Naperville North's celebration, but Mackenzie Wells' shot was denied while the Huskies also had a good chance, but Platou's shot was wide right with 10 seconds remaining.
She didn't miss her chance in overtime though and it was pure bliss.
Johnson forced a turnover and redirected it to Bella Taylor, who got wide-eyed when she saw Platou ahead of her.
"I saw the clock running down with the ball in my stick and all these girls coming at me," Taylor said. "I looked up and saw Lauren and knew I had to get it to her."
Once she did, Platou did what she's done time and time again this season, but this time it pushed the team to state for the first time.
"It's kind of surreal," she said. "Just being able to see Bella and her getting the ball to me was just fantastic. The first thing that went through my mind was to turn and shoot and I didn't even realize until after I got it that it was just the goalie and that was it."
St. Charles co-op was left to wonder if the outcome would've been different if its rally didn't stagnate prematurely. It answered a 4-2 deficit with a pair of goals from Lexi Kiefer in the final 21 seconds of the opening half to tie the game at 4-4 and then extended it to a 6-4 advantage early in the second half after another goal from Kiefer and a second one from Makayla Thomas.
"I think it was some missed opportunities, but also have to say it was an out of control game," St. Charles co-op coach Ronnie Kluener said. "And no one was stepping in to take control of it, which makes it difficult to gain momentum either way."
The game was far different from when St. Charles co-op dominated the Huskies 15-5 on April 13. Instead it became the fifth game decided by a single goal between the two schools since 2014.
"I think it was expected to be a close game, at least on our end that's what we expected," Huskies coach Jessica Hogan said. "It was a pretty low-scoring game anyway, and before we went into the overtime I told them to give it everything they had because it's now or never."