Third time the charm
For the third time this year, the College of Lake County women's soccer team went head-to-head against Skyway Conference archrival Elgin Community College.
The Spartans had taken both regular-season games over the Lancers, but CLC avenged that double defeat in Elgin Saturday at a most opportune time.
The Lancers notched 3 second-half goals en route to a 3-0 victory to capture the Region IV championship.
The Lancers (15-3) await the winner of the Schoolcraft (Livonia, Mich,) vs. Cincinnati State match Nov. 3 to see who they will play for a berth in the national finals in Albany, Ga.
"This was our third time playing (ECC) and we have had two really close games with 2 unfortunate losses," said CLC's Ingrid Johnson, who scored the first goal.
"We really wanted this game, and we really wanted it more than anything and it just showed. We worked our butts off and we just wanted it so bad. We really earned this win."
ECC (15-2) had its fair share of opportunities in both the first and second halves, but the Spartans failed to capitalize.
The Spartans' best chance came early in the second half when Taylor Cassidy passed the ball across the goal to Kristin Rukhaberlen, who apparently scored.
But the referee called the play offsides, negating the goal.
Soon after, the momentum shifted in the Lancers' favor. After receiving a nice pass from Melanie Rasor, Johnson put the ball into the net to break the scoreless tie.
Remembering how the Spartans came back from a 2-0 deficit earlier in the year, the Lancers kept up the pressure and didn't allow the Spartans near their defensive zone.
The Lancers' Ally Yarc was able to put the game away with 2 consecutive goals.
"After losing to Elgin twice, it was important to come out and play our game, which we did," said Lancers coach Dawn Vickers. "You never know it's the playoffs and anything is possible. You can be up by 2 goals and lose it in the last three seconds. As long as you go out hard every single minute of the game, you got it. And we did that today."
ECC coach Simon Brinklow was pleased with the Spartans' effort this fall.
"It was a thoroughly enjoyable season," Brinklow said. "You could see after the game with the tears how upset everybody was. There was a lot of hard work put into this season and it's a shame we can't go into one more game."