St. Charles East 2, Glenbard East 0

All the attacking weight St. Charles East applied to Glenbard East's defense hardly cracked the Rams defense in the first half of Wednesday's regional opener at St. Charles' Norris Stadium.

That said, the Saints managed to score in a tough first half. But imagine their happiness when they moved right from the second half kickoff and scored 15 seconds into the second half.

St. Charles East (11-7-1) won Wednesday's contest 2-0 and advanced to Friday's title game, where the Saints face Wheaton Warrenville South.

St. Charles East's first goal came with 16:38 left in the first half when a pair of freshmen combined. Lauren Rohrmeier sent a cross from deep on the left wing to the far post to Morgan Ketterling, who headed in from a distance of about 1 yard for her first goal of the season.

"Our crosses weren't getting in and then (Ketterling) hit an awesome cross and I just got there," Rohrmeier said. "It was just right there."

Neither Rohrmeier nor Ketterling was on the varsity roster when the season started. Rohrmeier moved to the varsity roster midway through the season.

"They're nice," Rohrmeier said. "They're all welcoming and I just feel a part of the team now."

Ketterling joined the varsity at about the same time and she joined her older sister Hannah, a Saints sophomore.

"It's really fun," Morgan Ketterling said. "Everyone is nice. It felt good to win tonight."

Two more familiar attacking players combined to double the Saints advantage on St. Charles East's first goalward foray of the second half. Kara Nitti played the ball forward to Ellen Bartindale, who received the ball in space between Rams defenders and scored.

"We talked at halftime about those two getting together and playing each other in," St. Charles East coach Pat Feulner said. "If they will play like that, we will get in behind people and be dangerous."

Glenbard East (5-12-2) tried to mount attacks and had a few efforts at goal. But for the most part, the chances fell to St. Charles East. Mostly, however, the match was a rugged midfield battle.

"I told the kids before the game that it's the 12 (seed) playing the 5 and you're playing St. Charles East, with all of their tradition and history that's on their field," Glenbard East coach Gregg Koeller said. "I said 'All I want is 80 minutes.' I said that if they did that, they'd be very satisfied walking off the field. They did that."

Defensively, the Rams made life difficult for the Saints, though they sacrificed their own attack in working hard to keep the ball out of their own goal.

Koeller, the only girls soccer coach in Rams history, is retiring after 20 seasons at the head program.

"My kids are at an age, 9 and 12, where I need to be with them now," Koeller said. "I've seen some wonderful kids play over the last 20 years. I need to watch my kids for awhile now. If this has to be my last game with the program, the kids showed well."