Hampshire 4, Chicago Latin 0
The more appearances Hampshire makes in the Class A Elite Eight, the more the Whip-Purs learn through trial and error what works and what doesn't.
In their third straight trip to the state quarterfinals at North Central College in Naperville on Friday, the Whips chose to approach the weekend tournament as they would any other. The girls even attended classes Friday.
It was just another game day, albeit, quite a memorable one as it turned out.
"We just tried to approach it normally," Hampshire coach Patrick O'Brien said after the Whips shut out The Latin School 4-0. "We ate at a normal time for lunch. We came down here in big yellow. We didn't do anything special. We're not doing anything special tonight. We're going home. We're not staying here. We're sleeping in our own beds.
"We're just taking a business-like approach to this and we hope that it benefits us."
Business was good on the field for the Whip-Purs (17-6-2). They took a 1-0 lead with 4:23 remaining in the first half on a breakaway goal by Kelsey Burke and tacked on 3 second-half goals to advance to today's semifinal against Herscher (17-2) at 11 a.m.
Columbia (13-5) will face Rochester (17-4-3) in the other semifinal at 9 a.m.
Hampshire had the best of the attack throughout the first half, but the game remained scoreless until Burke took possession 40 yards from the goal and broke past a defender with under five minutes until halftime.
She blasted the ball low and to the left of Latin's goalkeeper from 15 feet out to give the Whips a 1-0 lead.
"Just going into half tied wouldn't have been a good thing," Burke said. "It was good to go in with a lead."
Said O'Brien: "I was proud of the way that they came out and set the tone early. We needed to do that."
Latin managed just 2 shots all afternoon against the quick, ball-hungry Hampshire defense, but one of those shots nearly went in the net just before Burke scored.
Louisa Costa made a good run into the box and crossed the ball to Katie Shatto, whose shot dusted the fingertips of Hampshire goaltender Alexa Heinrich, hit the left post, bounced back and was eventually cleared.
"That one made my heart stop," Heinrich said.
Latin (10-8-3) kept it a 1-goal game until junior Kayla Meyer right-footed an assist from junior Kelly Plichta high and over the Latin keeper's outstretched arms for a 2-0 lead at 50:16.
"Me and Kelly have been playing together for a long time," Meyer said. "We just kind of looked at each other and she knew I was wide open."
Christine Schumacher, who injured her knee in a state quarterfinal last season, returned to the same field and scored a beautiful goal while facing the corner. She turned and angled the kick over the keeper to bulge the lead to 3-0 at the 65:23 mark.
Burke closed the scoring with another breakaway goal, her seventh of the season, assisted by Plichta just over a minute later.