Just no stopping Cougars

The Vernon Hills girls soccer had already made some history by reaching the North Suburban Conference championship last week.

On Friday, the top-seeded Cougars captured a regional championship for the first time since 2005, blanking No. 2 Regina 2-0 shutout in the Class 2A Antioch regional final.

Vernon Hills (12-6-2) advanced to the Class 2A Grayslake Central sectional semifinal Wednesday, where the Cougars will play the winner of today's Lakes regional match between Grayslake Central and Lakes, which starts at 11 a.m.

"We won the regional that year against Regina," said Cougars coach Vince DeLuca. "We were excited about playing since we haven't played in three days."

The Cougars had beaten North Chicago 8-0 in the regional semifinal, but Regina (8-9-2) provided some problems.

"We started out well and just couldn't finish," DeLuca said. "We had six to seven opportunities in front of the goal and just couldn't get it in. It was the biggest difference in the second half."

Cougars broke through in the 54th minute, when freshman Carly Manso scored what proved to be the game-winning goal off a free kick from Mallory Feece.

"I was kind of fortunate on the kick," said Feece who sent a low curling chip into the box from almost midfield. "Carly (Monso) did a great job to get on it. We put a lot of pressure and we got the goal."

Vernon Hills added another goal eight minutes later for a 2-0 lead when Lauren Clatch scored off an assist from Brooke Mahrenholz.

Cougars keeper Iris Ostrovsky made 5 stops for the shutout.

"We peaked for about 60 minutes," said Regina coach Paul Agombar. "That was our game plan to frustrate them a bit. It did work, but they had a couple of good players up front. We did about as good as we could play."