No shortage of scoring for Wheaton Academy
Somebody must have made the soccer goals at Wheaton Academy a little bigger than usual.
The host Warriors got plenty of shooting practice, holding off a persistent Walter Payton High School for a 9-5 win, then watched rival St. Francis pound Nazareth 6-1 in the second Class 2A Wheaton Academy sectional semifinal.
"We can't wait to play them again," St. Francis senior Jackie Leffelman said of Friday night's rematch with the Warriors. "We didn't play our best game the last time (a 3-0 Wheaton Academy win two weeks ago), so we're ready for a rematch."
The Spartans (22-3) got their wish, though it won't be easy.
"We have to shut them down," St. Francis coach Tim Dailey said. "We have to play better than we did last time. They just went over us, around us, through us, that sort of thing. We have to tighten it up and contain them."
Payton found out how hard it is to shut down Wheaton Academy. After going down 1-0 on a 19th minute penalty kick, the Warriors (18-3-2) punished the Grizzlies quickly. Twenty seconds after the PK, senior Leah Fortune got the goal back herself, easily cutting through the Payton defense and blasting a left-footed shot into the far netting.
"She is so competitive and works so hard," Wheaton Academy coach Scott Marksberry said. "When an opportunity is presented to her - well, shoot, she creates opportunities and then takes advantage of the opportunities she creates."
She scored again in the 23rd minute, and after a Meghan Grant goal, Fortune earned a first-half hat trick in the 29th, cleaning up a rebound of a Grant shot. A goal by freshman Crystal Thomas made it 5-1 at halftime.
"We knew that they had a lot of offense, a lot of firepower, so we just wanted to outscore them," Warriors coach Scott Marksberry said of Payton. "That was part of the game plan."
Payton made it interesting in the second half, cutting the lead to 7-5, but Fortune again responded. This time she dribbled down the left flank, cut in along the end line, then back out to get an angle on her shot from about 6 yards, her 27th goal of the season. The goalkeeper never had a chance.
"(Payton) made the biggest difference," Marksberry said of the two halves. "Even after we scored the first goal of the second half, they played really, really hard. Really hard. Which normally teams kind of give up at that point. We had a 5-goal lead and that's when they started playing their hardest. Those were some great goals that they scored."
St. Francis had it easier int he nightcap, freshman Andi Matichak scoring in the fifith minute, followed by classmate Sydney Fox's sixth-minute goal and the first of 2 Leffelman goals, this one in the seventh minute for a quick 3-0 lead.
"We were really pumped up for this game, so it was just awesome to come out strong and get 3 right away," Leffelman said.
Matichak also scored again in the second half, and senior Nora Quirk finished the scoring after Leffelman's second.
"We've never gone this far, our program has never gone this far and done this well," St. Francis coach Tim Dailey said. "We've got so many young kids and some older kids too. It's a real nice mix. They are excited, and that's been a big thing this year, of course. They've never lost that excitement because they've never done this before."