Waubonsie Valley escapes bottle, Final Four next
It's hard to keep Vanessa DiBernardo bottled up for a full 80 minutes of a girls soccer game.
Lyons Twp. was reminded of that Tuesday night at Benedictine University.
DiBernardo's goal in the 71st minute of the Class 3A supersectional in Lisle was all the Warriors (21-1-4) needed. They won 1-0 to advance to the state semifinals against Glenbrook South at 7 p.m. Friday at North Central College.
"If she didn't dress, it would help us," Lyons Twp. coach Bill Lanspeary said with a laugh. "As good as you can do on her through most of the game, she creates stuff for herself and for other people too."
The Lions (18-5-1) gave tenacious freshman Ari Kowalski the job of marking DiBernardo, though it might have hurt the Lions' attack. Still, it had to be done.
"Everybody on our team was aware of where she was," Lanspeary said. "Ari did a great job staying on her. And we had help off of it and for the most part felt we contained her - as well as you can."
"I had that No. 2 (Kowalski) on me the whole time," DiBernardo said. "She would really go everywhere I went. Really if you combined around her I'd lose her, so that's what I tried to do."
From her penalty area, Warriors senior goalkeeper Allison Fox could feel DiBernardo getting ready to break free.
"I just know when she's going to score. She had all those other opportunities," she said.
The goal was classic DiBernardo, an All-America player headed to Illinois.
"I got in the middle and just kept taking it toward the goal, and then I just waited for the gap to shoot and I placed it," she said. "I was trying to get it away from the goalie."
DiBernardo placed perfectly. Shooting from near the right corner of the penalty area, she placed it just inside the far post.
Fox and her defense notched the team's 18th shutout of the season.
"I just did my best to save all the shots," Fox said.
Lyons Twp. had one last try to tie the game with a 25-yard free kick with 11 seconds to play. But the Warriors defended it successfully, and time ran out as the ball bounced lazily out of bounds to the right of Fox's net.
"I was just on my toes, ready to do the best I could, hopefully keep it out," Fox said.
The Warriors, who won back-to-back Class AA championships in 2006 and 2007, get another chance this year.
"It's really a big accomplishment," DiBernardo said. "It'll be fun. Not a lot of girls have been downstate, so it'll be a good experience for them and a different experience for me as a senior."