St. Viator finishes 2nd in Class 2A state tournament
The match between St. Viator and Belleville Althoff lived up to its billing Saturday afternoon as the high-powered attacking sides met to decide the Class 2A girls soccer champion at North Central College in Naperville.
Althoff (27-0), which dominated southern Illinois all season, rode the strike force of Megan Pawloski and Kelsey Dinges to a 5-3 victory to capture its first girls soccer state title.
The Lions (21-9-1) were looking to for a title double for first-year head coach Mike Taylor, who last fall won a state crown with the boys.
"I was thinking this was going to be a 2-1 type of match, but in retrospect, when you look at the program book and see their top two scorers and (ours) totaled over 150 goals between - then, no, I wasn't surprised to see an 8-goal game," said Taylor, long after his club hoisted the runner-up trophy - much to the delight of the Lions faithful.
"It was a great game, a great game with the two best teams in the state at (2A) and one that was fun to watch and would end up having a little bit of everything, except for the final score going to Althoff," Taylor said. "But they were a deserving state champion and we gave it all that we could. However it was a little short when it was all over."
The Lions looked rattled in the opening stages, and quickly trailed when Pawloski scored the first of her 3 goals and her 51st when a one-timer the other way found the back of the net at three minutes.
Taylor Skala helped restore the Lions' confidence just three minutes later, when Althoff was put under pressure from a Sam Gavin corner. The Crusaders' inability to clear the box allowed Skala to hit the equalizer with a well-struck half volley from 12 yards.
"We watched (Althoff) yesterday against (Peoria) Notre Dame and I think a lot of us were nervous at the onset after seeing what they could do (offensively) in that match," said Lions senior Ariana Kulinczenko.
"But once we got over an early case of nerves, it got back to a more even match and we began to play the way we knew we could," said Meghan McGrath, who along with Kulinczenko proved to be a classy pair of team captains and terrific field generals all season for Taylor and the Lions.
Each side gained the run of play after Skala's 37th of the season. But it was apparent that if the Crusaders could find Dinges in the middle their attack would get into the fast lane with the junior at the creative controls.
"St. Viator is such a terrific team, but even when it became 1-1 I never lost faith in my teammates because we stayed relaxed, and I know that we've been able to score all season long," said Dinges, who has verbally committed to Miami (Ohio).
The final minutes before intermission finished at a frenetic pace, with Skala nearly running onto a McGrath freekick and slotting past Crusaders keeper Madeline Nesbit. Pawloski collected a loose ball in the area and fired a left-footed cracker off Stephanie Shanahan, and the rebound off the Lions keeper went just over the bar to end the half.
"We dodged a bullet right there at the end, but I thought we came with a lot of energy in the second half," Taylor said, "and even when they went up 2-1, I still felt we were OK until that No. 6 (Dinges) would add to their lead."
Disaster struck the Lions just minutes after the break when Alexis Jones strolled unmarked down the right side and thumped in the go-ahead goal at 44 minutes after Dinges and Pawloski generated a shot off Shanahan in close.
Dinges scored a professional-looking strike when her snapshot header off a flip-throw from Pawloski exploded past Shanahan and just under the bar to give the Crusaders a 2-goal advantage at 45 minutes.
But the Lions did not roll over. After a bit of trickery from Chloe Luthringshausen, the freshman was hauled down inside the box and Skala converted the subsequent penalty kick to cut the Lions' deficit to 3-2.
Pawloski completed her hat trick with goals at 59 and 68 minutes. Her third was a deft chip over Shanahan to put the match away for good.
"It's going to take a few days to get over this match, but I can tell you now that this has been a really fun group of girls to be around all season long and one that I will remember for a long time, as they all made my first year in the girls program such a memorable one," Taylor said.