Lake Forest tops Vernon Hills for NSC title

For the second time in three years, the Vernon Hills girls soccer team had a shot at making history.

The Cougars are the only girls soccer team from the North Suburban Conference’s Prairie Divison to win the league’s overall championship,but they did it in 2004.

History — and not the kind Vernon Hills was after — repeated itself. Vernon Hills fell short once again in a 2-0 defeat to host Lake Forest in the NSC title game on Thursday night. The Cougars (9-5-4) lost to Lake Forest by the same score two years ago in the title game.

“We were just happy to be here and represent the Prairie,” said Vernon Hills coach Vince DeLuca, whose team shared the Prairie Divisional championship with Wauconda as both had 5-0-1 records. “Lake Forest was considered to among the top five teams in the state. Lake Forest was a great team, but I thought our kids played hard out there.”

Vernon Hills played right with Lake Forest (13-4-4) in all phases — except scoring. But the Cougars can take some positives from match, and they’ll try to apply what they’ve learned in the Class 2A state series next week.

“I’m happy with the result,” DeLuca said. “It’s a growing experience for us. I really didn’t think we would be this far and be playing in this game this year. We’re a young team, and they put it all together. I thought we grew here in this game and never gave up against a good team.”

Vernon Hills had few opportunities for quality shots on goal. Lake Forest goalkeeper Liz Clark made 3 stops and earned the shutout.

“I was hoping we could come away with the win,” said Heidi VanderBloomer, a Vernon Hills sophomore midfielder. “We put in a hard effort out there.

“(Lake Forest) had a lot of marks and they had some great movement off the ball. It was hard to do anything with their speed of play. Lake Forest also did a good job of defending against us. We still did some good things.”

Lake Forest won the Lake Division with a 5-1 record and has won the NSC three of the last four years.

The Scouts got one goal from Haleigh McPeek off Abby Shipp’s low cross in the 16th minute. On the other, Katie Murphy knocked in a header at the back post on a Holly Work corner kick in the 64th minute.

“We were missing six starters and we played well,” said Lake Forest coach Ty Stuckslager, whose team fell to Libertyville 1-0 on Monday and 2-0 to Planfield North on Wednesday night at Toyota Park in Bridgeview. “We had to use all 18 of our players and move some people around. Vernon Hills was pesky and they kept coming after us. But our defense played very well and never let (Vernon Hills) get that final touch or the final shot. Everything was from a distance away.”