Vernon Hills shuts out Regina

The Vernon Hills girls soccer team got off on the right foot in opening up the postseason on Wednesday night.

Second-seeded Vernon Hills defeated No. 3 Regina 3-0 in a Class 2A Vernon Hills regional semifinal.

The Cougars (10-5-4) advance to a rematch with top-seeded Wauconda (14-3-3) in a regional championship at 6 p.m. Friday at Vernon Hills.

Wauconda and Vernon Hills shared the North Suburban Prairie Division title. They tied 1-1 late in the regular season.

Vernon Hills had been struggling lately and hadn’t found its rhythm.

“It’s a combination of everything,” said Vernon Hills coach Vince DeLuca of the team’s woes. “We’re young and have some good leadership. Sometimes it hurts to get motivated to play.

“The last couple of weeks we’ve been up and down.”

The Cougars managed to score 2 of their 3 goals in the second half Wednesday night.

“We played well enough to win,” DeLuca said. “We didn’t play as hard as I would’ve liked to see. The second half we were able to turn things on.”

Vernon Hills got on the board in the 32nd minute as Leah Kelly scored with an assist from Alex Goldstein.

Goldstein scored her 10th goal of the season in the 52nd minute from a pass from Allison Clatch.

Heidi VanderBloomer scored the final goal three minutes later. Clatch started the sequence with a blast off the crossbar.

“It’s all with the team getting me in good spots,” Goldstein said. “I was just able to get there at the right moments. I’m just trying to be a smart player.”

Vernon Hills keeper Iris Ostrovsky recorded her 10th shutout and had 1 save to help keep Regina (9-11) off the board.

“I thought we were overmatched,” Regina coach Paul Agodobar said. “I thought we did well to defend in the first half. We tried to play very defensively, but down by a goal at half, we decided to change things. And once we opened up, it allowed (Vernon Hills) to score a couple more goals.”