Lake Park ends Geneva’s season
Lake Park’s girls soccer team has made huge strides this season.
Those steps got a whole lot bigger Friday night.
Playing in the second postseason game of her young high school career, freshman forward Jessica Berkshire took a feed from sophomore Megan Lindbert and converted from point-blank range at the 5:21 mark of the first overtime to lift the host Lancers to a 1-0 victory over fourth-seeded Geneva (12-5-4) in the Class 3A regional championship clash.
With the win, the seventh-seeded Lancers (13-4-2) advance to Tuesday’s St. Charles East sectional semifinals against top-seeded Conant, which blanked St. Charles East 2-0 Friday night at Wheaton North.
Not bad for a team that captured its first regional title since 2008 and began the season winless in its first four games.
“I am so happy and excited for my team,” said Lancers coach Chris Fruehling. “From starting 0-2-2 to running off nine (wins) in a row to battling some really good teams, we have progressed throughout the year.
“To come out and beat good teams such as Batavia and Geneva — that’s a credit to my team believing and putting it all together.”
Berkshire, who was forced to leave the game briefly in the first half after landing awkwardly on her left hip, made the most of her overtime opportunity, slipping a shot past Geneva goalkeeper Victoria Fortney (5 saves).
“I’m still trying to catch my breath,” said Berkshire. “I saw Meg (Lindbert) cross the ball and I heard everybody yelling and screaming. I just ran to the ball.”
The Lancers found themselves on the opposite end of the spectrum in postseason play a year ago.
“We were at West Chicago and had a triple overtime loss to Elk Grove,” said Fruehling. “We brought that to their attention before we went into overtime (tonight). We said that this game is in our hands, and that if we could create one opportunity, it could be yours.
“We needed to go on the attack. Jessica (Berkshire) coming in with that energy and Megan (Lindbert) being able to get that ball to her — it was a great combination.”
Shooting for its fifth consecutive regional crown, Geneva controlled much of the play during the second half but couldn’t put a shot past Lancers keeper Amanda Siciak (11 saves).
“It was a real physical game,” said Vikings coach Megan Owens, “and Lake Park is much bigger than us. I thought we held our guard but we got shoved around a lot.
“We played a nice, solid game but they finished tonight and we didn’t.”
With a young team that included 7 freshmen and 2 sophomores, the Vikings should learn from this heartbreaking experience.
“At the beginning of the season, people said we weren’t going to beat anybody,” said Owens. “People said we wouldn’t beat any of the teams in the Tri-Cities, and we beat them all.
“We won our conference and advanced to the final four of the Naperville Invitational. We overachieved in every way possible. We lose one senior (Fortney) so all of the teams in the area better watch out because I don’t know of any other school that played this well and will only lose one senior. We had a great season.”
So have the Lancers, who will once again take on an underdog role next week.
“This is our third regional title in school history,” said Fruehling. “We set that as a goal at the beginning of the season.”