Barrington sneaks past Crystal Lake S.
Crystal Lake South coach Brian Allen couldn’t have asked for a better effort from his Gators.
Unfortunately, for South it wasn’t enough.
A goal by Molly Pfeiffer off a perfectly executed corner kick in the first half along with an outstanding save by Kelly Pedersen in the final 2 minutes were enough for Barrington to produce a 1-0 victory over the upset-minded Gators in the championship game of the Class 4A Jacobs sectional Friday night in Algonquin.
“My girls left it on the field,” said Allen. “My girls played a great game against a great team. We made one mistake on defense and their goalie made a great save and that was the game. We kept it close and gave ourselves a chance. We talk about the journey all the time and we had a magical run.”
Barrington (17-6-1) advances to its own supersectional to play Mid-Suburban League rival Fremd Tuesday at 7 p.m.
The Gators, who finished the season 18-8-2, had their best chance to tie the game with 1:55 left in the match. Cella Albuquerque broke through the Barrington defense and blasted a shot on Pedersen from 5 yards out.
The Fillies’ goalie leapt high and was able to push the ball over the net.
“It was a tough shot on goal, “ said Pedersen. “I could sense it would be a tough shot on goal and I had to stay focused. I kept saying to myself we weren’t going to overtime.”
The Fillies, who outshot Crystal Lake South 17-6, scored the only goal they needed with 16:32 left in the first half. With freshman Mia Calamari executing the perfect corner kick, Pfeiffer was able to head the ball past South goalie Elizabeth Quinn.
“We executed perfectly on the corner kick,” said Barrington coach Ryan Stengren. “But overall we could have played better. The save by Kelly was outstanding. She hadn’t been tested the whole game. Brian is a very good coach so we knew they would cause some problems for us. Their goalie is their best player. Seeing her against Hononegah the other night we knew it would be tough to score.”
Quinn kept the Gators in the game with an incredible effort in the nets. The Crystal Lake South keeper registered 13 saves.
“My team in front of me played great,” said Quinn. “I owed it to them to play my best. I just tried to focus and concentrate and block everything else out of my mind. They are a great team and they had a lot of quality hard shots on goal.”