Wheaton Academy falls in second overtime
Wheaton Academy’s Lindsey Burke was studying abroad in Africa this spring.
Triad’s Rachael Tejada was scoring goals. Lots and lots of goals.
The two found themselves facing each other at Naperville Central on Friday afternoon as their respective teams met in the Class 2A girls soccer semifinals.
Burke, who missed almost the entire season, did a magnificent job in denying Tejada many opportunities. Still, the Illinois State recruit found a way to score the game-winning goal in the second overtime period to beat the Warriors 2-1.
“They were on me tight all game,” Tejada said. “That girl (Burke) was holding me tough and was a decent player who was tough to get around sometimes.
“Lindsey marked her all game and it was pretty awesome to get her back,” Wheaton Academy coach Scott Marksberry said. “She was awesome when she got acclimated. For not playing in over two months, she did awesome.”
Claire Stark initiated the game-winning goal on a throw-in. Senior co-captain Heather Seger flicked a header just inside of 10 yards to set up Tejada for her heroics.
“Heather flicked it and it happened to land to my right and I just kind of toe-poked it in,” Tejada said. “We have a play that coach likes to call where we have someone try to flick it on. Then we just get hungry and go for the ball and that’s what we did.”
Wheaton Academy fell behind early on Tejada’s goal just 9:01 into the game but came back to draw even at 1-1 on Rachael Nassralla’s equalizer at 13:09.
“That was an important moment for us,” Marksberry said. “We felt we could play with them and Crystal (Thomas) really gave them a lot of fits in back. We just couldn’t get enough through.”
The Warriors played with confidence for the second part of the first half with Thomas controlling the midfield on her own. In the second half the Knights adjusted by putting another player in the midfield while Marksberry moved Thomas up front for a while.
“We had trouble getting her the ball up front and by then it was just a matter of who had legs at the end,” he said. “In the end Tejada is a good player who scored a nice goal. She has a knack of putting the ball in the goal and that’s how it goes sometimes.”
The Warriors can still finish the season with a win when they play Lemont for third place at 11 a.m. Saturday.
“Normally, anytime you lose the game you want to learn from your losses, and I told them they have nothing to learn today,” Marksberry said. “One team has to win and one has to lose and I was very proud of them.”