Weiner’s extra work lifts Stevenson
Jenna Weiner let her practice time away from school help her score the golden goal on Thursday afternoon and send the Stevenson’s girls soccer team into the elite eight of the Pepsi Showdown.
Weiner fired a free kick into the top left corner in the final minute of overtime and ninth-seeded Stevenson defeated seventh-seeded York 5-4 at the Vernon Hills Athletic Center.
The Patriots next play top seed Metea Valley (11-1) at Olympic Park in Schaumburg at 3 p.m. Saturday.
Weiner has found the best place for extra practice is on the weekends, at a park near her house.
“I practice so much on my own,” Weiner said. “I take 20 balls, there’s a goal in the park and I constantly keep hitting them.”
Her opportunity occurred on a free kick with 33 seconds left of the first 10-minute overtime. Weiner lined up from 35 yards out and planted the shot in the top corner.
“I was thinking it was just like I was practicing,” said Weiner, who converted her third goal of the season. “I do all this work and I just wanted it to pay off. Seeing it go in it was like, ‘Wow, it happened.’ ”
Weiner also assisted on the tying goal in the 79th minute with another free kick that was sent to the far post. Olivia Whalen head-flicked it inside the far post.
“I thought we played an awfully good team,” said Stevenson coach Mark Schartner, whose team improved to (5-2-1). “To make it to the elite eight in a tournament like this is a big deal.
“The quality of soccer was real good, both teams played incredibly hard and it was a physical game. Sometimes you just have to be real fortunate.”
Stevenson got its other goals from Hanna Levi, Katie Krejsa and Whalen. Krejsa, Ali Olsen and Kara Ballard each had assists.
York (7-3) recovered from a 2-1 halftime deficit with a pair of goals in 55 seconds in the 54th minute.
Christina Ordonez and Courtney McHugh each scored goals which put the Dukes ahead 3-2.
But the Patriots evened the game at 3-3 with a goal from Krejsa in the 63rd minute,
Bryce Banuelos put York back up by a goal at 4-3 in the 74th minute as Ordonez sent a pass from the end line to the middle.
“Obviously, we wanted to win, that was our goal coming in.” said Ordonez who had 2 goals and 2 assists. “We played hard and made some mistakes. We win as a team and lose as a team.
“On offense, we’re all used to each other playing together.”
Stevenson keeper Cori Calcaterra made 12 stops, including 3 in OT.
“We had some many chances to score,” York coach Chris Halupka said. “We didn’t do a good job finishing. (Stevenson) came down on our defense. We let in 5 goals and need to do a better job.”