St. Edward heads to sectional final again

HARVARD - After waiting out a 90-minute weather delay, St. Edward effectively put away Stillman Valley in less than 10.

Allison Kruk scored 2 of her 4 goals in the first 10 minutes and the Green Wave cruised past the Cardinals, 6-0, in a semifinal of the Class 1A Harvard girls soccer sectional Tuesday night.

For the third time in 4 years, the Wave will face Rockford Lutheran in the postseason, this time in the sectional final at 11 a.m. Saturday. A win will send St. Edward to the state finals for the second straight year.

Chelsea Gnan added a goal and 3 assists, and Kelly Tripicchio also scored for St. Edward (18-7-2).

As the game went on, Stillman dropped more and more players back defensively, but the Wave either dribbled or passed through the defensive wall with relative ease. The Cardinals had no answer for the quickness of Kruk and Gnan.

"They're quick in back and they like to trap, so we've got to play through, not long," said St. Edward coach Tim Brieger. "We've got to time our runs. I thought the girls came out with the right intensity, especially on defense."

The Wave missed on a couple of other breakaway chances or the final score could have been even more one-sided.

Kruk said she fed off her teammates' positive energy.

"It was positive on the bus, it was positive in the warm-ups, it just all added up," she said. "And it was perfect."

Her first goal, following a steal and a crisp centering pass by Gnan, got the Wave on the board 9 minutes into the game. Less than a minute, she rebounded Jordyn Madden's shot for her second goal.

Gnan scored on a breakaway after taking a pass from Monica Ramirez, and Tripicchio scored on another breakaway 16 minutes before intermission.

Madden had 3 solid shots from the deep corner late in the half, but Cardinal goalkeeper Shannell Boetcher made the stops.

Kruk added 2 more goals in the second half, both on breakaways. On the first, she rebounded her own miss.

Paige Gannon added to her school shutout record by making 6 saves in goal.

Brieger is looking forward to Saturday's rematch with the Crusaders.

"It's gonna be one heck of a game on Saturday," he said. "I think you're going to see two teams that know one another and they're going to play it."