Barrington rolls on
Barrington (16-5-0) wasted little time claiming its place in Friday’s regional final, scoring 3 goals in the first eight minutes and building a 8-0 advantage at the break en route to an 11-0 victory over Round Lake (4-16-2) at the Class 3A Lake Zurich regional Wednesday afternoon.
Freshman Jenna Szczesny was in top form, finding the back of the net four times, the first coming in the first minute, and 6 others contributed to the offensive display. Barrington next faces Cary-Grove, which survived a shootout 6-5 against the host Bears.
“That is a very dominating and well-trained team that we played today,” said Round Lake coach Andres Orbe, whose club played an organized trap but was unable to match the speed and pace of Szczesny and teammates Aimee Pierce and Ellie Ackermann.
“It was important to make sure the focus stayed clear today, especially as our lead began to grow, because the intensity we see from Cary-Grove on Friday will be so much higher than what we went through today,” said Barrington coach Ryan Stengren. “ Round Lake played hard throughout, which is something they deserve a lot of credit for, as does their head coach.”
The top-seeded Fillies gained the upper hand with the quick strikes from Szczesny, which would be a prelude to more to come as the Mid-Suburban League champs built a 5-0 cushion at the quarter hour, with Pierce breaking through from the left side, Kathryn Avedon bending a wonderful left-footed ball from way out and Szczesny completing her first-period hat trick with Avedon receiving credit for the helper.
The Fillies also welcomed back standout Molly Pfeiffer, who was out of the lineup (hamstring) prior to the MSL Cup. The junior was able to go about 15 minutes in before calling it quits.
“It was good to get everyone plenty of minutes, and to get used to the fast turf and narrow field to help get us ready for Friday’s match,” said Stengren.
For a young Round Lake side, it was a rough way to see its season end, but the ever positive Orbe saw it differently.
“All we asked the girls to (do) today was to play hard, and they did just that, plus, they never gave up playing, right until the end,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of work to do in the off-season, but we’ve got a great group of freshmen and sophomores who will be back, and that’s what we build from as we go forward.”
New Trier regional
Maine West 2, Niles North 0: Jessica Gonzalez and Annaliese Walsten scored the goals for No. 7 Maine West in the New Trier regional semifinal. The Warriors will play in Friday’s 6 p.m. title game against No. 2 New Trier, which beat Steinmetz 9-0 on Tuesday.