St. Francis gets its kicks

Sydney Fox merely continued the trend established by her St. Francis teammates.

In the Benedictine University Class 2A girls soccer supersectional on Tuesday afternoon in Lisle, the Spartans’ senior ended a nearly three-hour marathon against Benet with St. Francis’ fourth penalty-kick conversion on its fifth attempt.

Fox found the extreme right-hand corner of the Redwings’ net — just as Taylor Burcaro, Kiatlin Bucaro and Amanda Gaggioli had on their previous attempts — to end the Redwings’ season at 18-5-3.

Benet, which had a eight-match winning streak halted, had its first supersectional appearance in seven years unravel with back-to-back misfires in the penalty-kick portion of the fifth overtime. St. Francis (22-4) earned its first Final Four date in program history and will face St. Viator — which defeated Freeport in overtime at Barrington — at 11 a.m. Friday at North Central College in Naperville.

Gaggioli, off an assist from Kaitlin Bucaro, sent the match into the first of four overtimes tied at 1-1 with her goal with 15:02 to play. But it was Fox who eliminated the Redwings after 40 minutes of overtime play failed to resolve the draw.

“It wasn’t by design,” Fox said of the St. Francis’ four penalty kicks all finding a similar location. “That’s just where we were comfortable with. We don’t give up. It feels like nothing else.”

Colleen Lewellyan brought the Redwings within 3-2 in the shootout after four attempts per side, but the Fox score made history for St. Francis. The teams had an appreciable advantage — reflected in shot attempts and general offensive activity — with the wind at their backs.

Benet took advantage in the opening half, finally cashing in on its ninth attempt on some brilliant precision passing between Jamei Borges and Amanda Kaiser that resulted in Jessica Smetana beating St. Francis’ goalkeeper to the short side.

Kaiser took Borges’ feed of a gorgeous give-and-go and hit Smetana in full stride; her short shot nicked in the inside of the left post to give Benet the lead with 8:54 to play before halftime.

“That was not a called play,” Smetana said. “It was sheer ingenuity on our part.”

St. Francis merely met disaster as time expired in the first half when a miscommunication enabled Benet a point-blank empty-net opportunity. But the kick sailed wide as the halftime buzzer sounded.

“If they score there, they probably win the game,” St. Francis coach Jim Winslow said.

With renewed vigor and confidence at the break, though, St. Francis’ play was far more inspired from the opening moments of the second half. With five times more shot attempts than Benet could muster, Fox nearly had the equalizer six minutes into the second half, only to have Benet keeper Emma Hlavin stop the 8-yarder with a fingertip save.

With their unprecedented season on the line, St. Francis found the elusive first goal when Gaggioli knotted the match from 15 yards out.

“I just tried to stay focused (while trailing),” Gaggioli said. “I took a cross (from Kaitlin Bucaro), and (Fox) let it go through her legs on purpose. I just beat (the Benet keeper) to the corner.”

Quality scoring chances in the four overtimes were virtually nonexistent.

“The legs (on both teams) were gone,” Winslow said.