Girls lacrosse: Naperville North edges Wheaton United

Survive and advance. That's what you do this time of year in girls lacrosse.

Doesn't Naperville North coach Jessica Hogan know that. Her team survived a late-game frenzy of goals from a pesky Wheaton United squad to win 12-11 in an IHSA sectional semifinal at Metea Valley.

The top-seeded Huskies (12-5) advanced to play Neuqua Valley in the sectional final at 7 p.m. Friday at Metea Valley. The Wildcats defeated Metea/Waubonsie Valley co-op 15-14 on a last-second penalty shot.

They had to do it without senior attack Lauren Platou, who was assessed her second yellow card early in the second half. Platou has 83 goals this season and scored three times in the first half.

The difference maker this night was junior Audrey Johnson, who scored five times, including four in the last 2:11 of the first half. The prettiest shot was the last, a ball she corralled off a miss and deposited in the net past Wheaton United freshman netminder Kyra Nolen.

"It was kind of hectic because (we knew) this could be our last game," Johnson said. "As soon as we started getting our feeds together, my team did a really good job of feeding me inside and we just connected."

"Neither nor Audrey nor Rachel (Goff) were at the previous game when we played them, they were both out sick that day and so they were kind of secret weapons for us, Rachel with her speed and Audrey with her ability to draw and shoot," Hogan said. "It was good because they were giving Lauren more of a hard ride on defense so Audrey was open for some good cuts in the middle."

Wheaton United, which finished its season 8-7, was down 12-8 with 12:54 left, its biggest deficit of the game, but that didn't seem to matter much to coach Paul Ciufo's charges, especially the team's leading scorer, junior Campbell Clynch.

With 10:31 to go, she was wide open on the right side and blasted a shot into the left corner of the net. Then, after a goal by senior Annabelle Nelson at 6:14, it was Clynch again, scoring on a pass to the left from freshman Tate Stokesberry.

But 19 turnovers were a killer for Wheaton United, which had the same amount of shots. Conversely, Naperville North took 28 shots.

"We switched our defense to man and that was definitely a big help," said senior Ava Rucoba, who finished with 5 varsity goals. "I think we all just stepped up our game. We have 15 seniors on our team, so all of us on the field were pushing each other and get the ball to goal, and that's all we could do."

Added Nelson: "We got to closing the gaps and we were able to work on communication in transition. Other than that, we worked really hard."