Girls soccer: St. Edward's season ends in sectional semifinals
St. Edward had the benefit of being the top-seeded team in the Cristo Rey-St. Martin sectional and was riding with some intensity after its regional championship over Westminster Christian this past Saturday.
The Green Wave had a difficult time sustaining the same level of play against a team that had a number of experienced players.
Willows Academy used a three-goal second half outburst and ran away from St. Edward 4-0 in the Class 1A sectional semifinal at Sportspark in Waukegan on Tuesday afternoon.
The Eagles (14-5) will play the winner of Wednesday's other sectional semifinal between North Shore Country Day/Richmond-Burton in the sectional final on Saturday at Dugdale Park in Waukegan.
"We didn't get into our rhythm early," St. Edward coach Todd Brieger said. "Sometimes we do and sometimes we don't. Some of our younger girls haven't been in this experience before."
The Green Wave (6-11) had tried to stay with the Eagles through the first half.
"We just couldn't match their intensity in the first half," Brieger said. "We were going uphill and wanted to weather the storm. Right near the end of the half, we had a couple of pokes to make something happen. I think that goal at the end of the half was the difference. We were just starting to get some energy. (Willows Academy) has a great team and a girl in every spot. Some of the younger girls might have gotten a bit shellshocked. It was one of the better and faster teams that we've played."
The Eagles scored in the final minute in the first half off a corner kick that the Green Wave couldn't completely clear from its own area. Ana Kagan slotted the ball inside the post for a 1-0 Willows Academy lead.
St. Edward tried to mount a comeback in the second half, but Willows Academy possessed the ball and kept pushing forward. Ashleigh Fischer scored her 16th goal on her 16th birthday off an assist from Claire Kelly in the 58th minute for a 2-0 advantage.
Fischer assisted on another goal 10 minutes later, which Kailey Mongoven scored that made the score 3-0. Mongoven added one more for Willows Academy for the 4-0 difference.
"I think from the beginning of the season this team has grown," Willows Academy coach Leah Kartsimas said. "Coming this far isn't much of a surprise. We came out strong knowing that we came off a good win. We haven't played (St. Edward) before, but looked at who they played previously. We just came out knowing it was going to be a hard fought match, hoping we could come away with it and we did."
St. Edward had a successful season last year and lost a number of seniors coming in. They still made the season a good one.
"I'm proud of my seniors," Brieger said. "The girls knew that they had to carry the young girls this year. We had a rough midseason, but still won a regional and not many teams can say that."