Girls soccer roundup: Vernon Hills upsets Deerfield to win own regional
The Vernon Hills girls soccer team provided the biggest headline of the weekend when it stunned the No. 2 seed and state power Deerfield 1-0 to claim its own 2A regional title at Rustoleum Field on Friday night.
"Deerfield is such a great team, and they have one of the best players in the state in Emily Fox. But I think with us scoring our goal 10 minutes before the half really helped take them out of their rhythm," said Cougars coach Cory Smith.
"We brought on our backup keeper Morgan Straza to give one of our forwards some rest and Frances Poulos would slot a perfect ball to her and she finished into the side netting,“ Smith said. "Morgan scored her first goal of the season in our first game of the year. And now this one which was even bigger for us."
Smith would heap plenty of praise on senior Ava Lukyan who marked the three-time all-state and St. Louis-bound Fox all night long, keeping the senior from adding to her 100-plus goals in her prep career.
"Ava was great. So was our backline who turned in a monster game,“ Smith said. ”And Carly (Stiles) was unbelievable, making several great saves while taking total command of her box, especially in the final 10 minutes of the game.
Deerfield ended the season 17-6-2.
The Cougars (10-7-2) lost their regional final a year ago to Carmel Catholic (4-12-3). This year, Carmel pushed No. 3 seed St. Viator (18-5-0) to its limit before a 78th minute game-winner from freshman Camila Fuentes would decide this final between these two long-time ESCC rivals.
NLCC two-time champion Lakes Community (13-6-1) saw its chance to play another game in the postseason end after a heartbreaking loss to host Lake Forest (8-8-1) in penalty kicks.
The Eagles fell 1-0 to the Scouts (3-2 in kicks) ending a terrific season for Kevin Kullby's club.
"Losing in kicks is a tough way to go out, but we played with a lot of heart for 100 minutes, but just could not get it done when it went to penalty kicks," said Kullby, who will lose all four of his captains, including Mia Silber and Tessa Smith, both four-year stars.
Lake Forest will play 2023 third place state medal winner Crystal Lake Central (18-2-2) at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday after its 6-0 defeat of No. 8 Wauconda which ends its season at 12-7-1.
There were not any surprise results in 3A play on Friday with MSL champion Barrington (17-1-2) using a double from Maddy Ziebarth and three assists by Piper Lucier to defeat Dundee-Crown (11-8-2) 3-0 in Carpentersville
The top seed moves on to play sectional host Huntley (15-4-4) at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday after the Red Raiders won their fourth consecutive regional title in shootout, 1-0 over Mundelein which ends its season at 7-8-5.
The Red Raiders converted all five of its spot-kicks to set a program record for victories.
It was too much Sydney Arendarczyk, Lauren Bailey, Cammy Niepomnik and Reilly Novak who had a hand in all four goals No. 2 seed Lake Zurich (16-2-3) netted in its 4-0 victory over Hononegah (8-9-0) to claim the Jacobs regional championship.
The Bears will play its NSC rival Warren at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday in Huntley after the No. 3 seed Blue Devils (13-7-1) overwhelmed Hampshire (9-10-1) with a five goal first half explosion en route to an 8-1 victory.
For the second time in 10 days Libertyville (13-4-1) would defeat its league rival Stevenson 2-0 to win its fourth straight regional title and 18th in program history.
The No. 4 seed advanced into the Hersey sectional where it will play No. 1 Glenbrook South (14-2-6) at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday after Shea Krakowski bagged her 18th of the year with Sydney Krukonis adding another to the scoreboard.
The Wildcats lost to Glenbrook South 2-0 in its regular season finale.
It will be No. 2 and 3 seeds in the second contest at this sectional after No. 2 Fremd (13-4-4) sent its MSL West division rival Conant (9-7-1) out of the tournament with its 3-0 victory in the Buffalo Grove regional championship match.
Lily Mayer scored what proved to be the eventual game-winner moments after the opening whistle, and Sami Serpico added the last two goals to give the sophomore 12 on the year.
The Vikings will play No. 3 Glenbrook North (15-3-2) at 6:30 after the Spartans defeated MSL East division champion Hersey (3-0) in Northbrook to win its own regional title.
Hersey ends its season with a 13-9-1 overall record.