Girls soccer: Barrington reaches another sectional final after blanking Mundelein
After a hard-fought win over Warren last Friday netted Mundelein its first regional title since 2010, coach Alix McArthur took her squad to Warren's O'Plaine Road campus to face sectional top-seed Barrington on Tuesday.
Ryan Stengren's Mid-Suburban League superpower was making its 15th straight sectional appearance and 19th in the past 22 years.
Once again that experience showed as the postseason-veteran Fillies won 4-0 on Gurnee's Eastside that sends them to a high-noon Saturday date back at Warren for the program's 16th straight sectional final against No. 3 Lake Zurich (17-2-2) who beat second-seeded Huntley (17-2-3) 1-0 in the second semifinal Tuesday.
"(The) first 10 minutes they gave us a lot and then we kind of settled down and started playing our game and we tilted the field to our advantage just by winning 50-50 balls," Stengren said.
"I was really happy with the way we executed. (We) still have some little details to work on but I'm excited for us going into the next game."
After an early flurry of shots at the Barrington goal, the Fillies gained the upper hand in regards to pitch control in the opening 40 minutes of play as they fired an 18-shot barrage at the Mustangs goal.
Senior forward Piper Lucier, the MSL West player of the year and Marquette signee, found the net in the 21st minute for a 1-0 lead.
Then the top-seeded Fillies put the game on ice in the second half scoring three times.
It began with a pair of scores by sophomore midfielder Maddie Martin-Johnson with the first coming on a corner kick which corkscrewed its way past Vargas in the 53rd minute for a 2-0 lead.
Her second came just six minutes later expanding the Barrington advantage to 3-0 as it started to wear down the Mustangs.
Senior forward Courtney Lin's score off a feed from sophomore A.J. Sanchez in the 63rd minute closed out the scoring at 4-0 for the Fillies who out-shot Mundelein 29-8.
Senior goalie Megan Holland, a Kentucky recruit, nabbed 5 of those attempts the Mustangs took.
Martin-Johnson credited her teammates’ ability to dial up the pressure in obtaining the edge it enjoyed throughout the contest.
"Our back line and our midfielders did a fantastic job (in) winning those balls out of the air and our front line did an amazing job of being where we had to be once (they) won the ball,“ Martin-Johnson said. ”It was just a team effort and I think we did an amazing job."
The Mustangs (10-7-3) concluded their most successful season in over a decade — a fact not lost on McArthur.
"I thought the girls of left it all out there and hung in there,“ McArthur said. ”It was 1-0 at halftime and they never stopped fighting and for that I'm proud of them."