Girls soccer: St. Viator drops sectional championship match to Crystal Lake Central
At the beginning of this season, Lizzie Gray and Addison Schaffer were both hesitant with their goals for what Crystal Lake Central could accomplish.
Crystal Lake Central faced a tall task as the defending Class 2A girls soccer champion. Not only did the Tigers have to replace most of last season’s lineup because of graduation, they also needed to acclimate themselves to a new coach.
But as the season progressed, both Gray and Schaffer started to recognize the same program they had grown accustomed to over the past few years. They saw the team that reached the state finals for two straight years.
On Friday, the Tigers proved there wasn’t going to be a stepback year like many expected. Crystal Lake Central held on to beat St. Viator 2-1 to capture the Class 2A Deerfield sectional championship, the Tigers’ third straight sectional crown.
“I kind of wanted to prove them wrong,” Schaffer, a junior, said. “Just because we lose a few people doesn’t mean we lose everyone. We still have a ton of good players on the team that we can push to get far.”
Schaffer helped Crystal Lake Central (17-4-2) prove that point early Friday. After squeaking into the championship by beating Deerfield in penalty kicks in the sectional semifinals Tuesday, the Tigers started generating strong scoring chances from the beginning of the match.
Senior Ella Bechler created one of those when she sent the ball deep in the Lions’ half of the pitch and let Schaffer get to work. Once Schaffer realized how deep the pass was, she sprinted past St. Viator defenders and knocked in a goal to make it 1-0 with 35:30 left in the first half.
“She can just do anything, she is just a weapon offensively for us,” Crystal Lake Central coach Leah Rutkowski said. “I don’t know if we’re the same team without her. She’s that much of a game-changer and a difference-maker for us.”
The Tigers kept pressuring even if they didn’t get strong shots on goal. Crystal Lake Central came inches away from scoring a few times in the second half, including one chance when the Tigers had an open net.
Gray made sure her team got at least one more goal, no matter how she did it. Rutkowski called Gray a difference-maker in the middle of the pitch who doesn’t always show up on the stat sheet.
Gray notched her spot on the sheet when she knocked in a corner kick with the ball going off her eye with 16:28 left in the match to make it 2-0.
“I definitely felt like we needed one more,” Gray, a senior, said. “I think that offensively we were a lot better after we kept getting those chances.”
While the Tigers created strong chances, St. Viator (12-12-1) struggled to create many. The Lions forced one shot on goal in the first half and then scored with 12:45 left in the match when a shot from senior Kalin McCrea bounced in.
But Crystal Lake Central turned away a couple late looks to secure its championship.
“When you had these types of teams and these types of games, it’s a matter of one mistake that the other team could take advantage of and that’s what they did,” St. Viator coach Bryon DeLeon said. “The first goal was a mistake on our runs, they were able to capitalize on that and that’s what the game pretty much came down to.”
While Gray and Schaffer were hesitant in their expectations this season, Rutkowski admitted she didn’t expect to reach this far in the playoffs. She knew the Tigers would work hard and that they had quality players. But consistently going deep in the postseason was hard for experienced teams to do, let alone one with a new lineup.
Despite all that, Crystal Lake Central will try to return to state for a third straight season when it plays St. Ignatius at the Class 2A De La Salle supersectional at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday.
“We set early in the season that we weren’t going to just take last year’s championship and just ride off into the sunset with it,” Rutkowski said. “We’re going to work on what’s next for us and keep to ourselves an elite program. They’ve done that even better than I could have expected.”