Girls soccer: Geneva advances, Kaneland falls in Class 2A regional semifinals

Kessiah Purnell didn’t want to think about her shots from the second half.

The Plainfield East senior, who already had a goal in the first half, had a few opportunities to add insurance in the second half but couldn’t find the net before Kaneland tied the Class 2A Geneva regional semifinal girls soccer game up to send it to overtime.

So when Natalie Villa sent the ball to her feet with a chance to win it in double overtime, all she wanted to do was not think.

“Honestly everything just kind of went blank,” Purnell said. “I missed a lot of open shots and I just had a lot of mixed emotions. But I’m glad that I was able to pull it together.”

Purnell’s shot in the 91st minute proved to be the difference maker, as the fifth-seeded Bengals held on for a 2-1 victory over the fourth-seeded Knights in OT. They’ll move on to face top-seeded Geneva in the regional finals, who defeated eighth-seeded Joliet Catholic in its regional semifinal 7-0.

“Kessiah’s just a huge part of this team and a big program player,” Bengals coach Rebecca Ford said. “We rely a lot on her. Natalie did a great job winning the ball and getting Kessiah that opportunity and she just made a huge difference for us.”

Purnell’s second goal of the game secured the first win in the regional semifinal round for the Bengals (8-11) since 2012, which was also the last time they won a regional title.

“This really showed a lot about our team,” Ford said. “Most of our team played all 100 minutes and it just shows the grind and mentality and competitiveness for wanting to get the job done.”

Purnell got the scoring going in the contest in the 14th minute. After getting a through ball into the middle, the Southern Illinois-Edwardsville commit made a move past the goalkeeper before slotting the ball into the open net.

“It was definitely a little intense there,” Purnell said. “It was a pretty close 50-50 ball, so it was kind of nerve-wracking, but I put the ball away.”

The Knights would end up going on the offensive from the second half onwards, keeping the ball in Bengals’ territory for a majority of the second half. They would find the equalizer in the 71st minute, when senior Kyra Lilly had her shot sneak under the goalkeeper’s boot and into the net.

“She’s such a great person, and for her to do that towards the end of the game, that was huge,” Knights coach Scott Parillo said. “It gave us some life there at the end. But at the end of the day, it just wasn’t our game.”

Kaneland ends its season with a record of 12-9-2, its lowest win total since 2019. But even with the season ending sooner than he wanted, Parillo was proud of the effort that his team displayed on the pitch.

“It was a solid game, and sometimes you play your best and it’s just not good enough,” Parillo said. “I thought we competed well and had the ball on their side a lot, but that’s just high school sports. They just capitalized more than we did in the end.”

Geneva (12-6-1) spent little time finding the back of the net, scoring five goals in the first 23 minutes. The Vikings finished with five different goal scorers in the contest.

“It’s nice to just get everybody involved in the field of play,” Vikings coach Megan Owens said. “The offense was really connecting and being creative, and it was great to see several kids get involved and step up. That’s what the postseason is all about.”

Of their seven goals, the Vikings had four of them come off of corner kicks, including Claire Reeve connecting with the head of Ella Howard on the back post for goals in both the 10th and 20th minute.

“Set pieces are something that we work on a lot, and that position on the back post is something that I’ve been working on,” Howard said. “I used to be a forward but shifted to center back, so knowing how playing in the forward third works and having that knowledge has helped me there.”

Alexis Guess kicked off the scoring in that game with goals in the seventh and eighth minute, and Olivia Hagen added a score to make it 5-0 into halftime. Reeve and Tegan Modjeski added scores in the second half before the Vikings cleared the bench.

“We were all really excited for the postseason and looking forward to this game,” Howard said. “We just thought this was a super important game to set the tone for the rest of our season.”

Meanwhile, the Hilltoppers ended their season with a 5-15 record with the loss. Despite the loss, coach Oscar Valdez said he was proud of the team for never giving up on the pitch.

“We came into this knowing that it was going to be a tough game, and they were just the better team in the end,” Valdez said. “But we never gave up. Whether we were down by five, six or even seven, no one stopped playing, so that’s something that’s very good for us that we want to take for next year.”