Huntley falls to St. Ignatius in Pepsi Showdown semifinals

Huntley was waiting to finish one of its chances.

After several scoring opportunities failed to turn into goals, Kristina Barreto finally got Huntley on the board.

The problem was when the Red Raiders finally did get a goal past St. Ignatius goalkeeper Nora Benson, 67 minutes had passed and the Wolfpack held a 2-0 advantage. Huntley went on to lose 2-1 to St. Ignatius in a semifinal game at the Pepsi Showdown girls soccer tournament at Oak Park-River Forest High School Saturday afternoon.

Barreto, who scored unassisted, was the lone Red Raider who was able to score with 13 minutes left to play. Huntley (7-1) used a massively aggressive attack against St. Ignatius (8-2-1) late in the game. Barreto spun past a pair of Wolfpack defenders and drilled the ball right past Benson (9 saves) to bring Huntley within 1 goal.

The Red Raiders also served notice to the rest of the 32-team field that it is looking to be a contender this season when the state tournament rolls around.

"We put in so much hard work and to lose a game like that," Huntley coach Kris Grabner said. "I really felt we controlled the first 20 minutes. We had them on their heels. We didn't capitalize on it."

Huntley looked to break the game open early with a pair of near goals in the game's first 7 minutes. Barreto used her speed to streak down the right side of the field burning past almost the entire Wolkpack defense to get a clean shot, which Benson stopped.

Less than a minute later Aimee Wronski had a sure goal stopped by Benson, who came out on the play to challenge Wronski.

"We tried very hard to get that first goal," Barreto said. "It wasn't happening. We worked so hard in that first 20 minutes, then we broke down."

The real breakdown came as St. Ignatius junior Alex Yorke put the Wolfpack ahead 1-0 when she drilled the ball into the Huntley net with 10:54 left in the first half.

Yorke extended the lead to 2-0 with an unassisted shot with 27:52 remaining in the second half. This time, Yorke drove the left side of the field and crossed the ball into the right side of the goal box. Other than Yorke's 2 goals, Huntley's defense limited St. Ignatius to just 4 total shots on goal. The Wolfpack did spread the ball all over the field and make Huntley chase after it.

"We positioned ourselves to go with their ball movement," Barreto said.

Still, The Red Raiders ponder what could have happened if they would have scored first.

"I didn't think we played as good as we could have," Grabner said. "If we would have gotten one of those early goals it would have changed things."