Hersey 5, Fremd 4

It appeared that Hersey's magical season would suddenly vanish on Thursday at the Class AA Palatine girls soccer sectional finals.

With the score knotted at 2-2 Fremd's Alexandra Ehr headed in what seemed to be the game-winning goal with 6:52 remaining in the fourth overtime.

But the Vikings were called for offside and the goal was waved off, giving the Huskies new life.

Hersey made the most of it out-kicking Fremd 5-4 in the shootout for a 3-2 victory and its first sectional title.

Hersey (19-2-4) advances to play Carmel at the Buffalo Grove Class AA supersectional at 6 p.m. Monday. A win would send the Huskies to the Elite Eight.

Senior Amanda Slove, the final Hersey kicker in the shootout, found the back of the net for its third victory of the year over Fremd (17-4-1).

"We knew one of the games was going to come down to it," said Slove of the shootout. "I had confidence in my team, I just had to place it in the net."

But it almost came down to Ehr's would-be goal, as Fremd and coach Steve Keller thought they had the victory.

"Oh yeah," said Keller when asked if he thought the Vikings had secured the victory. "We'll look at the films and hope they made the right call, there is nothing else we could do."

Senior defender Rosie White played a solid game all night, disrupting the Vikings surges, and to her there was no question about the pivotal call.

"I looked around and there were two Fremd girls in front of the goal, there was no way that couldn't have been offsides," added White. "It turns out it was and we came back and took it to them."

Hersey jumped out to a 2-0 margin in the opening 15 minutes on two set plays. Kristen Gierman's free kick found Kathryn Korff, who promptly headed the ball in with 33:16 left in the first half.

Senior forward Jackie Drees then scored off a throw-in eight minutes later.

"That ability to go up early is huge for our team's confidence," said Gierman, who scored the first goal shootout. "But they moved three up top and we started settling in and conceded to much instead of attacking."

And Fremd took advantage as freshman Nicole Leginski found the net with 14:36 remaining in the first half narrowing the deficit to 2-1.

That mark stood up until Fremd's junior Laura Mayer scored off a free kick which eluded Hersey's goalie Julia Fredian, tying the match at 2-2 with 2:45 left and sending the match to four overtimes.

"We dug ourselves a bit of a hole early," said Keller. "But we had our chances with some point blank shot that didn't go in.

"It came down to the penalty kicks, unfortunately we had the miss and they didn't."

And fortunately the Huskies magical run continues.

"They tested us to our limits," said Hersey coach Brad Abel. "We held it together through the penalty kicks. It's not a fun way to end the game … but we'll take it."

And the Huskies will take another step forward.