Girls soccer: Burke reaches 40 goals in Naperville Central’s semifinal win over Warren

Emerson Burke scored her 40th goal of the season on Friday night and Naperville Central is now a single victory away from its first state title.

The Redhawks blanked Warren 5-0 during their Class 3A state semifinal at North Central College in Naperville.

“We feel great right now and we’ve kept it up the entire season,” Burke said. “And now onto this final game, and obviously it’s bittersweet, because we’ve had a goal the entire season and we’re ready to capitalize on it (on Saturday).”

Naperville Central (22-0-1) went ahead in the 15th minute when Burke scored off a pass from Malia Shen.

“Me and Emerson have been playing with each other for like 10 years now so we know how each other work,” Shen said. “I saw her make a run across and she sort of flipped it through and she just doesn’t ever miss.”

It was Burke’s 39th goal this spring.

"I mean Malia (Shen) did a great job of coming inside and playing our inverted forward and kind of the style that we’ve been playing,” Burke said. “And she took her player with me and I just kind of fled into the space that she left. And she played a great ball, and the goalie came off her line a little slower than anticipated and then I just kind of placed the shot, not necessarily powerfully, but just placing it into the spot of the goal.”

Freshman Jenna Laga’s corner kick to sophomore defender Sophia Cochran extended their lead to 2-0 in the 21st minute.

“We work on corners a lot in practice and I’m one of the people that we try to target,” Cochran said. “I knew exactly when the ball was getting played that I could get it and I really was happy I was able to finish it.”

Warren (14-5-2) struggled containing Naperville Central’s athleticism.

“We knew they were athletic and obviously keyed on some of their very strong players that they’ve got and tried to minimize their chances,” Blue Devils coach Ryan McCabe said. “But they’re strong and going to break loose and we needed to do a better job of being a little bit more disciplined and keeping our feet moving, and just the little things like that. We didn’t do enough of the things we needed to do today.

Burke drew a foul in the box in the 51st minute and buried the ensuing penalty kick to give her 40 goals on the season while increasing Naperville Central’s lead to 3-0.

“It’s always nice to convert on PKs that you’ve created,” she said. “Obviously I got fouled in the box and it felt good to capitalize on that. We definitely have a lot of chances and probably should’ve capitalized on more than we did but that’s part of the game. You can’t capitalize on every one and that’s why you have to create a ton.”

Natalie Liesch and Reece Mudd also scored for the Redhawks who will face New Trier (26-1-1) for the state title at 7 p.m. Saturday.