Girls soccer: St. Viator rises to the occasion against Normal West
East Suburban Catholic Conference girls soccer power St. Viator showed Friday that its skill set translates well to the state's biggest stage.
The Lions marched into the Class 2A state final as Payton McDonnell's unstoppable 24-yard free kick broke the heart of upset-minded Normal Community West at Benedetti-Wehrli Stadium on the North Central College campus in Naperville.
The Lions won 1-0 and next meet St. Francis (17-4-3) at 1 p.m. Saturday in the title matchup, with St. Viator in pursuit of its first state championship since 2005.
"We've been practing dead balls and set pieces a lot lately, so I guess that extra practice made a difference for us today," said McDonnell, a junior who's been deadly in the Lions' last three postseason games, with three straight game-winners.
This one provided a brilliant finish for St. Viator (18-5-2) and doomed the Wildcats (20-6-3), who were hoping to reach the final after finishing second in 2014.
"Payton has been great for us, scoring 3 big goals in a row to help get us into the final - which right now feels amazing," said a thrilled Sam DeJulio of St. Viator.
DeJulio and her back-line cohorts Christian Petrillo, Amelia Bottcher and Maeve Schumacher allowed only a handful of half-chances at keeper Anna Johnston, who recorded her 18th shutout of the season and the 32nd of her career.
"Scoring that first goal really helped relax us, and even though the game evened out a little bit later in the half, we came back and defended well as a team, didn't allow them very good chances, and just controlled the match as best we could," said DeJulio.
The Wildcats' bench was not happy with the foul call that put McDonnell over the ball in the 10th minute. But the real suffering came moments later as McDonnell blistered her shot into the net, just under the bar.
Normal West coach Val Walker said he felt the call shouldn't have been made. He drew a card for continuing his argument at the half.
The Wildcats were not able to orchestrate steady pressure in the attack, looking instead to counter in hopes of finding Audrey Marsaglia (22 goals) and Jess Heib (17 goals). Not much of the play went through the midfield, thanks in part to the concerted efforts of McDonnell and her teammates.
"You could see we were a little nervous at the start," said St. Viator coach Mike Taylor. "But this would be one of those games, while not pretty for us, that was played with energy and plenty of good effort from a lot of different players to help get us into the state final, which is something we've been focused on doing from the start of this season."