Barrington claims 4th straight sectional
ROCKFORD — Aimee Pierce stood between freshmen Jenna Szczesny and Kelsey Muniez encouraging them in their postgame interviews.
But this wasn’t a typical situation for a sectional championship team.
After all, Muniez had only played on the Barrington varsity team for a month and hadn’t scored a goal.
Szczesny has been on the Fillies’ varsity squad, but it has been the playoffs where she has started to become a constant scoring threat.
Each freshman scored goals in Barrington’s 2-0 victory over Huntley in the Class 3A Rockford Boylan sectional, giving the Fillies a fourth-straight sectional crown.
Barrington (19-5) faces St. Charles North, which defeated Schaumburg in penalty kicks, at 7 p.m. on Tuesday in the Barrington supersectional.
“Every one of the girls plays and does their job on the field,” Pierce said. “It shows how deep the program is. Jenna has done a tremendous job, especially during the playoffs.”
Muniez, who was called up from the junior varsity team on April 26th, broke a scoreless tie when she connected on a pass from Pierce with 4 minutes, 25 seconds left in the first half.
“I kept an eye on her on the jayvee team,” Barrington coach Ryan Stengren said. “The first game she started was the first time we played Boylan, and she played well. Even before she scored, she had her stamp on the game.”
Pierce dribbled up the side of the field and sent a pass to Muniez, was able to sneak the ball past Huntley goalkeeper Jessica Galason with a shot off her left foot.
“When I was going toward the goal (Galason) went to the front post, so I aimed at the back post,” she said.
Barrington took its 1-0 lead after a first half which included a 30 minute delay 14 minutes into play for a lighting storm. The Fillies gave Huntley a hard time on both ends of the break, hitting Galason up for 8 shots on goal in the first 40 minutes. Galason finished the game with 14 saves as Barrington constantly ran in a slew of players off its bench to keep the legs fresh on the field.
“We knew we had our hands full,” Red Raiders’ coach Kris Grabner said. “We wanted to stay poised and to shoot the ball. Kelly (Manczko) hit a free kick right before the break. We just didn’t capitalize in the final third.”
Kelly Manczko set up for a free kick with 26:23 left in the first half. Her hard-hit shot forced goalkeeper Hannah Luedtke to rush to the corner of the net and deflect the ball with her ball. It was one of the Red Raiders’ 2 shots in the game.
Barrington got an additional goal when Szczesny connected on a left-footed shot right outside the goal box with 13:26 left in the game. Her shot crossed left to right in front of the Red Raiders’ goal to extend the Fillies lead to 2-0.
“Jenna always tries to cut and use her right foot and in practice I said, use your left,” Stengren said. “She buried it with her left foot.”