Victory dance for St. Viator

Knowing it was prom night for many of St. Viator’s girls soccer players didn’t seem to distract them much Friday afternoon

The top-seeded Lions efficiently took care of their first order of business, shutting out eighth-seeded Antioch 3-0 for the Class 2A Amundsen regional championship at Winnemac Stadium in Chicago.

“We worked our butt off and it’s also prom day,” said St. Viator senior midfielder Katie Gavin. “Everybody put in the extra effort to put in the goals and the assists. It was tough, but it made us work that much harder.”

Gavin took part in all three goals, scoring two them and assisting Katelyn Hammarlund on the other. Hammarlund also had an assist.

“I do like the assists more, because I’ve put in the work,” said Gavin, who has 7 goals and 3 assists this season. “However, I do like to get goals, too.”

Top-seeded St. Viator (12-8-4) advances to the Lakes sectional semifinal against either Vernon Hills or Deerfield at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday.

“We got another regional championship and a start to a journey,” St. Viator coach Mike Taylor said. “Now, we go to sectionals and it’s another step to where we want to be playing in the last weekend of the tournament.

“Our team is coming together and starting to play together. You just want to put some goals away and move to the next level.”

Gavin opened the scoring Friday in the fifth minute with an assist from Hammarlund.

The Lions used the same combination, only reversed, in the 50th minute for a 2-0 advantage as Gavin set up Hammarlund.

Then Gavin launched a free kick that found netting in the 75th minute.

Antioch (10-9-4) played its best soccer near the end of the season. Reaching the regional final was an accomplishment helped along by contributions such as senior midfielder Erica Slack.

“This year, we were able to turn things around,” Slack said. “People were not expecting it and we’re getting better. We were there for each other all the time and we helped we each other.

“St. Viator was a good team and we played hard against them.”

The Sequoits hung around with the Lions and were down 1-0 going into the second half before St. Viator added two more goals.

“We fought so hard against St. Viator and it was unbelievable,” Antioch coach Marni Polakow. “I just wanted them to go out and give them a game We gave ourselves a fighting chance going into the second half.”

Polakow was a big reason for Antioch’s big turnaround, as the Sequoits went from a 4-win season last spring to finishing with a plus-.500 mark this season.

“I think it was a mentality change,” said Polakow, in her first year as a girls head coach at Antioch. “Maybe it was the coaching change — a little bit of excitement, a kind of good nerves and players who wanted to see what they could do. I coached a number of these girls when they were freshmen, and now as seniors.”