St. Edward advances to regional final
GENOA — With St. Edward leading 3-0 at halftime, coach Tim Brieger implored his team not to let up.
The Green Wave took his words to heart, adding 5 second-half goals to defeat Elgin Academy, 8-1, in the semifinals of the Class 1A Genoa-Kingston girls soccer regional Saturday.
Corey Lepoudre scored 3 goals, Monica Ramirez added a pair of goals and an assist, and Mallory Malone and Allison Kruk each had a goal and an assist. Paige Gannon was solid in the net for St. Edward, which will play for the regional title Tuesday at 4 p.m. against the host Cogs, who beat Kirkland Hiawatha 1-0 in Saturday's second semifinal.
“I said, ‘You can't back down, you can't assume its 3-0,' ” said Brieger. “Elgin Academy didn't back down. If they started a run we could fall apart. I've seen weirder things happen.”
That didn't happen as Kruk scored less than 5 minutes into the second half and the Wave continued to roll.
The Wave was continually able to knife through the Hilltoppers' defense and make crisp passes to create scoring chances.
Malone got things rolling for the Wave with a goal near the halfway mark of the first half. She was just following a directive from her mother.
“Being my senior year, I didn't want it to end today,” said Malone. “My mom couldn't make it today, so she said we weren't allowed to lose today.”
Ten minutes later, Lepoudre scored on a free kick to make it 2-0. Late in the half, Ramirez scored a pretty goal, dribbling through the entire Elgin Academy defense before beating the goalkeeper from close range.
Kruk's goal really opened the floodgates. Lepoudre scored twice more, and Ramirez and Jordyn Madden added goals for the Green Wave.
Alyssa Gazzano scored the lone goal for Elgin Academy with 27 minutes left.
The Green Wave got it back less than 30 seconds later when Lepoudre knifed through the defense and scored from close range.
“They were definitely a good team, but I think as we came down to it, we were prepared for this game,” said Elgin Academy assistant Jon Davit. “The score didn't show it, but we got better and better as we went along.”
Veronica Clement had several scoring opportunities for the Hilltoppers. Davit also credited senior Emma Stone for her strong play.