St. Edward makes it look easy in sectional semis

RICHMOND - In games where weather delays can get considerably lengthy, teams that had the momentum are prone to losing their mojo a bit.

But it appears not even Mother Nature can slow up St. Edward's girls soccer team these days. Even after a 50-minute first-half lightning delay, the Green Wave managed to pad their early 3-goal lead with 6 more in the final 19 minutes of the first half in a 9-0 Class 1A Richmond-Burton sectional semifinal win over Woodlands Academy Tuesday.

St. Edward (23-2) enters the Sweet 16 for the fourth-straight year and will play in Friday's sectional championship at 6 p.m. against Johnsburg, which defeated Willows Academy 4-2 in Tuesday's first game.

Before the delay, the Wave led 3-0 lead with 23 minutes left when lightning was spotted in a storm to the south of the Rockets' field at about 7:22 p.m. The game was scheduled to restart at approximately 7:52 p.m. but a second lightning strike around 7:40 p.m. forced another 30-minute delay and a restart at 8:12 p.m.

"We were just sitting in the gym and you kind of lose your momentum," St. Edward defender/mid Megan Kearney said. "But you get out here and you're like 'OK, let's finish this.' "

"We were kind of nervous we'd have to come back (today)," forward Chelsea Gnan said. "It worked out."

It actually worked out really well. When St. Edward returned to action, it didn't seem to be phased by the lack of action. Gnan scored 2 more times to lead the Wave with 4 goals while forwards Allison Kruk and Alex Zeller notched 2 goals and 1 assist each. Corey Lepoudre and Ashley Lopez both scored and assisted once and Kearney, Cece Kochanek and Monica Ramirez each tallied 1 assist.

"I think we came out really confident, we just passed it around and played really good and we plan to do it on Friday, too," Gnan said. "I felt like we had a really good warm-up and came out really strong, and that really helped us to get our shots on goal."

"They are ridiculously fast and they have phenomenal kicks," Woodlands coach Matt Wilen said. "You can't teach speed, you either have it or you don't."

The Wave, who outshot the Wildcats 25-2 and were sharp on their passes out of the corners, have outscored their opponents 24-0 in the postseason and their first half splurge allowed the entire second half to be cut in half.

"In no way was I trying to run up the score; I felt bad," Wave coach Tim Brieger said. "We said the big thing was 'let's get to seven, we're going to be late getting out of here, we have to haul home,' so we were targeting the seven and the one happened while we were saying 'who's going in?' "

The outburst allowed St. Edward to rest its starters, perfect its passing and work on little things for Friday, but Brieger and company know Johnsburg isn't going to be a walk in the park as the Wave attempts a return trip to Concordia University and the supersectional next Tuesday.

"Johnsburg is going to be tough," he said of the Skyhawks, who have outscored their opponents 8-2 in the playoffs. "They definitely have the home court advantage, 10 minutes down the road. (Forward Delaney Pruitt) and (goalkeeper Amanda Cherwin), they're something special. That first goal they scored tonight was in the first 30 seconds, they've had a tough road here (beating top-seed Richmond-Burton). We're really going to have to get set for Friday."