Girls soccer: Glenbard East upsets Naperville North
Finals week will be a little extra difficult for Glenbard East's girls soccer players.
How do you concentrate on exams the next three days when you've just upset a nationally ranked team to advance to Friday night's state semifinals?
The Rams will happily deal with that problem after celebrating Tuesday's 2-0 victory against Naperville North at the Class 3A Lewis University supersectional in Romeoville.
"You can't describe it," said goalkeeper Sierra Dana, who as a senior won't have to worry about finals this week but will graduate Saturday afternoon just before the third-place game starts. "We've done more in this season than any program in (Rams) girls soccer history but also in the school we're one of the top teams (in any sport). We're one of the top four teams in the state. You can't put a word on that. It's incredible."
"We approached every game that we don't need to be the best team in the state, we just need to be the best team on the field," Rams coach Kent Overbey added. "When it set in that we were in the Elite Eight, it came to, why not us? Why not us?"
Dana Plotke gave the Rams (23-4) even more reason to believe when she gave them a 1-0 lead in the 18th minute with her goal. Even she didn't quite know how it happened.
"I'm not really sure," said the junior, who will be in school this week to accept congratulations from classmates and teachers in the Glenbard East halls. "The cross, there was a defender here and then the goalie coming out. Honestly, because I heard the whistle and I thought it went out and he was calling a goal kick or something, or it was offsides. I looked and he points to the center.
"Somebody asked if I was crying, and I was like, no, I wasn't. It was pure excitement. I just stood there."
Brittany Paganucci's goal in the 55th minute put the Rams in control, and considering how strong the Glenbard East defense has been, it put Naperville North in a huge hole.
The Rams have a school-record 20 shutouts this season. Glenbard East has yet to allow a goal in five playoff games this year, plus its final two regular-season games. Its last goal allowed came in a 6-1 defeat of East Aurora on May 3.
"Our defense has been playing great, and our midfield has been working it," Overbey said. "They've just been playing awesome."
Naperville North (21-2-1), which had 19 shutouts of its own this season, had its share of scoring chances. But Dana was up to the task, and it didn't hurt that she got some help.
In the 25th minute Liljestrand cleared a Huskies header off the goal line following a corner kick. Right back Faith Davies was in the right place a couple of yards off the line in the 58th minute to clear another shot that looked destined for the net.
"We had some chances that we could have put away and we didn't," Huskies coach Steve Goletz said. "We had a bunch of corner kicks, didn't convert off any of them."
"Our players did an incredible job of getting in front of shots and working a full 80 minutes worth of work," Overbey added.
It was a tough night the entire 80 minutes for the Huskies.
"I don't think it was anything that really threw us off," Goletz said. "They just played hard and they were better than us tonight. In the 1v1 and 2v2 battles in the back, they did avery nice job of being disciplined.
"That team works their butts off. They're a hardworking team and they've earned everything they've gotten. I told my kids tonight we've got to be OK with knowing the better team won on the day, and that was definitely them."
The Rams will play downstate power Collinsville at 7 p.m. Friday at North Central College in Naperville. The third-place and championship games will be Saturday night.
"Nobody expected us to be here except us," Dana said. "It's not magic. It's just pure hard work. We just want it more."
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