Girls soccer: St. Francis falls in state semifinal

Deerfield was awarded a free kick midway through the second half during Friday's Class 2A IHSA semifinal against St. Francis.

The Warriors turned that opportunity into the lone goal at North Central College in Naperville to end the Spartans' hopes of winning their first state title since 2012.

"I don't think we played particularly well," St. Francis coach Jim Winslow said. "We looked very uptight from the very beginning and never really got into a rhythm. There's not much to say. The goal is just, I'll leave it at that."

That goal came with 19:03 remaining in the game from Mirelle Haas, whose free kick seemingly went undetected.

"I didn't want to kick it over so I just aimed for a corner and put some force on it," she said. "I don't think they thought it was going in. I think they thought it was going wide and the goalie even called it wide so I think everyone was surprised and the team was shocked too. It was crazy."

St. Francis (17-4-0) had controlled play for the majority of the second half both prior to surrendering the goal as well as after but just couldn't net the equalizer.

"We played much better in the second half," Winslow said. "We put the one across and we headed it over and Hanna (Rittenhouse) had the breakaway and stuff like that. But at the end of the day you've got to put those away when you're playing good teams because you're getting, two, three, four, or maybe five quality opportunities."

The Spartans had several chances after falling behind, including a header from Jill Ditusa off a corner kick and Rittenhouse's breakaway with 8:10 left, but none ended happily for St. Francis.

"They won every ball in the air and every ball was in the air," Winslow said. "(Deerfield) didn't create a second good opportunity the entire game, not on a set piece, not on nothing. We did, but we didn't put them away."

Deerfield (22-6-1) was making its first state appearance.

"I don't think we gave them many other than the one breakdown and a couple looks off corner kicks," Deerfield coach Rich Grady said. "I thought our kids played great today."

Both teams registered 8 shots, but it took just one of the 16 to make the difference.

The loss was the first one that the Spartans experienced against a non-Class 3A school and also their first defeat since April 18. Deerfield snapped a 10-game St. Francis winning streak.

The Spartans will look to rebound at 11 a.m. Saturday against Sycamore with a third-place trophy at stake.