Girls soccer: Fremd edges Warren on PKs for regional crown

Fremd beat Warren in a sudden-death penalty shootout Friday night in Palatine at Hildebrandt Field to advance into next week's sectional semifinal. The Vikings will face No. 1 Glenbrook North at host Warren High School.

Kaitlyn Rodi was the hero for the No. 6 Vikings (12-6-3) when the junior steered in her spotkick to give the home side a 5-4 advantage in kicks, and 2-1 victory over the No. 4 seed Blue Devils, who saw their season end in heartbreaking fashion.

"Both keepers were amazing (but) none of us wanted the season to end tonight for our seniors," said Rodi, who along with teammates Anna Schmitt and Gemma Gillespie were box-to-box warriors for the Vikings. They conceded the opener way back in the 16th minute before stunning the visitors with the equalizer in the 75th minute.

"Credit Fremd, they fought hard for all 100 minutes. And for us, despite a great effort from all of the girls, including Trish (Georgiou) who made some great saves in the shootout (but) in the end, we just were not able to convert enough of our kicks to get the result we came here for," said Blue Devils coach Ryan McCabe.

Freshman Addison Stanciak's brilliant finish off a wonderful ball from Brooke Gaetig gave the visitors an all important first goal. However, the Blue Devils (12-4-4) were unable to put another one in which allowed the eventual regional champions to stay close enough until Kylie Williams drew the Vikings level when she redirected a superb Gillespie cross into the far inside netting.

"We never gave up, and left it all out there tonight. Now we advance to play a great Glenbrook North team next week where we hope to continue on," said the sophomore Gillespie.

When 80 minutes and 20 minutes more in overtime could not settle this affair, it was on to penalty kicks.

Both sides missed attempts, with Georgiou and her counterpart, Sam Gary coming to the rescue until Roti in the eighth round of kicks helped her club lift the regional championship trophy.