Girls soccer: St. Charles East tops Evanston in PKs

Grace Griffin saved three spot-kicks to give St. Charles East a thrilling 1-0 victory over Evanston Friday night in Barrington in its first match of the Naperville Invite girls soccer tournament.

Griffin and the Saints survived eight shootout rounds, outscoring the Wildkits 6-5, with Hayley Popiel converting the sixth kick to give the Saints (8-2-3) a key victory in Group play.

Saturday SCE will meet Rockford Boylan at noon needing just a draw to advance into next week's semifinals in Naperville.

"We practice PKs everyday in training, and we've come to depend on Gracie, and today she really came through big for us," said Saints captain Rose Stackhouse.

Stackhouse, Kayla Villa, Hannah Miller and Ashley DiOro helped the Saints unleash a one-way attack in the second half, creating several terrific chances on Evanston keeper Sylvi Imrem, who turned in a brilliant performance in just her second full game back after missing most of the season to an injury.

As the scoreless game moved to the two required 10-minute extra sessions, it became clear a penalty-kick shootout would ultimately decide the winner and once there, both sides missed two of their first spot-kicks.

Each side would then be perfect for the next three rounds with Alondra Carranza, Madison Cady and Sydney Daeschler cool with their finish to cancel out the three from Evanston who found the back of the net.

Popiel went the opposite way that Imrem would guess to make it 6-5, before Griffin stopped Zoe Salamon.

"It's tough watching your teammates working so hard to create chances, but that's how this game goes. I'm just glad I could do my part," said Griffin.