Girls lacrosse: Barrington can't hold off St. Charles East's second-half surge
For Barrington coach Charles Solomon, the dream of seeing girls lacrosse become an IHSA-sanctioned sport this season was the culmination of what had been a 15-year wait.
"It was like, 'Wait ''til next year,' " Solomon said.
Unfortunately for Solomon and his No. 2 seeded Fillies, that's the approach they'll have to take for next season, and another crack at a berth in the state finals.
A 7-goal barrage by St. Charles East co-op erased an early second-half deficit en route to an 11-5 win by the top-seeded Saints on Friday in the Hoffman Estates sectional final.
The SCE co-op, which also features athletes from Dist. 303 school St. Charles North, earned a place back at Hoffamn Estates' Garber Stadium for Tuesday's supersectional vs Naperville North (13-5).
The Huskies were a 14-7 winner over Neuqua Valley in Friday night's Metea Valley sectional title.
"We felt going in that this was going to be a tough match coming in," said St. Charles East co-op coach Ronni Kleuer. "And we hoped that the main things that we've taught our team all season long, about how our actions speak louder than our words, would figure into tonight's game."
For Kleuer, those actions spoke volumes as the Saints (15-2) scored seven unanswered goals over the final 21:27 while holding Barrington (15-4) to just 2 shots on goal in that time span.
It began for the Saints after Fillies sophomore Amelia Lunn's third score gave Barrington its final lead at 5-4 with 23:11 left in the second half.
Junior Maddie Wiltrout connected 44 seconds later to even things up at 5.
Then, the second of Saints junior Lexie Kiefer's three scores at the 19:42 mark gave her team the lead for good at 6-5.
After another pair of juniors - Tahlia Townsend (15:42) and Mikayla Thomas (15:07) - scored to expand the St. Charles advantage to 8-5, Kiefer connected on her third goal of the contest to make it 9-5 with 11:55 remaining.
Senior Mackenzie Wells joined Kiefer in hitting the hat trick, and Townsend hit her second goal in the closing seconds to put the finishing touches on the win.
Kiefer credits her teammates' ability in settling down after finding themselves in a 3-3 tie at halftime.
"We came in a little nervous into the game," Kiefer said. "We were able to come into the second half with the mentality of playing with nothing to lose. We felt that it was 0-0 all over again, and the recognition of the opportunity in front of us to win a sectional championship got us going in the second half."
While the Saints were celebrating that sectional crown at midfield and looking forward to another game against a Naperville North team they beat 15-5 in April, the Fillies looked on from their bench thinking about what might have been.
"We had a great season," Solomon said. "We just couldn't put it together tonight. We do have a good group that's returning, though. We'll be back."