Girls soccer: South Elgin tops Huntley in OT on Barthelt's goal

South Elgin won a conference title, but the Storm wasn't satisfied.

They felt they needed at least a regional title to complete their mission. The Storm accomplished that mission in Saturday's final of the Class 3A Huntley regional.

Katrina Barthelt scored on a breakaway 3 minutes into overtime to lead South Elgin past the host Red Raiders, 1-0. The Storm will play Barrington at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday in the Rockford Guilford sectional.

Megan McClure pitched the shutout in goal for South Elgin.

The game was a defensive slugfest for 80 minutes, with scoring chances few and far between for both teams.

Then Barthelt took a pass, blew through the defense, deked to her right and shot it left. Her ground shot rolled into the far side of the net to put the Storm on top.

The South Elgin defense made it stand up for the final 7 minutes.

"It's surreal," she said. "I just saw the chute wasn't centered so I was just trying to put it in the left corner. I shot it hard on the ground and it just went in."

The conference-regional daily double was a first in program history.

"This year we picked up a conference title, which we've never done before," said Storm coach Laura Snow. "I said that's only the beginning. That doesn't matter unless we go grab this one."

Huntley dominated the time of possession for most of the second half, outshooting the Storm 3-0 in that span. But South Elgin began to build momentum late in the half and it carried over into the extra periods. Snow's message to her team before the start of overtime was pretty simple:

"Keep playing our game," she told her players. "Obviously, it got us to overtime. That's what I told them, I said don't panic because the mental side of us is probably going to win this game. I said before the game it might be a one-goal difference and here we are."

It was a tough loss on their home field for Huntley. Keeper Jenna Franklin and the defense led by Alyssa Costantino kept the Red Raiders in the game until the end.

"I think we created enough opportunities but we couldn't get enough of them in the goal," said Huntley coach Matt Lewandowski. "They got one, they finished it."

Barthelt had a couple of good chances in regulation. She hit the post in the first half. She appeared to have a clear shot from point-blank range in the late going but Costantino swooped in from out of nowhere to break it up.