Girls lacrosse: St. Charles earns 1st state berth

Senior Makayla Thomas acknowledged that she had a hard time sleeping last night.

St. Charles co-op coach Jordyn McFarlane called it the longest 10 minutes of her life.

Freshman Sami Balara countered, saying that time flew by.

In total, it took 22 minutes on Wednesday for St. Charles to accomplish something it had been working toward for the past 365 days.

Behind the fifth goal of the game from Thomas, a clutch draw win by Balara late and an insurance tally from senior Maddie Wiltrout, St. Charles made school history, defeating Neuqua Valley 10-8 in the Schaumburg supersectional to advance to state for the first time.

The team lost to Naperville North in OT in a supersectional a year ago to the day.

"We practiced every day and we even practiced on Memorial Day for two hours," Wiltrout said. "We have fitness tests, ground ball fitness tests and our coaches make us push ourselves to get to that next level on the fitness test and teammates push each other. And this was about redemption from last year and us just really wanting it."

The game was resumed with 10:49 to go as St. Charles led 8-6 before bad weather suspended the game on Tuesday night.

Wiltrout scored after she and her teammates passed the ball round for five minutes to make it 9-6 with 5:47 still to play.

The Wildcats didn't fade away though, getting a pair of goals from Lauren Reitzel, who scored four overall, to pull within 9-8 with 1:10 still remaining.

"It was tough going into it with only 11 minutes and being down by two," Reitzel said. "We had a strategy and fought until the end but just fell short."

St. Charles will face Hinsdale Central in a state semifinal at 5 p.m. Friday.

"We couldn't have done this without any of the girls on the field or sideline," McFarlane said. "I think the seniors really pushed the freshmen and those between the classes and it shows how much faith our seniors have in the freshmen. I keep saying they're not freshmen now, they're seasoned lacrosse players."

And they're all going to state for the first time.