Girls soccer: Undefeated Lyons tops Benet
It doesn't matter what sport it is - when you've got two undefeated teams in a playoff situation, something's gotta give.
The sport Friday was girls soccer, where host Benet faced off against Lyons in a Class 3A sectional final on a hot, hazy afternoon. Both teams featured spotless records, with Benet the defending Class 2A champions and the sectional's top seed.
They also had senior All-American forward Jaimee Cibulka, with a team-leading 25 goals. On the other side of the field, second-seeded Lyons had a battle-tested back line.
So who won? Defense, though Cibulka made it rather interesting in the end in a 1-0 Lyons victory.
"Basically, going into the game, we knew we had to make her go wide, and we knew that we couldn't step too high with her, and let her face the goal," said junior defender Ava Pike, who stuck to Cibulka like Crazy Glue in the first half.
"It's kind of a pressure-cover situation with our center backs, because we were able to push them toward the middle so we could get a step on her," junior defender Kate Fulscher added. "She likes to take really wide touches."
The Lions (18-0) advanced to play the winner of Sandburg and Lincoln-Way Central at 4 p.m. Monday at Reavis in the supersectional.
The Lions eked out a goal 27 minutes into the game on a shot by senior Jordan Lee-Caracci from about 25 yards out that pierced the right corner of the net past diving Benet sophomore goalkeeper Shannon Clark.
Then the chess match began.
After holding Cibulka and the powerful Benet offense at bay in the first half, the Redwings revolted at the start of the second half, controlling the ball on Lyons' end. But they just couldn't push one through, though the opportunities were many.
Case in point: Cibulka blasted a shot from the right side in the 46th minute that clanked loudly off the crossbar and bounced to a teammate, who fired wide right. Senior forward Anne Warren got a bit of daylight in the 53rd minute, beat one trailing defender, but once again, the shot was wide right.
Lyons hung tough until the 75th minute, when it looked like Cibulka might come to the rescue. She was awarded a free kick at the top of the box on the right side in front of a wall of three Lions, and her kick resulted in a scrum in front of the net. The ball got loose along the baseline, back to Cibulka, who took the last shot of her high school career ... which was corralled by LT junior goalkeeper Izzy Lee.
"I was just trying to cut off the cross and she popped it right up and I grabbed it," Lee said.
"It was a great team effort," Cibulka said. "My teammates were hustling to get on that. Unfortunately, it didn't go in, but we have to give ourselves a chance. We gave it our all to the end."