When Naperville North and Naperville Central met in a regular-season game last month, North’s Aileen Guiney missed the game–a Naperville Central victory–because she was playing on a Junior Olympic development team in Europe.
Guiney made up for that absence Saturday in a sectional championship game at Downers Grove South, scoring the lone goal in No. 5 North’s 1-0 victory over Central. Guiney scored on a header that was set up by Shannon Sweeney’s corner kick.
“It feels awesome, astronomical,” Guiney said. “This is everything we always talked about. We were so pumped for this game. It was a great ball by Shannon. The set was perfect.”
Missy Wickart made five saves to earn her 13th shutout of the season for Naperville North (20-2-3), which claimed its ninth sectional title and will play Lyons Township in Tuesday’s Downers Grove North supersectional.
No. 7 Naperville Central (18-4-2), the DuPage Valley Conference champion, had its string of straight shutout victories snapped at 10.
Willowbrook: Kristie Simon scored all the goals for Lyons Township (16-7) in its 4-3 victory over Fenwick.
St. Charles: The top-ranked Saints (25-0-1) blanked Geneva 3-0 with two goals by Patrice Feulner and one by Sarah Lynch. Lynley Hilligoss made five saves in the shutout for St. Charles, which will meet Schaumburg in Tuesday’s Palatine supersectional. St. Charles beat the Schaumburg 3-0 early this season.
Hersey: Tracy Gleixner broke Schaumburg’s career scoring record and Lily Alcala scored two goals in the ninth-ranked Saxons’ 4-1 victory over Prospect (12-9-2). Gleixner’s header with 5:56 left in the first half was the 72nd goal of her career. She also holds the all-time assist record for Schaumburg (18-3-1).
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Marian Central Catholic: In her first start of the season, junior Kelly Laughlin scored on a header to help No. 10 Cary-Grove (23-1-3) knock off Barrington 2-0. Laura Gentili’s throw-in set up Laughlin’s header with 28:42 left in the first half. Andie Oswald’s goal with 52 seconds left in the first half gave the Trojans a cushion.
Cary-Grove reaches the supersectionals for the first time and plays at Barrington Tuesday against Rockford Boylan.
Barrington coach Jeff Muhr, whose Broncos had handed Cary-Grove its only loss this season (5-1 on April 25), said he was very disappointed.
“We got outworked, didn’t play up to our potential,” said Muhr, whose team finished 17-5-3.
Libertyville: Lake Zurich (22-2-2) won its 14th straight by defeating Libertyville 3-2 in the final minute. The victorious Bears trailed 2-1 at the half before Katie Whiting tied the game on a penalty kick early in the second period. Amy O’Leary scored the winning goal off an assist by Meghan Kolze with 1:08 remaining.
Sarah Podolski scored both goals for Libertyville (12-8), which was unable to get another shot off in the last minute of play.
The sectional title is Lake Zurich’s first. The Bears, who are 35-3 in the last two years, will play New Trier on Tuesday in the Stevenson supersectional.
Eisenhower: No. 6 Sandburg (24-1) ousted Mother McAuley 8-1 with Kris Nowak’s four goals. The Eagles, who needed overtime to beat McAuley early in the season, led 3-0 at the half. Sandburg will play Lincoln-Way in Tuesday’s supersectional in New Lenox.
Lincoln-Way: No. 8 Lincoln-Way (20-4-1) edged Homewood-Flossmoor 3-2 on penalty kicks to advance to Tuesday’s supersectional. H-F (19-4-1) took a 2-0 lead less than 4 minutes into the game, but Lincoln-Way’s Beth Bartkus responded with a goal a minute later, and Kim Jedlo tied the game midway through the second half.
After the Knights and Vikings each converted penalty kicks, Erin Hassett missed on H-F’s fifth shot. Lincoln-Way’s Mandy Misch prevailed on her attempt.