Before Friday’s Class 3A Huntley Sectional championship began, the host Red Raiders had to overcome a major loss.
At Wednesday’s practice, Huntley scoring leader Deanna Hecht broke her right ankle. One day removed from surgery, the senior co-captain used crutches to get to the bench where she and her red cast remained.
Hecht’s teammates squeaked out a 1-0 victory over a Cary-Grove squad that finished the year sharing the Fox Valley Valley title with the Red Raiders. The win was as hard-fought as the 2-0 victory Huntley (19-3) had earned during the regular season against the Trojans (11-6-1). The Red Raiders advance to Tuesday’s 6 p.m. game against the host team in the Class 3A Barrington Supersectional.
“We knew they’d come at us hard and keep coming, so we had to keep cool and composed,” fellow co-captain Katie Costantino said. “We were all about making the necessary defensive play or else be there to cover for each other.”
That approach was crucial as Cary-Grove attacked from the opening whistle and Huntley goalie Paige Renkosik and her defenders dodged a variety of potentially dangerous scenarios plus two shots on goal.
But then the Red Raiders got a major break. Alyssa Kaufman raced down the sideline with a ball before passing to Taryn Jakubowski, who then spotted Brenna Keegan open for a 13-yard strike from the right side.
“Alyssa hustles the ball downfield and plays a great ball to Taryn, who pump fakes and makes their defender commit, passes to Brenna, who shows so much poise for a freshman and just buries it into the side netting,” Huntley coach Kris Grabner said of the pivotal play that came 48 seconds before halftime. “I told them ‘You just played a bad half of soccer and are up 1-0, you should feel good about having a second half to prove you can play better.”
“Having to replace a big role model and a big playmaker wasn’t going to be easy, and we knew we had to get the first goal to give us a boost,” Jakubowski said. “Alyssa made a great run, found me and when I saw Brenna getting into the clear, I just made the connection and she showed great poise in finishing it.”
“It was a great pass and I just did my best to get it into the side netting,” Keegan said. “That kind of play makes all the running worth it. Getting any goal was crucial, I had an earlier effort that didn’t go well, so my next chance I wasn’t going to miss.”
And Grabner made certain to get the Red Raiders to do a better job of syncing the back line to the midfielders and the forwards.
“A big key was getting all our lines connected. Cary came out flying and stayed that way. We didn’t help ourselves by leaving space between the middle and our defense,” Grabner said. “Once we closed that space down, it allowed us to be more efficient.”
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Part of that involved Costantino becoming more of a defensive midfielder to help keep the Trojans at bay.
“I felt I needed to be back there more, especially after the first goal knowing they’d attack even more,” Costantino said. “It’s our second straight sectional but as a senior, it’s my last sectional win with my friends.”
Nemeth is a freelance reporter.