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WAUBONSIE VALLEY

Warriors blank Titans to advance to Class 3A championship

By Curt Herron

Waubonsie Valley and Sandburg have split two regular season matches thus far this year.

Now the two squads get the opportunity to decide which is better in the ultimate showdown.

The Warriors and Eagles meet on Saturday at 7 p.m. for the Class 3A championship at North Central College.

That matchup was assured when Waubonsie jumped out to an early lead in the final semifinal and claimed a 2-0 win over Glenbrook South.

Sandburg (23-2-1) advanced to the title match after grabbing a 3-0 halftime lead and rolling to a 4-2 victory over St. Charles North.

Waubonsie (22-1-4) will be playing in the championship match for the fourth time in its history and the third time in the past four years.

Coach Julie Bergstrom's program won titles in 2007 and 2008. In the school's only previous state trip, they took second place in 1991.

Sandburg defeated Waubonsie 2-0 when the two teams met on April 23 in a match at the Naperville Invite.

But the Warriors turned the tables against a short-handed Eagles squad when they won 2-1 on May 8 at the Lemont Cup.

The Eagles have finished twice before in the state tournament, falling in title matches in 1997 and 2001.

It will be a matchup of two of the state's stingiest defenses. Both squads have allowed just 10 goals this season.

On Friday, the Warriors posted their 19th shutout of the season as Allison Fox recorded five saves.

As a result, Waubonsie won its sixth straight match and improved to 12-0-1 in its last 13 outings, with nine of those being shutouts.

Glenbrook South (24-5-4) entered its first state tournament appearance on a high note after having captured nine straight victories.

But the Titans fell behind early and then lost All-Stater and 43-goal scorer Jannelle Flaws to an injury late in the first half.

At the time, the Warriors already owned a 2-0 lead and maintained that to hand South just its second shutout in its last 21 matches.

The match was halted for nearly an hour due to lightning with 6:29 left in the opening half, which was also when Flaws got hurt.

Prior to that, the Warriors had limited the University of Illinois-bound athlete to just one shot on goal and two others off.

Titans coach Seong Ha kept his talented forward on the bench the rest of the way to avoid risking a more-serious injury.

With nearly half of its scoring for the season not available, South obviously struggled against the warriors' tough defense.

Jessica Blair had a pair of shots on goal that Fox turned away to provide some of the Titans' limited scoring chances.

Meanwhile, the Warriors received all of the goals that they would need during the opening 10 minutes of the match.

With just 8:03 elapsed, Shannon Donelson sent a pass to Megan Green, who put a shot past keeper Kelsey Byers (2 saves).

It was Green's 12th goal of the season, which ranks her second on the squad to Vanessa DiBernardo, who has 23 scores.

And Donelson collected her ninth assist, which moved her just one behind team leaders Hannah Klancic and DiBernardo.

The Warriors didn't have many scoring opportunities, but they certainly made the most of the ones that they created.

While Glenbrook South had five shots on goal, Waubonsie finished with just four but were able to score on half of them.

Waubonsie's second goal came at the 28:07 mark when Jessica Price found Chelsea Stoeckigt, who made it a 2-0 match.

The goal was Stoeckigt's seventh of the season while Price was credited with her fourth assist on the scoring play.

Just over five minutes ran off the clock following that second score before lightning was spotted, which halted play.

Flaws was injured at the same time of the delay and when the squads finally returned to the field, her absence was felt.

DiBernardo finished with just one shot on goal and two others off while Colleen Gorkis had her team's other shot on goal.