Spartans blank Bulldogs to capture regional championship

 

 

By Curt Herron

If a quality team doesn't give their opponents many good scoring opportunities, then it obviously becomes rather difficult to defeat them.

St. Francis has used that formula throughout the season and did so once again in Friday's Class 2A Solorio Academy Regional championship.

The Spartans allowed Riverside-Brookfield to get an early dangerous attempt but then kept it from seriously threatening the rest of the way.

Meanwhile, St. Francis received first half goals from Anna Vonderhaar and Taylor Van Thournout and relied on defense to make the lead stand.

With Jenna DiTusa posting her squad's 14th shutout, the Spartans beat the Bulldogs 2-0 in the regional finals on Chicago's Southwest Side.

Kate Roback, Meghan Wagner, Taylor Bucaro and Corky Hart again paced the defense for St. Francis, which has yielded three goals this year.

As a result of its 16th victory in 17 tries, the defending Class 2A state champions advance to next week's Riverside-Brookfield Sectional.

The Spartans advance to a Wednesday 6:30 pm semifinal with Hinsdale South, which won 7-1 over the hosts in the Nazareth Academy Regional.

Fenwick and Glenbard South also captured regional titles on Friday and meet in the other semifinal, which will be at 4:30 pm on Wednesday.

It was the fifth straight year that the Spartans collected a regional championship. The Bulldogs (8-12) were seeking their second title.

Taylor Bucaro and Kaity Bucaro chipped in with assists for St. Francis, which also beat R-B 1-0 on March 26 in its shortened tournament.

"We made one goofy in the first five minutes and their kid cracked off a nice shot and Jenna made a great save," Spartans coach Jim Winslow said. "After that, we settled in and did a much better job of taking care of business.

"If you give up one shot on goal in a game, then you're doing okay. And that's something that we've done all season. We created chances but we needed to shoot more since we didn't do enough of that today.

"The girls have been through this enough that they know that they can take care of business and move on. The big thing is that we come out intense early so that we don't give something away that we can't make up later."

 

After the early close call, the Spartans moved in front for good when Vonderhaar scored off of a Taylor Bucaro assist in the 14th minute.

There were a few threats over the next quarter hour before St. Francis put together several good chances as the opening half wound down.

Shortly after Alexa Zepeda was denied on a liner, Kaity Bucaro sent a pass to Van Thournout, who connected for a goal in the 33rd minute.

"I think we're trying to capitalize by getting as many opportunities as we can and also limiting the other team and we've been doing well at both of those," Van Thournout said.

"We had a tough loss to Rosary but I think that it showed us that we have to always work hard. We're all working really well together and we want to do what we did last year."

In the final five minutes before halftime, Kaity Bucaro was thwarted and the Bulldog keeper dove to stop an attempt from Sarah Rahman.

Although they didn't connect again, the Spartan threats were about as consistent as the planes roaring out of nearby Midway Airport.

Following the break, Van Thournout was a bit wide and high on a series of tries and Rahman also was a bit off the mark on an effort.

Not long after Van Thournout was turned away again, Rahman tried to set up Andrea Ravlin for a score but her her liner was deflected.

All the while, the Spartans kept applying the pressure with numerous corner kicks, with most of those efforts coming from Kaity Bucaro.

In the final 10 minutes, R-B was wide on a free kick before Rachel Rahman had a shot halted before Emma Fickle could get the rebound.

"We've been working hard on a lot of things in practice," Vonderhaar said. "Our team is pretty close so we all know what we have to do and we all support each other.

"I think the Rosary loss helped us to understand that we have to play every game like it's our last one. We know now that we have to come out and play right away."