Fillies top Huntley, move to sectional title game
By Gary Larsen

Barrington’s Emily Morin had a wrenched neck and teammate Jenna Szczesny spent a fair amount of time picking herself up off the grass, but a 5-0 win eases any pain you might have after fighting through an extremely physical soccer game.

But while that physical game is being played, you have to play through it. “You just have to take deep breaths, don’t get frustrated, and keep your concentration,” Szczesny said.

Szczesny, Molly Pfeiffer and Mia Calamari scored a goal apiece, and Elli Ackermann netted a pair of late goals as Barrington (16-4-1) fought through all efforts by Huntley (17-5-1) to slow the speedy Fillies down.

Ultimately, neither the grass of sectional host Jacobs’ field nor Huntley’s hard and physical play were able to stop Barrington from advancing to Friday’s 3A sectional title game against Boylan (22-2).

“It’s hard playing through it. I felt like I was watching a Blackhawks game at times,” Barrington coach Ryan Stengren said. “But I think that’s what (Huntley) had to do when you’re playing against a faster team.

“But it’s this surface, more than anything else. We’re faster than this and we looked slow at times today. It wasn’t our best game, to be honest with you. We can do a better job but it doesn’t matter at this time of year. You don’t get any style points for how good you look, you just want to get by.”

Barrington’s pressure and Huntley’s physicality established a steady stream of Calamari freekicks early on.  Pfeiffer headed an easy save to Huntley keeper Kelli Rubino at 3 minutes and Rubino handled a Calamari freekick from 25 yards out two minutes later.

Szczesny busted around the left edge of Huntley’s backline but the Red Raiders’ Autumn Maraviglia raced over to take the ball away at 8 minutes, and Szczesny won a ball from Rubino near the goalmouth but sent a shot wide at 13 minutes.

Huntley’s Taryn Jakubowski spun on a ball at the top of the penalty area on a counter and forced a save from Barrington keeper Hannah Luedtke at 18 minutes, and Jakubowski sent a quality look on net high from distance at 21 minutes.

Playing without one of the best attacking players around in the injured Delaney Loprieno, the shots that Huntley found in Tuesday’s game came primarily from distance.

“It hurts them when Loprieno’s not there because she’s a very technical player and a threat. Without her, no one was going to get behind our backline, as long as we controlled fifty-fifty balls,” Stengren said. “(Luedtke) played very well today. Everything was very clean from her.”

And as Morin pointed out, Barrington’s best defense  against Huntley was its offense.

“I’d love to say ‘good job, defense’ but that’s truly a testament to our mids and forward pressure today,” Morin said. “That’s why there were no balls over, because they were on (Huntley) constantly, so focused and so hard-working. It was really impressive to see them play like that.”

The ice broke at the 25-minute mark when Calamari took a freekick from deep on the right side of the field, sending it to the far post where Pfeiffer got her head on it and scored.

Huntley coach Kris Grabner would have liked to see Calamari’s serve cleared out, “but Pfeiffer should have been defended,” he said. “We knew she was the one we had to defend in the air. (Rachel) Zobott won balls in the air against her today but with a player of (Pfeiffer’s) quality – I wanted to get up and say something but all I could say is ‘wow, that’s good’.”

The 1-0 Barrington lead held to halftime but not before Rubino saved a Katie Hoots shot at 29 minutes and Huntley’s Jenna Hermansen thwarted Szczesny up the left side at 36 minutes.

Hermansen stayed draped to Barrington’s leading scorer for most of the contest.

“It’s ridiculous how fast Szczesny is,” Grabner said. “She scored a great goal today but outside of that she didn’t really get many opportunities. Jenna (Hermansen) did a great job defending her throughout the game and she played physical with her.”

Calamari made it 2-0 just three minutes into the second half when she whipped a freekick in from 35 yards out, with the ball nicking the underside of the crossbar on its way into the net.

Szczesny scored at 65 minutes, after Pfeiffer sent a ball ahead to the left side and Kelsey Muniz crossed it towards the top of the penalty area. “I think the defense blocked the cross and then it just went between two defenders, and I just got a touch on it,” Szczesny said, after snapping in her 21st goal of the season.

The junior Ackermann provided a pair of bright spots with goals at 70 and 72 minutes. Her second of the game came after she worked her way around a pair of defenders on the dribble and fired inside the near post from 16 yards out.

“It was really nice to see Elli Ackermann get those goals,” Stengren said. “She’s been battling injury since before the season even started so it was nice to see her finishing like that today.”

Tuesday’s win for Barrington marked the fifth consecutive year that the Fillies have ended Huntley’s postseason.

“That’s the good thing about this team – we’re all so motivated and well-prepared mentally for each game, and we knew (Huntley) would come in very hard with some pressure,” Barrington senior defender Emily Morin said. “We knew we had to come in and match that, or top that.”

Barrington will play Boylan on Friday at 7 PM at Jacobs and Stengren was quick with an answer when asked what he anticipated from the Rockford-area team.

“Abby Reed,” Stengren said of the Boylan senior, who has netted 100-plus goals in her high school career. “We need to be clean in the back so we’ll prepare for the next two days, and it’s nice to be in this spot.” 

Barrington beat Boylan 3-2 in two overtimes in a sectional semifinal game last season. “It’s always a great game when we play (Boylan). It was a great game last year, a battle, and I expect the exact same thing this year,” Morin said.