Coming into the Class 3A Oak Park and River Forest regional final, Downers Grove South coach Barry Jacobson stressed to his players the importance of taking an early lead on the home team.
Sarrah Ludwig took what her coach said to heart.

The senior scored less than five minutes into the contest and the third-seeded Mustangs added two more goals en route to a 3-0 victory Friday evening in Oak Park. It’s their first regional title since 2008.

“We needed to take out the emotion from them,” Jacobson said of the sixth-seeded Huskies. “We wanted to come out hard and score in the first 10 minutes.”

Ludwig scored from the front of the net off a ball from Jessica Bronke.

“I was just so pumped to be out there,” said Ludwig, who has a team-high 22 goals on the season. “The ball was right there. I just needed to put it in the back of the net. I knew that if we pounced on them early we would kind of put them down, and then that would get us pumped even more to come out and get the second and third goals.”

Downers South (16-5-3) extended its lead to 2-0 when Rachel Ruggiero booted in a rebound from the left side in the 28th minute.

The visitors dominated the first half. They put 11 shots on goal to OPRF’s one.

“They were the better team,” OPRF coach Ignacio Ponce said. “It was obvious with them scoring three goals. The thing was I think our girls forgot we had been training them not to give up corner kicks and throw-ins. If you noticed in the first half, our girls were kicking it out of bounds just to clear it.”

The Huskies (11-9-2) played better in the second half led by senior defender Renata Voci, who fired up the crowd with her play on a couple occasions.

“Oh my gosh, the little girl in the back just pops out of nowhere each and every time to battle the biggest girl on their team,” Ponce said. “She’ll roll on the ground, fly in the air, whatever it is, but she’ll get the job done. That’s one thing we’re going to miss. She’s a senior and we’re going to miss that little spunk next year.”

Voci said her team was not about to back down in front of its supportive home fans.

“We stepped it up and turned it around,” Voci said. “We were a different team in the second half.”
OPRF’s best chance to score came in the 61st minute when Mikaela Gillman fed Meredith Blatner, who kicked a bullet to the left side of the net. However, the shot was stopped by a one-handed, diving deflection by Downers South goalkeeper Cassidy Herrmann.

Then it came time for OPRF goalkeeper Katy Oldach to shine when she denied a Downers South penalty kick by Bronke in the 64th minute.

Two minutes later, a ball found the back of the net when Flo Beshiri blasted a goal from the front of the net, putting the Mustangs up 3-0.

That’s where the score ended as Herrmann recorded her 12th shutout with help from such defenders as Jess Pikul and Caitlin Carr.

“Our defense has played pretty well all season against top teams,” Jacobson said. “If we can keep rolling and stay healthy, we’ll be all right. We got Brittany Dietz back today after a month with a concussion and that was big for us.”

Downers South advances to the 6:30 p.m. Tuesday sectional final on its home field against No. 2 seed York (20-4), which defeated seventh-seeded Fenwick 3-1 in the York regional final. The Dukes beat Downers South 5-0 on its field on May 10 in a game where the home team rested six starters in anticipation of the sectional meeting.

“They’ll be a very tough team,” Jacobson said of the Dukes. “They beat us pretty bad last time. I don’t know if we’ll match up with them or not, but we’ll give it a go. (It’ll come down to) if we can stop their offense because they score.”

“I know our team is just so ready to play them,” Ludwig said. “We know what we have to do. We can beat them.”

For Ponce, it was time to take stock in his first season of coaching the Huskies varsity.

“My main goal was to finish about .500,” he said. “We had some goals to go out and play hard and have the girls learn a new system, which is hard, but to also have fun, and I think, one we bonded as a team. We changed the entire coaching staff at the top level, and the girls really opened up to us. I feel like all these girls are just special to us.”