Girls soccer: Woodstock North ends Sycamore’s season on penalty kicks

Sycamore's Grace Parks and Woodstock North's Karen Zamudio go after the ball during their IHSA Class 2A regional game Tuesday, May 17, 2022, at Burlington Central High School.

BURLINGTON – After Sycamore and Woodstock North scored five goals each during regulation of Tuesday’s Class 2A Burlington Central Regional semifinal, the expectation was that offense would continue to dominate during overtime.

However, the defense controlled the flow of the match in both overtime periods. No goals were scored in the 20 minutes of extra time, forcing the contest to penalty kicks to determine the winner.

Woodstock North (13-6) finally prevailed, 6-5, connecting on seven PKs to Sycamore’s six.

The Thunder advance to Saturday’s championship match and will face Cary-Grove, 3-1 winners over Burlington Central in Tuesday’s first semifinal.

“Definitely the spectators got their money’s worth. You don’t see games like that with so much offense and so many goals. It seemed like everything shot on goal went in,” Sycamore coach Kevin Bickley said. “If you would have told me that we would score five goals today, I for sure would have thought we won the game.”

“I’ve got to give credit to Sycamore,” Woodstock North coach John Sullivan said. “This was an evenly matched game. This is exactly what you want from playoff soccer this late in the season. I’m just glad we could put a show on for the fans. And I am so proud of the way our girls fought back after having the lead and then going down. There was no quit in our team.”

The PK phase did not start out the way Bickley had hoped.

“We were hoping to get to shoot first and put them under pressure. But we lost the toss and had to go second,” he said. “It’s our third time [this season] in penalties, and unfortunately, we were on the wrong end twice.”

Containing Katelynn Ward and Graci Zankle, the Thunder’s two main scoring threats, was the focus of the Spartans’ defense.

“I’m definitely proud of how our defense played. They have some very good strong forwards up front who score a lot of goals. Defending those two strikers was a lot of work for us,” Bickley said. “We’ve got some young players back there that had to figure it out. I’m proud of how they played.”

Ward scored both the first and last goals of the match. Her first strike was at the 31:26 mark of the first half. The senior forward beat Spartans goalkeeper Tayla Brannstrom to a loose ball in the corner of the goal box and knocked it in.

Three minutes later, Sycamore (10-9-2) tied the contest on a shot by Anna Lochbaum. The Spartans went ahead 2-1 in the 19th minute, when Mariana Martinez’s boot went over Thunder keeper Sammi Maldonado’s outstretched hand.

Woodstock North retied the game with 3:31 left in the half. Abby Foster scored from the corner of the penalty area after wresting the ball away from Lochbaum.

Jordyn Tilstra’s strike with 1:25 until the intermission put the Spartans back on top 3-2.

Sycamore’s lead held until the 60th minute, when Foster’s second goal of the night retied the game. The Thunder took their second lead of the match with 13:34 left to play in regulation on a strike by Zankle.

Ella Shipley responded with back-to-back goals to return the lead to the Spartans, 5-4 with eight minutes left.

Ward tied the match for the fifth time with 6:17 left in the second half.

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