The hole was just too deep to climb out for Crystal Lake Central co-op .

Add to that the opponent was simply too strong, too fast, too precise.

Barrington exploded out of the gates to a 5-0 lead less than 10 minutes into the Crystal Lake Central Sectional final, and the Fillies used their physicality, patience, and skilled passing en route to an 11-6 victory over the host Central squad Friday afternoon at Metcalf Field.

The defeat ends Central’s season at 21-2 while Barrington (21-2) advances to the Huntley Supersectional against Huntley, an 18-10 winner over Naperville North.

“Our plan was to move the ball and play our game,” said Chloe Niven, who scored three times and was one of 12 Barrington seniors who quickly exchanged her uniform, stick and mask for a graduation gown as a member of the BHS class of 2026, which had a 7 p.m. ceremony start.

The Fillies did just that, jumping out to a quick lead and then turning to their methodical, deliberate offense that created space for center cuts and easy goals.

Freshman Harley Thalheimer (four goals) tallied the first three goals for Barrington, which led 5-1 after one period. Central got on the board last on the first of three goals from Anna Starr, but Barrington still led 6-3 at halftime.

The Fillies scored 46 seconds into the third and led 9-4 heading into the final period, and were never seriously threatened after that. Central’s other goals came from Makayla Simonic and Avery Younge.

“They had a super-strong zone defense and we had a hard time with that and they held the ball much longer than we did,” Central senior Anna Starr said “But this team and these girls …we have grown so much stronger and have built a team culture to help us have so much success. Of course, I’m sad because it’s over, but No. 2 we won’t see each other every day like we have for the past couple of months. That’s what hurts the most right now.”

The Villanova-bound Starr was bottled up by the Barrington defense, which double-teamed her in the corners and made finding her teammates a challenge.

“We didn’t really want to double-team her, but we wanted to make things difficult for her,” Barrington coach Addie Dieckmeier said. “But for us, we just talked about how you can do anything you want to do. At this point of the season, either they know the game or they don’t. We talked about patience and making the right pass, about winning ground balls. We did that tonight.”

Central coach Joe Capalbo said the early deficit was the exact opposite of what he had hoped for in the game’s early moments.

“We talked about getting out to a fast start and jump on them right away. Had we done that, it could have been a different game,” Capalbo said. “But Barrington came out the aggressor and we lost some early draws. They did a good job executing against our defense. We tried to take away their best player (Emma Menke) and we did a pretty good job of that.”

And while the sting of the loss was still strongly resonating after the game, the success of his senior group was not lost on Capalbo.

“These 17 seniors, a lot of them have been with us since their freshman year. They’ve won four conference championships, three sectional titles,and won a state trophy (fourth place in 2025),” he said. “It’s an incredible group of players who bought in, who grinded with us and who did what we wanted them to do.

“It was an incredible ride with those kids.”