Considering all Liz Smith has done for his Johnsburg girls soccer program, all the big goals she has scored in big games, coach Rob Eastland did what seemed only fitting, if not chivalrous.

He carried the girl who has put his Skyhawks on her shoulders, the girl who has carried them to victory so many times.

The wounded Smith wrapped her arms around her coach’s shoulders and hopped on his back, as he lugged her to the opposite sideline, where Johnsburg was celebrating with its fans after beating Rockford Christian 9-0 in the Class 1A Marian Central Supersectional at Peter A. Baker Family Stadium in Woodstock.

Less than a minute after scoring her team-leading 33rd goal of the season, Smith got kicked in her right ankle while planting her foot and limped off the field in the 19th minute.

She watched the rest of the game – which ended less than five minutes into the second half because of the sport’s mercy rule – while lying on Johnsburg’s bench with a bag of ice on her right ankle.

“She’s struggling,” Eastland said of his senior forward, who’s scored 57 goals in the past two seasons. “The kid plays fit and tough all year. It’s great to pick up a win, but it comes with a hard hit.”

Charlie Eastland and Maura Oeffling each scored three times for the Skyhawks, who also got goals from Lauren McQuiston and Brooke Butler.

Smith suffered the same injury, Rob Eastland said, in last year’s Class 1A state semifinal against Timothy Christian. Smith returned to play the next day in the championship game, which Johnsburg lost to Columbia.

With its win over Rockford Christian (15-9), Johnsburg (18-0) advances to Thursday’s 7:30 p.m. state semifinal against Pleasant Plains (25-0-2) at North Central College in Naperville.

“Liz is the heart of the team,” Charlie Eastland said. “She is the hardest worker on this team, and I say that with 100% [certainty]. She runs no matter what. She puts the team on her back. You can always count on Liz. She will always be there for you.

“She’s a team player, and she is our leading goal scorer, but that’s not all she is. She loves this team with everything she’s got.”

McQuiston opened the scoring less than five minutes into the match, taking a pass from Devynn Michel and beating Royal Lions keeper Avery Malcolm. Charlie Eastland had three quality scoring chances, only to be denied by Malcolm, before freshman Dorothy Ruth sprung Smith, who beat Malcolm in a one-on-one opportunity to put Johnsburg up 2-0.

With Smith on the bench, Oeffling took a pass from Ruth, pivoted and ripped a rocket from outside the box just under the crossbar. Oeffling’s goal extended the Johnsburg lead to 3-0, and after a hand ball in the box, Eastland converted a penalty kick in the 26th minute.

“She was getting the stare from me, so she knew she had to step it up a little bit or she might not have been eating tonight,” Rob Eastland said about his daughter with a laugh.

“Oh, I know. I felt it,“ a grinning Charlie Eastland said of her dad’s stare. ”I didn’t even have to look over there. After playing for him for so long, you sense it.”

Oeffling knocked in a cross from McQuiston to make it 5-0. Eastland then hit a shot that deflected off a defender, off the crossbar and off the extended arms of keeper Malcolm before barely trickling into the net.

“They just move the ball around really well,“ Rockford Christian coach Eron Harvey said of the Skyhawks. ”They have a lot of people who can finish. I mean, No. 6 [Smith] was even out for a majority of the game, and they still came at us. When you’re playing the state runner-up from the year before, and they’re heavy with seniors who felt that pain of losing that [championship] game last year, it’s a tough ask.

“There’s a reason why they’re 18-0.“

Butler finished the rebound of Eastland’s shot that hit the post, and the Skyhawks led 7-0 at halftime. Johnsburg’s dominant first 40 minutes also included Michel hitting the post from outside the box.

“I think we looked a little slow,” said Oeffling, whose hat trick gave her seven goals on the season. “We played really well in our last game [2-1 win over Willows Academy in the Waukegan Sectional final], and we tried to get out fast, but it wasn’t our best today. We had good passing.”

With the second-half abbreviated to 20 minutes because of the 7-0 halftime margin, Johnsburg needed less than five minutes to end the game. Eastland scored from the top of the box for her 17th of the season, and Oeffling finished a low-angle shot.

“We watched some film and saw where [Rockford Christian’s] weak links were,” Rob Eastland said. “We hit at it, and it paid off really early.”

The question for the Skyhawks now is whether they will have Smith come Thursday night.

“The kid’s been man-marked and kicked a lot this year,” Rob Eastland said. “She fights for everything, that one. You just hope maybe she can get on that stage at state, because she deserves it.”