Charlotte Wallner wasn’t letting another one slip by.
The Crystal Lake Central goalkeeper made perhaps the biggest save of her season Monday evening, when the Tigers clung to a one-goal lead late in their Class 2A Lake Zurich Supersectional girls soccer match against Lake Forest. Fielding a corner kick inside the box in the 68th minute, Anna Jasper headed a ball that bounced down from the top crossbar.
As the Lake Forest midfielder’s header came down at the goal line, the Scouts seemed to celebrate as if they had tied the score. Instead, it was Wallner who covered the ball up just inches from the line, keeping Central’s lead. It was one of three key second-half saves for Wallner, who helped clinch Central’s 2-1 win and a trip to the state semifinals.
“I saw the ball, and I told myself to get behind it because there was no way I was letting that in,” Wallner said. “With the score like that, I did not want to let that slide again.
“I’m so proud of the girls. In the last eight minutes, I was so proud of everyone. They all worked so hard.”
In a rematch of Central’s first match of the season, a 3-2 loss to the Scouts, Lake Forest (15-8) applied heavy pressure over the final 15 minutes of Monday’s supersectional at Lake Zurich. Receiving a free kick in the 73rd minute, the Scouts sent a ball into the box, where a shot bounced off the left upright before the Tigers cleared it away.
Wallner made another save on a long-range shot in the 78th minute before the Tigers, only moments later, turned away the last of Lake Forest’s three corner kicks in the match. In what was ultimately a game of inches, Lake Forest had three near misses between the 58th and 59th minutes.
All of Wallner’s saves came in the second half.
“It was a mental and physical battle,” Central coach Leah Rutkowski said. “They’re a deep and talented team that plays good, organized, possession-based soccer. We were ready to break up their strings of possessions and not allow them to build the way they do. They were one of our few losses, and losses are only something to learn from.”
Supersectional champions for the third time in four years, the Tigers (20-2) advance to face Lemont or Geneva in the state semifinals at 12:30 p.m. Friday at North Central College in Naperville. The winner will return to the pitch at 4:45 p.m. Saturday for the championship.
The Tigers were first to strike Monday, scoring after senior midfielder Peyton McMahon executed a perfect free kick during the 38th minute. Standing 15 yards from the goal, McMahon ripped a right-footed shot that soared over a three-player wall of Lake Forest defenders and over the head of freshman keeper Izzy Alexander to put Central ahead 1-0.
“Allie [Barnett] always tells me to just whack it, and I just whacked it,” McMahon said. “My teammates had the confidence in me, and I felt that confidence, so I was just going to whack it like Allie says.”
McMahon’s goal, which drew applause from a packed Central crowd on the north end of the bleachers, was matched with a loud roar from the Lake Forest fans after the Scouts evened the score just one minute later. Capitalizing on a ball high inside the box and a scramble that drew out Wallner, Lake Forest’s Taylor Gaston rolled in the equalizer.
But the Tigers, who fell in their supersectional match to St. Ignatius last season, quickly bounced back and scored on an eerily similar play during the 47th minute. With the wind blowing up a long ball by Ella Bechler, Central’s Addison Schaffer fielded the ball inside the box and, amid traffic, rolled a pass to Jordin Gaunaurd for the go-ahead goal.
“Ella booted it up, and it was way up in the sky, so I was like, ‘How am I going to control this?’ ” Schaffer said. “Nothing was going through my head at that point, because I just had to get the ball. I let it pass, because I didn’t think I’d be able to first-time hit it because it was coming down so hard. But I got it, I saw Jordin, and it was a goal.”
Central, which placed third at state in 2023, is seeking its second state championship in three years. The team’s four seniors – Schaffer, McMahon, Bechler and defender Kira Stavropoulos – were all members of the 2024 state championship roster. They’re eager for another.
“It’s seriously unreal,” said McMahon, who missed her junior season with an injury. “The best you can ask for is to go back to state.”