Girls’ soccer: Lincoln-Way Central captures sectional title with shutout win

Knights win first sectional title since 2007

ORLAND PARK — Alexa Hadley stopped a shot in the opening seconds and in the final seconds.

As usual, the Lincoln-Way Central junior keeper and her defense also stopped everything in between too.

Hadley and the Knight girls soccer team waited a year for this opportunity and they delivered a 2-0 victory over the host Eagles on Friday evening in the Class 3A Sandburg Sectional championship game.

In the same game at the same location last year, Sandburg shut out the Knights 2-0 to capture its first sectional championship since 2013.

“This is a recreation of last year and we turned it around,” said Lincoln-Way Central senior Jenni Andjelic, who scored her team’s first goal. “We deserve it.”

It’s the first sectional title for the Knights (23-1) since 2007 when they finished fourth in the state in Class AA. They will face Glenbard West a 2-1 winner over Lyons Township, right back at Sandburg at 5 PM on Tuesday in a supersectional matchup.

Hadley has 21 shutouts and Lincoln-Way Central has only allowed four goals on the season. But just 15 seconds into the game Eagle senior Mary Gallagher broke free for a great opportunity in front. Gallagher was whistled for being offside on the play and her shot was saved by Hadley. It, however, showed that Sandburg, which lost 5-0 to the Knights in a SouthWest Suburban Conference crossover on April 19 in New Lenox, was not going to be a pushover on its home field.

“I was stunned,” Hadley said of the Eagle’s opening opportunity. “I was like, ‘that’s how this is going to go.’ But that’s OK, the defense did its job too. I have an amazing team in front of me and a great connection to the girls in the back.”

The Knight’s defensive line consists of juniors Christine Erdman and Chloe Grundhofer, along with senior Grace Grundhofer and freshman Abby Sudkamp.

Grace Grundhofer is also instrumental in the Lincoln-Way Central attack as she does all the triggers on the restarts. That included a restart kick from the left that found its way in front of the net in the 15th minute. Andjelic eventually was able to knock it past senior keeper Guevara Alsheikh for a 1-0 lead with 25:34 to play in the first half.

“Grace had an amazing free-kick and she is so good at that,” Andjelic said. “It bounced around and hit off someone and I was just kicking at it and got it in. We knew we had to fight for it and that (first goal) just set the momentum and we built off that.”

The Eagles (14-9) had another couple of opportunities after that, including a header by Rosie Richardson that sailed high and a shot from senior Alyssa Palacios that hit off the crossbar. But Lincoln-Way Central led 1-0 at halftime.

Midway through the second half, Grace Grundhofer had a nice corner kick from the left that directly found Erdman in front for a perfect header goal and a 2-0 lead with 22:10 to play in the game.

“I take a lot of pride in it,” Grace Grundhofer said of her restarts. “I know if I get it through that my team can do it. When we scored the first goal it just got the flow going.”

Lincoln-Way Central coach Sean Fahey felt better after the second goal though.

“Getting that second goal was a big boost,” he said. “Scoring first was great but we had the right mentality to go out and get another one. Grace is just a warrior out there and has stepped up in the last few games.”

While a 2-0 lead is huge for a team that has only allowed four goals on the season, the Eagles didn’t quit and had a trio of great opportunities in the final 10 minutes. All of them were by senior Karli Ferguson, who has committed to Dayton. But Hadley stopped them all, including a kick save on a breakaway and then a leaping save to her right in the final seconds of the game to preserve the shutout.

“I had to make those saves,” Hadley said. “I like my shutouts. They are kinda my thing.”

They are and have taken the Knights to the Elite Eight.

“Sandburg is a crazy talented team and that was a huge test for us,” Fahey said. " Lex (Hadley) was huge tonight. She made three big-time saves out there at the end on a Division 1 forward. I’m super proud of this team, this is pretty awesome.”

Hadley made four saves in goal and was most excited that the Knights were moving on.

“Last year we lost 2-0 here and we were the last ones on the field, crying at the end,” Hadley said. “This year we are the last ones on the field and we are celebrating. We just want to keep it going.”