Regional Opener Goes According To Plan For Wildkits

Upsets are so rare in the first round of the Class 3A Illinois High School Association girls state soccer tournament series that opening games pretty much follow a pattern if you’re one of the top seeds in the sectional.

Advancing to the next round just seems like a formality. You respect your opponent, but you hope to score early --- as a coach, you try to use as many players as possible --- and you hope to escape without any serious injuries.

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Seeded lower than usual, at No. 3 in the Evanston Sectional complex behind New Trier and Loyola Academy, it was still business as usual for the Wildkits on Tuesday in their postseason debut.

Coach Stacy Salgado’s squad whipped Walter Payton Prep 7-0 in a slaughter rule matchup at the St. Ignatius Regional behind three goals from Bridget Durkin. With the win, ETHS improved to 9-7-2 on the season and advanced to Friday’s championship game against the host Wolfpack, who eliminated Jones Prep 7-0 in the other semifinal game.

St. Ignatius scored a 3-2 triumph over the Kits back on May 14^th at Lazier Field. The winner of Friday’s game will advance to next week’s Evanston Sectional, along with champions from the New Trier, Niles North and Lane Tech regionals.

There was no hint of the inconsistency the Wildkits have been plagued by during the regular season, except for maybe a slow start by the winners. Durkin, one of just three seniors in the starting lineup, provided the early energy for ETHS with two goals --- in the 11^th minute and the 21^st minute of the game --- and Evanston eased to a 4-0 lead at halftime as Maizlyn Kelly converted a direct kick, and sophomore Alyce Lones scored her first varsity goal.

Durkin delivered her hat trick --- she also accomplished that feat versus Payton during the regular season --- and goals by Dami Adeniyi and Kylie Pressoir put the slaughter rule into effect, chopping seven minutes off the game clock in the second half.

Goalies Kanako Wagner and Simone Hewitt shared the shutout and each keeper only needed to chalk up a single save in the lopsided win.

“We had a little bit of a slow start, and then Bridget turned it on for us,” Salgado said. “We had a nice day to play here in the city (Chicago), we got everyone some (playing) minutes, and we’re walking out of here healthy.

“The regional is a new season and I think that adds a little more pressure. I think these girls actually thrive more on tougher competition. It was a team effort today, and everyone contributed.”

Salgado is convinced that the Wildkits are better than a .500 record would indicate. The record reflects Evanston’s strength of schedule, combined with some early season injuries that prevented Salgado from settling on a regular lineup/rotation and the fact that there are only four seniors on the roster this year.

“We’ve had a bit of a roller coaster of a season,” she said. “We’ve had some amazing games, and we’ve had some games where we had a couple of breakdowns that cost us. We’re always trying to figure out the best combinations and sometimes that hasn’t worked out.

“And the way our schedule has gone, we had a lot more practice time at the start of the season than we’ve had lately. We had so many games on the back end (of the calendar) that we haven’t had time to clean up what needs to be cleaned up.

“This has been a busy week already for the girls. They had graduation, testing and we had a long bus ride here today. They were able to tune all of that out and use soccer as a fun outlet today.”