Brookfield Central Falls to Cedarburg in Regional Soccer Final

Brookfield Central scored nine minutes into its game against Cedarburg. Unfortunately for the Lancers, that turned out to be the highlight of their afternoon.

The Bulldogs score twice in a span of two minutes in the first half and held on to defeat Central, 2-1, in a regional final match Saturday afternoon at Homestead High School. The Bulldogs, who improved their record to 14-3-1, advanced to the sectional tournament and will face North Shore rival Homestead Thursday.

Central ended its season with a 15-6-2 record.

The Lancers showed plenty of energy early in the game, getting a goal by forward Sarah Baker, her seventh of the season. But by the midpoint of the first half, it seemed as if the Lancers had run out of steam with the temperatures reaching the mid-80s.

Cedarburg tied the game at the 28-minute mark on a goal by Josee Stiever, her 18th of the season.  Stiever assisted on the lead goal less than two minutes later, a score by Taylor Skorik.  The goal was the third of the season for Skorik.

The Lancers, who take pride in their aggressiveness on offense, struggled to put any pressure against Cedarburg.

“I really don’t know why we weren’t attacking, they know what was going on in the game and what the score was,” Central coach Jason Burdge said. “I thought we paniced a bit and got away from the things that we had done all season.”

The Lancers played the first half without star midfielder Gina Scaffidi, who had an injured toe. Scaffidi, a senior who had scored 15 goals this season, entered the game in the second half. She was unable to energize the Lancers. The Lancers also lost their composure in the second half, being called for three yellow cards.

“Soccer is an emotional game,” Burdge said. “We were up, and then bang, bang we were down.”

Cedarburg, meanwhile, showed plenty of energy and poise in the second half.

“We have some decent depth, so we were able to rest some people in the first half,” Cedarburg coach Trent Berg said. “I know that Scaffidi didn’t play in the first half and that made a big difference. She’s the leader of that team and they are a totally different team when she’s not in there.”

Berg told his team not to panic when Central scored the first goal.

"We’re a little nervous when they scored on that corner kick, we’ve been having trouble with that all year,” Berg said. “We played our game, which is possession soccer. They are a strong team. We just held on to win.”

Homestead 1, Hamilton 0: Molly Hobbs scored in the 41st minute to lift the Highlanders (18-1-2) to victory on their home field.

The Chargers (15-4-1) were held without a shot on goal in the game.