Lincoln-Way North pulls away for win

Lincoln-Way North girls soccer coach Mike Murphy called his team’s first-half performance Tuesday a “wake-up call.”

After going to the break in a 0-0 tie with Bloom, the host Phoenix awoke in the second half and rolled to a 4-0 win in a Class 3A Lincoln-Way North Regional semifinal.

Rita Craven scored two goals and added an assist to lead third-seeded North (16-6-1), which will meet Andrew in Friday’s regional final.

“We just weren’t playing good in the first half,” Craven said. “We realized there was no way we should be tied. (Murphy) gave us a pep talk and got us going.”

North finally broke the shutout just over 10 minutes into the second half. Great ball movement, from Alexa Eggert to Kaci Jazo to Craven left Craven with a good look from the middle of the box. Her shot was blocked, but Becca Morris collected the rebound and found the open net.

Three minutes later, Craven chipped a long shot that sailed, with some help from a strong wind, over the head of goalie Katelin Wallek (6 saves) and in to make it 2-0.

Craven went top shelf to beat Wallek for the Phoenix’s third goal with 6:30 left.

“Sometimes I don’t shoot enough,” Craven said. “I take an extra touch and then I lose my chance to shoot. Today, I just shot more and it paid off.”

Lexi Cesario tacked on the fourth goal, coming out of a scramble in the box with the ball and scoring into an open net.

No. 14 seed Bloom (10-7-1) hung tough in the first half and came close a couple times to catching North with a counter-attack to take the lead. The Blazing Trojans’ best chance came when Juana Aldape bended a long shot off the inside off the post and out.

“Bloom came out strong and you’ve got to give them credit,” Murphy said. “In the first half, only one of our girls came to play. We picked it up in the second half. I just hope we got our bad half of the playoffs out of the way.”

Michelle Balcerzak made two saves to record the shutout for North.

The Phoenix earned a 2-1 win in the regular season against Andrew. The teams shared the SouthWest Suburban Red title.

Andrew 4, Crete-Monee 1: Sixth-seeded Andrew (10-9-2) rolled, getting two goals each from Emily Scott and Katie Truesdale. Scott early in each half, finding the net five minutes in and again 47 seconds into the second half. A.J. Rodas scored the lone goal for Crete-Monee (10-6-1).

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