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Basten, Fremd get by Barrington
Updated: May 31, 2011 10:18PM
On a night when 35-goal scorer Elise Kotsakis was double- and triple-teamed throughout, it was a defender who scored her first goal of the season that made the difference for Fremd.
Emily Basten scored what proved to be the deciding goal 11:29 into the second half off a corner from Jennifer Freeman to go along with a first-half tally from Kira Heggeland to lead the No. 5 Vikings to a 2-1 victory Tuesday over host No. 8 Barrington in a Class 3A supersectional.
“We’ve been practicing corners a lot because we need to finish the opportunities that we have,” Basten said. “Everyone knows Elise is solid and we can always count on her. But everyone else on our team has to pick up the slack sometimes too because the other team knows [how good Kotsakis is].”
Fremd (18-3-2) returns to the state tournament for the third time the past five years and will play Granite City at 7 p.m. Friday in a semifinal at Naperville Central.
Heggeland gave Fremd a 1-0 lead with 4:12 remaining in the first half when she pounced on a ball bouncing around the six-yard box off on a corner sent in by Freeman.
Basten doubled the Vikings’ advantage with 28:31 left the second when she rose above the Fillies’ defenders to power in another Freeman corner from six yards out.
“I am so excited. It’s a huge thing to go from more than 100 teams to down to four and I’m just so excited for the state games,” Kotsakis said. “The playoffs are kind of scary. A lot of teams that are really amazing don’t make it through to the state finals.”
Molly Pfeiffer pulled the Fillies within 2-1 with 22:32 remaining in the second when she floated a curving 30-yard free kick into the top corner at the far post.
Kelly Pedersen made eight saves – including a double save on a dipping 26-yard free kick by Michelle Mottonen and the ensuing rebound with 18:43 left in the second for Barrington (17-7-1), which lost in the supersectionals for the third year in a row.
“It sucks,” Barrington senior forward Emily Hyde said. “Every year we feel like we can do it and get to state and I know tonight our effort was there we just got unlucky again.”
Said Fillies coach Ryan Stengren: “It’s tough, it’s very tough. But a lot of teams would like to be us right now too and get this far. We’ll get there. We’re knocking on the door.”
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