Stay Connected with YourSeason
Green Wave cruises to regional crown
Updated: May 17, 2011 10:06PM
It may have been Genoa-Kingston’s home field, but the Cogs were dressed as visitors and St. Edward made itself home at both ends in cruising to a 3-0 Class 1A regional championship on Tuesday.
The Green Wave improved to 12-7-3 on the season and advances to Friday’s 4:30 p.m. semifinal of the Hinckley-Big Rock Sectional where they’ll face Rockford Christian.
“We just couldn’t get anything going,” Genoa-Kingston coach Randy Tate said.
“Having Rachel (Ellstrom) go down with an injury didn’t help at all. We’ve had problems with injuries and we were already emotionally down when that happened.”
The Cogs, who finish the year 9-9-1, were down 2-0 at halftime and trailed by three before they got their one and only shot on goal with 16:10 left to play.
“It was an easy day for me thanks to my teammates,” St. Edward keeper Paige Gannon said in regard to her fifth shutout of the year. “Our forwards were phenomenal and the whole team played fantastic.”
Cory Lepoudre got St. Edward on the board after just 12:07 thanks to a Jordyn Madden assist that led to the freshman’s 14-yarder from the middle.
“As a freshman I’m just happy to be able to work with everyone. After the last game, Jordyn talked to me about breaking toward the middle more and that’s what I did,” Lepoudre said about her ninth goal of the season.
The Green Wave had several near goals before Lepoudre earned her seventh assist by setting up Kelly Tripicchio, who had just entered the match. Tripicchio finished from 2 yards for her third goal to give St. Edward a comfortable 2-0 halftime lead.
Just under 16 minutes into the second half, Madden blasted a 16-yarder from the right wing that Genoa-Kingston keeper Nicole Crozier initially deflected but the ball hit the far post and went in.
“It’s funny because I had a similar goal here in the last game,” Madden said.
“Monica (Ramirez) got the ball to me and when I got clear of the defender, I just shot it. It’s always exciting to win, but we expected to get a regional title, so we’re not satisfied yet.”
“Hats off to G-K, they shut us down a lot more than I expected, so we’re happy to get the win,” St. Edward coach Tim Brieger said. “Our defense really clicked today, so I give a lot of credit to Katie (Ayello), Emily (Witt), Enza and Rena (Ranallo), plus Kimmy (Smith), who moved back to help deal with their No. 9 (Alana Dean). She was all over the field for them.”
© 2012 Sun-Times Media, LLC. All rights reserved. This material may not be copied or distributed without permission. For more information about reprints and permissions, visit www.suntimesreprints.com. To order a reprint of this article, click here.
Cell Phone Alerts
Comments Click here to view or make a comment