Green Wave edge out Rockford Christian

Updated: May 20, 2011 9:15PM

This time of the season it’s all about getting to the next level, and sometimes that means squeezing out a 1-0 victory and that’s exactly what St. Edward against Rockford Christian in Friday’s opening semifinal of the Hinckley-Big Rock Class 1A Girls Soccer Sectional.

The Green Wave, now 13-7-3 thanks to three straight post-season victories, advances to Tuesday’s 6 pm sectional final to face Rockford Lutheran, a 2-1 victor over Princeton in the second semifinal. Even with the year-ending loss, the 20-5-1 campaign marks the most victories in a single season for boys or girls soccer at Rockford Christian

Even though both teams went back and forth over the midfield line, St. Edward continually came closer to finding the net in a contest where both coaches figured one goal would determine the outcome. That matchwinner finally came 9:50 into the second half as freshman Corey Lepoudre tallied her team-high eighth assist of the campaign with a pass that enabled reserve Kelly Tripicchio to park a 15-yarder from the middle inside the left post. It marked the second straight game in which the St. Ed junior came off the bench and scored shortly after getting on the field to make coach Tim Brieger’s substituting look ingenious.

“You know that’s more luck than genius on my part but the thing about Kelly is that she is nothing but hustle and heart,” Brieger noted. “She had been to the doctor and was told she had a sinus infection, but she took a ball off her face and almost got a second goal.”

Tripicchio, who netted her fourth goal of the year, just viewed her recent offensive production as simply doing her job.

“When Mallory (Malone) needs a break, I just try to play as hard as I can to help the team. Today I got lucky,” Tripicchio said until she was reminded it’s two straight matches being lucky. “Okay, maybe there was a little skill. We’ve had a lot of girls sick, so we all know we’ve got to step up and help each. It’s awesome to get this far, but we hope to keep going further.”

In contrast to the regional final where keeper Paige Gannon had one save by definition, she had to make four stops to go along with a pair of blocks from her defenders in order for the Green Wave to register a sixth shutout victory. In addition, the junior keeper had eight defensive clears which are mid-air catches, punches or rushes to cover the ball on potentially dangerous plays.

“I like being tested a lot better because it’s always more of a challenge playing better teams,” admitted Gannon who was also under the weather from a cold and had told Brieger before the match to make sure she got back up after diving for a ball because as lousy as she felt, she wasn’t sure she’d last the whole match. “Their Nos. 1 and 10 (sisters Haley and Bryn Kittle) were really good forwards so I didn’t have time to think about how I was feeling. (As to the defensive clears) those are my favorites, I like going into the mix of players and snaring the ball, plus I know my defenders have me covered.”

The back line of Rena and Enza Ranallo, Katie Ayello and Emily Witt not only drew compliments from Gannon, but from both coaches as well.

“Our back line has decided this is the time to put it all together and they’re really clicking,” Brieger added. “They dug deep for this one because I told the team before the game and again at halftime, the first team that scores will win.”

“I give their defense a lot of credit but I’m also so very proud of our effort,” Rockford Christian coach Kevin Obee said. “I figured it would be a one-goal margin of victory and I believe it was a pretty even game in most respects. Our sweeper, Megan (Durkee), was on the whole match and we got a lot leadership out of all our seniors.”

© 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.