Barrington pulls upset on Huntley

Updated: May 24, 2011 10:18PM

Huntley went in with the high national ranking but Barrington came out with the win.

Again.

The Fillies (16-6-1) won 1-0 on a Catie Curran goal in the second half and eliminated the No. 3 Red Raiders (19-2-1) from postseason play for the third consecutive season. Huntley is also ranked sixth nationally by ESPN Rise.

“We were very confident coming into this game. We play a tough schedule,” Barrington coach Ryan Stengren said. “This was nothing new to us and we figured the longer the game stayed close, the more comfortable we’d be.

“We play a schedule that’s one of the toughest in the state and it prepares us for games like this one.”

Stengren made it clear to his Fillies that a sectional semifinal win wasn’t the end-goal, but his players enjoyed the win over the highly-touted Raiders.

“Aimee Pierce crossed it in and I just hit it,” Curran said. “It’s an awesome feeling. I’m crying, I’m so happy.

Curran’s goal from 18 yards out came in a Class 3A sectional semifinal game at Jacobs, during which Barrington kept Huntley from scoring for only the second time this season.

Huntley senior forward Aimee Wronski recently passed the 100-goal mark for her career, but Morgan Stachura and fellow Barrington defenders Mia Calamari, Emmelie Hirdes, and Emily Morin gave Wronski little room to operate and no clean looks on net.

Stachura shadowed Wronski to great effect throughout the contest.

“The most important thing was for me to be patient, and not let all the talk about her scare me, but at the same time warn me,” Stachura said. “I knew I had to be careful with her.”

Barrington coach Ryan Stengren applauded his backline girls for executing the game plan against Huntley.

“We weren’t going to get out of our (defensive) shape and we wanted Morgan to slide to whichever side (Wronski) was on,” he said. “And then it was about getting a lot of help around her. Our goal was to make someone else beat us.”

The win sends Barrington back to Jacobs’ home field for a sectional title game on Friday against Crystal Lake South, a 1-0 overtime winner against Rockton-Hononegah.

“This was a real positive result for us, and all the hype about (Huntley) just made us want to win even more,” Barrington’s Molly Pfeiffer said.

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