Witt’s efforts enough for Wheaton Academy

Updated: May 31, 2011 8:11PM

For Ally Witt, a goal had never hurt so good.

The Wheaton Academy forward was flat on her back and in pain as she watched her game-winning goal roll into the St. Francis net with 13:29 left in Tuesday’s Class 2A Benedictine University Supersectional.

Witt scored again eight minutes later and the Warriors punched their third straight ticket to the state semifinals with a 2-0 victory.

Witt’s decisive play came when she ran onto a long lead pass from Crystal Thomas. St. Francis goalie Jenna Ditusa rushed out and the two collided violently just inside the top of the penalty area.

Witt was able to touch the ball just before the collision and the ball rolled into the net before two Spartans defenders could stop it.

“I looked up and saw it rolling in and I saw people running toward it, so I got scared,” said Witt, who was unable to get up for nearly five minutes. “I was like, ‘No, no, go faster.’ But I knew if I got a touch on it it would chip over it.”

Gritting her teeth after landing on her hip, Witt was laughing as the trainer reached her.

“I was in so much pain” Witt said. “I was like, ‘Oh, my gosh, this hurts but this is awesome. I always laugh off pain.”

Wheaton Academy coach Scott Marksberry, whose team has never lost to St. Francis and has eliminated the Spartans (18-7-2) for the third consecutive season, said that is typical of Witt, who leads the Warriors (15-6) with 29 goals.

“Ally is just a fighter up there,” Marksberry said. “She’s scrappy, she’s fast, she’s strong. She’s tough to defend and that’s just what that goal was all about. The keeper made a good play on it and Ally just got the touch and the spin just carried it into the goal.”

Marksberry said he noticed a difference in Witt after she received a yellow card for deceiving the opponent with 21:28 remaining in the second half.

“At that point of the game St. Francis had the better of the possession,” Marksberry said. “They had been coming at us and we were waiting for something to change the game and I think what did was Ally getting a yellow card. She doesn’t get many of those and at it kind of made her mad. She came out with a little bit of fire.”

With St. Francis pushing numbers forward in an attempt to get the equalizer, the Warriors counterattacked and a pass from Kerrin Clancy found Witt on the left wing. Witt dribbled into the middle of the box between two defenders and beat Ditusa under the crossbar with an eight-yard shot.

The Spartans, who were making their supersectional debut, held a slight edge in play in the first half, outshooting the Warriors 5-4. They would have taken the lead if not for Wheaton Academy goalie Kristen Morency, who deflected a 40-yard free kick from Taylor Bucaro into the crossbar with 11:15 to go before intermission.

“My mentality on that one was, ‘This is not going in,’” Morency said. “I tried to get whatever I could on that and it happened to hit the crossbar.”

“We had better opportunities,” St. Francis coach Jim Winslow said. “The first goal the (Spartans) all thought it was offsides and then the linesmen didn’t call it and they pulled up.”

The Warriors completely shut down St. Francis star Andi Matichak, who scored the only goal in the Spartans’ 1-0 victory over Nazareth in the sectional final. She was held without a shot.

“I thought we definitely had a lot of the possession but Wheaton Academy is a great team and just like in club, if you make a mistake Wheaton Academy is the type of team that will punish you for that,” Matichak said. “(The first goal) was a mistake and then the second one was a misstep and Ally just walked in.”

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