Girls soccer: Barrington's headed back to state title game after routing Libertyville

Barrington will be playing for the Class 3A state title for the second consecutive year.

The Fillies unleashed an unstoppable 10 minutes of attacking soccer that dashed the hopes of Libertyville Friday at Benedetti-Wehrli Stadium on the campus of North Central College to claim a 5-0 victory to advance into the state final at 7 p.m. Saturday.

Next up for the Fillies (23-0-2) will be O'Fallon (20-3-1) who beat Lincoln-Way East 2-0 in the second semifinal contest.

"I was real happy with the way we played today, and especially defensively, where we came back from conceding three goals on Tuesday in our supersectional game with St. Charles North," said Fillies coach Ryan Stengren.

"(Libertyville) is super athletic, and I thought their back line played really well. So scoring that first goal really early was really big for us," added junior Piper Lucier, who got the Fillies off and running two minutes in with her 15th goal of the season.

"That was not the ideal start for us. But I thought we responded really well. Stayed in the game afterward, and adjusted well to the injuries. However, in the end, we just ran out of gas," said Wildcats coach Daniel DePaz, whose club will play in the 5 p.m. third-place match against Lincoln-Way East.

The injuries DePaz spoke of were to his star captain, midfielder Pru Babat, and outside-back Maddy Kopala, who collided in a 50-50 challenge - sending both off a bloody mess in the 28th minute.

Babat would return after the intermission, Kopala was unable to return.

If the Lucier opener exemplified the Fillies' counterattacking ability, the second was a portrait of the flowing collective side of soccer the MSL champions flashed when the circumstances allowed for it.

After weathering several mini storms from the Wildcats (17-3-2) after they came alive just after the half-hour thanks to Jenna and Shea Krakowski, and Molly Koch, the Fillies began to produce an incisive, cutting edge attack.

Maddy Ziebarth would head just wide a free kick from the midline by Roos Van Roekel before the Fillies netted twice within two minutes to send the Wildcats reeling.

Brooke Brown would chip Kate Hopma after the Wildcats keeper made the initial save on Sarah Sarnowski at 65 minutes, then triple the advantage on a well executed counter that went through Lucier (first), then Kate Lubinsky would gave Brown a lovely ball to allow the two-time all-state midfielder to bag her 17th on the season.

Sarnowski made it 4-0 in the 74th minute with an assist coming from Van Roekel, before Skye Lundy put the icing on the victory two minutes from time.

Lucy Stanton recorded the assist on the Lundy goal.

Megan Holland and Abby Raynor would share the 16th shutout on the year.

"It was a tough way to go out, and I feel the result was not indicative of the way we played this afternoon. And I know this team will come out tomorrow ready to play in that third place game," said a proud Daniel DePaz.

The Wildcats were third two years ago, and will take home their eighth state trophy.