Late Prairie Ridge goal ends Scouts' season
By Gary Larsen

On Tuesday night in Barrington, Lake Forest suffered the severe pain that postseason soccer inevitably wages on all but one team each year.

Prairie Ridge ended the Scouts' season in a Class 2A supersectional game, on a goal scored with less than 10 minutes left in a scoreless game.

"That was unfortunate and it was within five minutes of us having a great opportunity," Lake Forest coach Ty Stuckslager said. "Unfortunately, that's the game. It can be cruel at times."

Just after the Scouts' Adrian Walker sent a cross whizzing past the far post on a great scoring chance, doom arrived on Lake Forest's season when the Wolves sent a ball over the top up the center channel, with eight minutes remaining in the game.

Two Scouts converged on the serve, the ball got loose, and Prairie Ridge sophomore Larissa Dooley was there to tuck it inside the post from 10 yards out.

"I didn't know where the keeper was in that situation," Dooley said. "But she was coming out and both her and the defender went up, the ball was there, and net was wide open. I saw the open corner and I hit it."

The game's first half featured a Lake Forest team that loves possession and a Prairie Ridge backline that handled every serve and cross thrown its way.

Wolves’ central defenders Hallie Simons and Jordan Reitz led a staunch effort in front of keeper Whitney Whitehouse from start to finish.

"We didn't get the shots we wanted," Stuckslager said. "Their defense closed very well and stepped to the ball very well. They ran hard at you. We got the ball on the wing and we got it in but we never got the second person inside. That was a bit challenging."

Walker crossed in a ball from the right side at 10 minutes that Whitehouse cut off with the Scouts' Brooke Green bearing down on her. Lake Forest’s Lucy Edwards hammered a long shot that Whitehouse handled two minutes later.

Lake Forest's Mackenzie Mick took a ball the endline on the left side but Whitehouse cut off her low cross at the near post, and the Scouts’ struggle to get on the end of a serve continued.

Attack-wise, Prairie Ridge pressure earned the Wolves four first-half corner kicks but Scouts keeper Liz Clark and her backline met every challenge.

Prairie Ridge's Becca Hoklas took a corner kick at 23 minutes that the Scouts' Sydney Johnston headed out, and Hoklas took another corner two minutes later that also went for naught.

Reitz sent a freekick high of the Scouts’ goal from 30 yards out, and at 32 minutes the Wolves' Cassie Warton took her side's fourth corner kick of the half, with Clark saving Reitz's head shot.

Walker applied good pressure on the wing throughout the contest, and she pressured Reitz to a deep throw-in at 47 minutes. Clark cut off a Hoklas cross at 48 minutes at the near post and the Scouts’ Carly Hoke hit a hard one-hopper to Whitehouse from distance at 50 minutes.

Warton took a corner kick at 54 minutes that fell into the mixer before the Scouts cleared it, and Carly Hoke sprang Mick to the endline on the left side to set up a corner kick at 55 minutes that came up empty.

Dooley had a dangerous ball on her foot 10 yards from the Scouts' goalmouth that Dani Loeger took away near the 60-minute mark of the contest.

Loeger is one of three seniors that will say goodbye to high school soccer, along with Clark and Gabby Perino.

"The seniors have worked their tails off for us,” Stuckslager said. “Dani and Liz have both been here for two and three years and Gabby (Perino) came up at the end of last year and joined us this year and she's been a great positive spirit for us. All three have been calming influences on us and it was nice to be able to count on (Loeger and Clark) for two years in a row."

A Kendall Hoke throw-in at 63 minute resulted in a Hannah Flagstad shot sent wide, and Hoke dispossessed Dooley on a counter up the left flank a minute later. The Wolves stayed dangerous a minute later when Erin Ginsberg earned a corner kick at 66 minutes that Warton sent in and Ginsberg headed wide from 14 yards out.

Carly Hoke put Walker through on the left side and Walker's cross whipped past the far post with Perino charging on at 70 minutes, on a play initiated by Edwards.

Dooley’s goal came five minutes before the end of regulation.

"I think it was the pep talk our coach (JC Brown) gave to us at halftime," Dooley said. "He sat us down and told us we needed to wake up. I think we all came in a little nervous and we knew (Lake Forest) would be a good team because we both made it to supersectionals. He told us to get our heads in it and to work on our possession and first touch. We took our chances and we got it."

Dooley’s opportune goal ended the Scouts’ season at 11-3-6.

"In a way you wish it would have been a great shot that won this game, but in the end that's who they are," Stuckslager said. "We would have been happy to have one of those. (Dooley) just worked her tail off to get that goal.

"But as I told the girls, don't put the season on one game. This is the farthest we've ever got, to the final eight, and we were close. Hopefully having this opportunity will spur us on in the future."