Huskies beat Farragut to earn date with Morton in sectional

By Matt Le Cren

Oak Park-River Forest wasn't expected to have much difficulty in capturing a regional title on Friday.

And not surprisingly, it went out and crushed Farragut 7-0 to win the Class 3A Oak Park-River Forest Regional championship in a game shortened to 61 minutes because of the slaughter rule.

The Huskies (13-7-1) won their third regional title in the past four years and advanced to Tuesday's Lyons Township Sectional semifinal against Morton, which beat Fenwick 1-0 on penalty kicks.

In fact, the Huskies probably cheered louder upon hearing that their crosstown rivals had lost than they did after hoisting the regional championship plaque.

"I think we're just happy because Fenwick gave us such a tough time this year and they're such a rivalry game so it would have been tough," Oak Park junior Emily Gullo said.

"So it's a lot easier knowing we're not going to be going to a rivalry game, but it's still going to be tough."

Gullo and fellow forward Alex Neumann were plenty tough against overmatched Farragut (9-3-3), which had advanced to the title game by beating Curie 1-0 for the first playoff victory in school history.

Neumann scored twice in the first six minutes – her first career two-goal outing – and Gullo recorded her fourth hat trick of the season in a 10-minute span late in the first half.

"Scoring for me is kind of a hard thing to do from outside midfield," said Neumann, who left the game with a knee injury after colliding with Admirals goalie Areli Patino at the 23:40 mark of the opening half but is expected to play against Morton.

"But at forward there's just more opportunities and I feel more confident there."

Neumann provided all the offense Oak Park would need when she sprinted down the left wing and sent a beautiful 20-yard shot from just outside the left side of the Farragut box into the upper right-hand corner of the net just 2:24 into the contest.

She scored again 3:31 later on an eight-yard shot in traffic.

"We've been working really hard," Neumann said. "I feel like our possession has gotten a lot better and we're more confident in our defense, which is great.

"We worked the ball around a lot today, which is something we've been struggling with for a couple games now. I feel like we're getting it down."

A breakaway by Gullo was stopped by the charging Patino, a converted freshman defender who was besieged from the start.

Sydney McCormack tracked down the rebound on the right wing and fired as Patino rushed back to her line. Despite that valiant effort, the ball went off Patino's hands and in for a 3-0 Oak Park lead.

Gullo's goals came in quick succession – an 18-yarder from the top of the box with 13:20 left, a steal and breakaway with 8:45 remaining and a 32-yard rocket at the 3:56 mark that gave the Huskies a 6-0 halftime lead.

Defender Maggie Tansey finished the scoring four minutes into the second half. Gullo and her twin sister, Victoria, will be out of town for the Morton match, but she's confident the Huskies will continue to advance.

"I think as long as we come out to every game, especially like we did today, scoring right away, then there's no way that we can't win against Morton and then, hopefully, LT in the sectional," said Gullo, who has 21 goals this year.

Oak Park is also without starting goalie Katie Oldach, who is out for the season after breaking her hand in a 2-1 victory over Fenwick on May 13.

Senior defender Katie Elgie, who had never played between the pipes before, replaced her and has not given up a goal in two playoff games.

Elgie did not have to make a save against the Admirals, who managed just three shots.

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