Girls Soccer: Lisle downs Montini, moves into sectional final

Updated: May 15, 2012 6:49PM

Lisle was outplayed and held without a shot in the first half of Tuesday’s Class 1A Lisle Sectional semifinal against Montini.

So at halftime, Lisle coach Paul Kohorn told his players they had the Broncos right where he wanted them.

“I told them that our plan worked,” Kohorn said with a laugh. “We gave them the wind in the first half and we held them out. It wasn’t pretty but I told them the plan worked so go ahead and get them in the second half.”

The host Lions did just that. Freshman Kara Laue and junior Skylar Tomko each scored a goal and junior goalie Vanessa Roach made three big saves to lift Lisle to a 2-0 victory. The Lions (12-10-2) will play the winner of Wednesday’s semifinal between Mendota and Queen of Peace for the sectional championship on Saturday.

“We just talked about how we had to get our aggressiveness up and I think we did a pretty good job of that,” said Kohorn, whose team split a pair of regular season games with Montini. “It’s hard to explain this team. We start four freshmen, three sophomores, three juniors and a senior and we’re basically a .500 team learning how to win. We’re starting to put things together at the right times, so I was very, very pleased with the effort today.”

Montini (8-9), which was making its sectional debut, had three shots saved by Roach and two others barely miss the right post in the first half.

The Broncos appeared ready to break the ice in the 50th minute when a pass from Bridget Lucas sprung Christina Perrino free in the box, but Roach made the save.

Seventeen seconds later, the Lions had the lead after a quick counterattack. Laue ran onto a long ball from fellow rookie Breann Hutchinson and buried an open 18-yard shot into the upper right corner with 30:03 left.

‘‘Kara’s been there all season on the outside,” Tomko said. “She’s had a couple of goals coming across like that, upper 90 far post.”

The Lions then endured a nervous 20 minutes as the Broncos pressed forward in an attempt to get the equalizer. Roach did well to knock a 23-yard rocket from Jordan Bruscianelli around the right post in the 58th minute and Jessica Bejna missed high on a pair of chances in the box.

Laue then set up Tomko’s goal with a long throw-in from the left side. Tomko got it in the box and her 12-yard shot struck the inside of the left post and went in with 6:26 remaining.

For Laue, playoff soccer is a new experience but one she’s enjoying so far.

“It’s a lot different from what we’re used to,” Laue said. “It’s really good to get some experience for future years.”

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