ALTON - Maggie Young scored at the end of a pretty passing play in the 37th minute, and the Edwardsville defense and goalie Genny Burroughs made the goal stand up as the Tigers defeated Granite City 1-0 to win the IHSA Class 3A girls soccer final Saturday afternoon at Alton's Public School Stadium.
The conditions were fairly warm, with wall-to-wall sunshine throughout the match. And although Edwardsville controlled the play through most of the second half, the Warriors were still able to create good chances that were either stopped by Burroughs or the Edwardsville defense, or just failed to click.
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Although the Granite season ended at 11-6-4, there's still much to be proud of for the Warriors, which shows that the soccer tradition is still alive in Granite City.
"Well, disappointed, obviously," said Granite head coach Kenny Prazma, "but we definitely wanted to win, and win our first regional championship in some years. But the girls got hot, got tired, some of them needed a break. But our bench isn't that deep. So, we had to leave a few of them out there, but yeah, we did have some chances. We just didn't capitalize on them, hit a few of them right at her (Burroughs), and a couple of those go in, it could change the game, could perk the girls up a little bit. They're a good team. They'll give O'Fallon all they want."
It's still a good season overall for Granite, and Prazma will take away many good memories of the campaign.
The opening 20 minutes of the match didn't produce many good opportunities for either side, as the defenses and goaltending proved very stout on both sides The Tigers ha a great chance in the 23rd minute, but a header off a corner just zipped over the bar.
In the 37th minute, Edwardsville took the ball into the Granite City box and perfectly executed a great passing play, where the ball ended up on the foot of Young, whose shot from close in beat Katie Gartner to the far post and into lower left-hand corner of the net to give the Tigers a 1-0 lead. Edwardsville had a chance to double the lead as they began to take control of the play late, but were stopped as the Tigers took their 1-0 lead into the interval.
Early in the second half, the Edwardsville momentum continued, as the Tigers had a pair of good early chances, but Gartner was there to make the saves, diving down to stop the shot in front and keep it 1-0. Granite began to assert itself later on, having some good chances, but were thwarted by the Tiger defense and Burroughs in goal. Near the end of regulation, Granite had an excellent opportunity that was shot wide, and the Tigers were able to control the remainder of the match to take the 1-0 win and advance.
While the Warriors end the season 11-6-4, the Tigers are now 14-3-0, and advance to the Pekin sectional, where they'll play the Panthers, who won the Collinsville regional Friday night 6-1 over Belleville East, in the semifinal at Kahok Stadium in Collinsville Tuesday afternoon at 4 p.m., The winner then plays the winner of the other semifinal at Pekin between Minooka and Normal Community on May 24 at 5:30 p.m. The Pekin winner plays the Joliet Central winner --- either Tinley Park Andrew, Homewood-Flossmoor, Frankfort Lincoln-Way East or New Lenox Lincoln-Way Central --- in the Bloomington super-sectional quarterfinal match May 28 at 6 p.mDan Brannan also contributed to this story.
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