COLLINSVILLE — Edwardsville High goalkeeper Genny Burroughs did her part on Tuesday night, coming up with a pair of stops to begin the penalty-kick shootout.
Wednesday, when the PKs resumed after a weather shutdown in the Tigers' Class 3A sectional showdown with conference rival O'Fallon at Collinsville High, Burroughs' teammates capped things off with two more successful kicks to lift Edwardsville to the 1-0 victory.
Edwardsville outscored defending state champion O'Fallon 4-1 in PKs. The Tigers improved to 15-3-1 with their seventh consecutive win and advance to take on Minooka (16-5-2) for the sectional championship at 5:30 p.m. on Friday at Coal Miner's Park in Pekin.
Friday's winner will advance to play the winner of Tinley Park Andrew (17-5-2)/Lincoln-Way Central (10-5-3) in the supersectional round at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Bloomington High. Tuesday's winner goes on to the four-team state championships May 31-June 1 at North Central College in Naperville.
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Edwardsville's lone state trip to date came in 2004, when eight teams advanced to state and the Tigers lost in the quarterfinals.
The Tigers lost 1-0 in penalty kicks and 1-0 on a late goal in this season's regular-season meetings against O'Fallon, which finished this season at 19-2-1. Edwardsville entered this week's play knowing it could compete with O'Fallon.
But the Tuesday/Wednesday experience proved a new one for everyone involved.
"I like PKs — they're exciting, especially when you can make a save or two,'' said Burroughs, a sophomore. "When we played O'Fallon the first time and lost in PKs, I didn't get my hands on any of their PKs. So coming in and getting saves on the two shots last night and then finishing it off today, it was just amazing."
And strange.
"It was definitely weird, knowing that we'd be coming here today to go through a warm-up just for a few PKs,'' Burroughs added. "I'm glad we could get the win and now I'm excited to see how far we can go."
Asked about her strategy of defending PK's, Burroughs admitted that it can be a guessing game.
"It's mostly a guess, but also I try to look at body position, how they're setting up and look at their eyes,'' she said.
Edwardsville got successful kicks from Ellie Neath and Kylie Peel on Tuesday and from Blakely Hockett and Anna Maxim to close the win Wednesday. O'Fallon's successful kick was from junior Teagan Benson.
"It was a very odd situation, obviously. It was all anybody was talking about today, trying to understand how this situation happened,'' Edwardsville coach Abby Federmann said, "We didn't stress about things we couldn't control. We had the momentum and just wanted to make sure we didn't lose it.
"Genny was incredible — PKs are not for the keeper, they're supposed to be made — so when you save one, it's awesome. When you save two, you've done your job and then some. Our girls shooting today knew that Genny did what she needed to do last night and it was up to them to finish it off."
Edwardsville's long-throw specialist Ayla Homman created some early trouble for the O'Fallon defense with long tosses into the penalty area on Tuesday. Midway through the opening half, the Tigers' Maxim made a strong run down the right side before crossing the ball to Thea Dimitroff, whose short-side shot was covered by O'Fallon keeper Kendall Joggerst.
O'Fallon's best first-half chance came a couple of minutes later when Claire Nieroda played a through pass for Allie Tredway, who battled through an attempted tackle before testing Edwardsville keeper Burroughs, who came up with a diving stop.
The second half featured some great battles in the midfield area. O'Fallon created some trouble late in regulation with a series of corner kicks. But the Edwardsville defense hung tough.
O'Fallon had the early edge in the first 10-minute overtime period and created a dangerous chance when some slick passing by Delaney Nieroda and Claire Nieroda forced Edwardsville into a foul on the right edge of the penalty area. The ensuing free kick from Claire Nieroda glanced off the cross bar.
In the final seconds of the opening OT period, Edwardsville's Peel delivered a dangerous corner kick to the far post. The Tigers' Neath had her first shot blocked at the defense and her second smothered by Joggerst.
With the bad weather approaching, both teams seemed to play with a little more urgency in the second OT period. Edwardsville's Peel came up with an early steal, but her shot sailed over the cross bar. Later in the final period, O'Fallon's Tredway played a ball through for Ella Peterson. But her shot was blocked by Tigers' defender Neath.
"It was a unique situation — never been part of anything like that before,'' O'Fallon coach Justin Judiscak said. "We were faced with a different situation and we did what we could to deal with it. We talk about it all the time, in life, these girls sometimes have to deal with things they're not completely prepared for. You have to adjust and deal with it."
The coach continued: "Last year was a great year and we took it all the way. But this year was great, too. It's a different team with different aspirations trying to reach the top of the mountain, but sometimes it doesn't happen. But I'm really proud of these girls. They did everything I asked of them this year and gave it everything they had."
