FROM GREEN BAY PRESS GAZETTE:
Green Bay Southwest girls soccer coach Tyler Thomas doesn't get nervous any time his team finds itself in a shootout.
The reason?
The Trojans have Toni Champion and the other team doesn't.
The junior goaltender helped lead Southwest to a thrilling shootout win over third-ranked Pewaukee in a WIAA Division 2 sectional championship on Saturday night.
The score was tied 1-all after regulation and two overtimes before Southwest won 4-3 on penalty kicks.
Trojans forward Paige Pierce put the finishing touches on the victory on Southwest's sixth and final shot of the shootout, aiming her attempt to the right side of the net and past a diving Anna Christopherson in goal.
The Trojans became the first Green Bay public school girls soccer team to reach state since they last accomplished the feat in 2003.
They will play Rhinelander in a state semifinal at 2 p.m. Friday at Uihlein Soccer Park in Milwaukee.
"I'm pretty sure all goalies have that dream right there of having the whole team on your back," said Champion, who also helped Southwest beat Ashwaubenon in a regional final shootout last season. "It's kind of like a dream come true to take your team to state. It's kind of amazing. Even saving one PK is pretty hard, so I'm pretty happy right now."
Champion stopped three of the six shot attempts against her in the shootout, but that was only half of it.
With her team trailing 3-2 and down to its final chance, it was Champion who got the call to come out of the goal and take a season-saving shot attempt.
She calmly made it, then got back into goal to stop an attempt by Abby Wannow that set up Pierce's game-winner.
"There was no doubt in my mind that we were going to win the shootout," Thomas said. "We have a girl by the name of Toni Champion between the pipes. That girl is unbelievable. All game long we were talking about if we could keep the shooters in front of us, Toni is going to gobble up everything.
"We have been practicing PK's the last two weeks. Some of my girls got a little nervous and kicked it over the bar, but those five girls knew they were going. The girls after that knew they were going. I was so confident when we got there."
It was a penalty kick that gave Southwest a 1-0 lead 32 minutes, 59 seconds in on a shot by junior midfielder Kaitlyn Schuurmans.
It stayed that way until the 72nd minute, when Pewaukee sophomore striker MacKenzie Schill scored to tie the game.
Pewaukee outshot Southwest 16-3 in regulation, but they couldn't find a way to get more than one past Champion.
The road to state was not easy for the No. 3 seed Trojans, who despite a youthful roster was able to navigate through their bracket one upset at a time.
They beat No. 2 seed Menasha in a regional championship and then beat back-to-back No. 1 seeds in Oshkosh North and Pewaukee.
"That says a lot about our girls," Thomas said. "They believed ever since Day 1 that we would be here. You know, they are gritty, they are fighters. They don't stop.
"No matter what, they go through the ball. They find ways to put the ball into the back of the net. They are just a gritty group. One goal all season long, and that was to be in this game."
CREDIT: Green Bay Press Gazette
FROM LAKE COUNTRY NOW:
A first trip to state came so painstakingly close.
For the second straight year, the Pewaukee girls soccer ended their season with a loss in a shootout. This year stings a little more, coming in a WIAA Division 2 sectional final.
Pewaukee used a second-half goal to tie Green Bay Southwest at 1-1, and all the momentum was seemingly on the Pirates' side. The game went into a shootout and Pewaukee surrendered three goals in the final three shooters to fall, 4-3, on Saturday at Green Bay Southwest.
It was only the fourth time all season the Pirates had scored one or fewer goals in a game.
"We played horrible; that was our worst game of the season," Pewaukee coach Sean Sullivan said. "I don't know what to say. There's no reason it should have ended that way. Some girls just don't want to step up, I don't know what the deal was. But we played a horrendous game today. It should have never gone to PKs."
Pewaukee (19-3-2) went to a shootout its previous game in the sectional semifinals Thursday and beat Cedarburg. The Pirates couldn't produce that same magic two days later.
The Pirates, a No. 1 seed in their regional, controlled possession of the ball the majority of the game. Pewaukee outshot No. 3-seeded Green Bay Southwest, 16-4, in regulation and both 10-minute overtimes.
"The gameplan going in was just to contain and let them settle for long shots, let them send in long crosses as long as we protect the middle," Green Bay Southwest coach Tyler Thomas said. "We've got Toni Champion in the goal; she's unbelievable. She can stop anything. As long as we held them to one (goal), we felt like we could get one."
Pewaukee, ranked No. 3 in Division 2 in the latest Wisconsin Soccer Coaches Association poll, was in control the majority of the shootout, too. With the Pirates shooting first, Lexi Klotz put her shot past Champion to make it 1-0. Green Bay Southwest's second shooter, Katie Nelson, went top shelf to tie it.
Kendall Schoenike, the third Pewaukee player in the rotation, took a shot that was blocked by Champion. However, right before Schoenike shot, a Green Bay Southwest fan yelled out for her to not shoot, and that distracted the sophomore. After the referees conferred and the Southwest student section was asked to show better sportsmanship, the shootout resumed.
"That was a complete joke," Sullivan said. "It's just classless. It's not (Southwest's) fault. It's a high-school kid being a high-school kid. And the ref came up, he's like, 'I'd like to be able to give her a redo, but I can't do that.'"
Pewaukee's Madison Moroder was fourth in line to shoot and buried the ball into the back of the net to put the Pirates back up. The Trojans' Kaitlyn Schuurmans answered to make it even again, and Pewaukee's MacKenzie Schill beat the keeper to go back up, 3-2. With one player left to shoot, Thomas decided to send his goalie Champion to take on Pewaukee goalkeeper Anna Christopherson.
Champion took a slow shot and beat Christopherson to her left to tie it at three. Pewaukee's Abby Wannow saw her shot blocked to give Southwest a chance to win. The Trojans' Paige Pierce stepped up and scored to send her team to state for the first time since 2003.
"The girls were nervous, scared, whatever, and let it slip away," Sullivan said. "This was a tough one, because we definitely think we could have gone (to state)."
Green Bay Southwest (13-9-4) opened the scoring in the first half when Pewaukee was whistled for a penalty during a corner kick, and Schuurmans beat a laid-out Christopherson in the 33rd minute for the penalty kick conversion.
"We had way too many defensive errors," Sullivan said. "Our defense, I just don't know what their deal was. They were shanking balls left and right, decision making was poor, we didn't control the midfield as well as we usually do."
With Pewaukee knocking at the door all game, Schill finally found a sliver of an opening in front of the net and scored at the 72-minute mark to tie it.
The tough loss won't define what proved a great season for Pewaukee.
"We've got to remind the girls that we did some amazing things this year," Sullivan said. "We won conference, we won the Pewaukee Cup. We went down to Iowa and went to the championship game. We played some really good teams this year. I think we played nine ranked teams and we beat seven of them. It's been a great year. It's a great group of seniors. It's just unfortunate that it's a life lesson that you have to show up every single game. You can't take a play off, you can't take a game off."
Nine seniors played their final game in a Pirates uniform. It's an accomplished group that won three Woodland Conference crowns and three regional championships.
"They've just done everything we've asked and played super strong," Sullivan said. "It's going to be tough to match that senior class. ... They're a great group of girls, work super hard, very determined. That's who I feel most sad about is the seniors won't be able to advance to state, because they really desired it."
CREDIT: Lake Country Now