Morton girls soccer earns trip to state title game: ‘We keep making history’
- Caden Sexton
- 57 minutes ago
- 4 min read
NAPERVILLE — Morton girls soccer now just 80 minutes standing between it and the biggest trophy in IHSA soccer.
The Potters scored a pair of goals in each half to earn a 4-1 decisive Class 2A state semifinal victory over Wheaton St. Francis and advanced to Saturday’s state championship game against Crystal Lake Central.
“All you can ask is to play in the very last game of the season and that’s what we’re doing,” Morton head coach Zach Statham said. “Honestly, whatever happened this weekend happened. We’re just so happy to be here. I’m so proud of the girls and just their effort. The grooves helped us all year and I thought we used a lot of the groove today.”
With 10 minutes on the pregame clock, a downpour came over Benedetti-Wehrli Stadium at North Central College in Naperville. The wet turf was prevalent across the first 30 minutes of play, but couldn’t stop Morton’s lethal attack.
With 15:22 left in the first half, Morton’s Izzy Ripka received a pass from Kylie Tisdale and sent a curling ball from the top of the box into the back of the net.
“We did a good job as a team winning the corner,” Ripka said. “[Tisdale] played me a great ball, sort of whipped a little bit, but found it in the back of the net.”
Claire Ceresa scored her team-leading 37th goal of the season on a breakaway just seven minutes later. The junior received a header that came off a free kick by Morton’s own net, used a burst of speed to get free, and put her shot outside the reach of Spartans goalkeeper Pyper Schweiner for a 2-0 halftime lead.
The sun poked its way through the clouds at the start of the second half and so did a possible St. Francis comeback. Megan Maertens was the only Spartan to get a ball past Morton goalkeeper Aldy Hilt, receiving a lengthy free kick and pushing it in from the right side of the net with 32 minutes remaining in the contest.
Despite the Spartans’ lone goal, it was hard to miss their strong defense up and down the pitch, led by their keeper Hilt.
She jumped on top of the ball like a live grenade in the first half of the game, batting it in the air and catching another just 15 minutes later. Even in the second half, Hilt stopped a breakaway from the Spartans that seemed like a surefire opportunity to tie the contest.
At the 8:31 minute mark in the first 40, the Spartans free kick went straight into Hilt’s arms, as a streaking St. Francis' winger accidentally knocked Hilt to the turf. The Potters goalie just stood back up like nothing happened.
The game stayed within a goal until midway through the second half but shortly after Ripka checked back onto the pitch, she scored her second goal of the afternoon after corralling a bouncing ball from Madi Greiner and beating Schweiner, who came out to challenge the ball.
A brief pep talk from Statham helped inspire Ripka before going out for her second shift on the field.
“Give it all you got,” Ripka said on what Statham told her. “This is to go to the state championship. Do it as a team.”
“We’re just so deep that we can handle anything. We’re doing so good in the second half because we can handle that.” Statham said. “We knew the other team wouldn’t sub as much as we did. She came in fresh, she hustled somebody and scored the goal.”
Five minutes following Ripka’s second score, Greiner drilled her first goal of the game off an assist from a hustling Marley Rosales with 15 minutes to go. The goal came off a counterattack stemming from a St. Francis throw-in.
“We know we can soak up pressure when we have to and then hit teams on the counter,” Statham said. “All season long, we’ve had a lot of possession, but as the games get harder you don’t have as much possession. There was just space on the counter today and we’ve been working all season on our counters, so today that paid off.”
As the final buzzer sounded, emotions were over the moon for the Potters and for their fans that made the over two hour trip to Naperville.
Morton knows the job is not yet done, but can taste it unlike ever before.
“I’m just so happy for the girls, they put in a lot of hard work and it’s all paying off,” Statham said. “I thought we played really well today defensively, especially in our defense, to lead into our offense.”
With the win, the Potters improved to 26-1-1, a historic season that no matter tomorrow's outcome, will have a momentous finish.
“We got it. We keep making history,” Ripka said. “This is the best team I’ve ever played for. I love playing with my best friends.”