Wheaton-Warrenville South clinches first sectional title since 2003 with victory over St. Charles North

GLEN ELLYN — Wheaton-Warrenville South coach Guy Callipari still remembers the last time his team won a sectional title.

He was a bit younger back in 2003 when the Tigers went on to take third place in the state. But as a coach that didn’t have any prior experience at that level, he didn’t have another experience to compare the success to.

22 years later, he now has an experience to compare.

The second-seeded Tigers had five different goal scorers in the game to lead them to a 6-0 victory over No. 4 St. Charles North to claim their first sectional title since that 2003 season.

“This is such a special group, and they don’t come in as a group quite like this senior class here,” Callipari said. “Now I can really actually enjoy this moment that it is because I know how special this moment is. Now I’m just trying to enjoy every minute that they get to play. And as long as they keep putting us on the schedule, we’ll continue to keep putting out best foot forward and represent the community and our school.”

The Tigers (19-1-2) will head to the Streamwood supersectional, where they’ll face Naperville North for a chance to go to state for the first time since 2003. The Huskies, a No. 4 seed in the Naperville North sectional, upset No. 3 Neuqua Valley with a 2-1 victory for the sectional title.

WW South followed a similar game plan to their sectional semifinal victory from Tuesday in getting out on the attack early, especially in dead-ball situations. The Tigers’ first two goals from sophomore Kelsey Clousing and senior Kayla Waterman both came off of corner kicks. Senior Ashlyn Adams also scored off a dead ball in the first half, sinking a penalty kick before halftime to make it 3-0.

“In previous games, we’ve definitely capitalized on those set pieces, so we knew we had to do that again,” Adams said. “Any opportunities we had to score, we knew we had to take, especially against a good team like that.”

Adams’ goal in the 40th minute was her 75th high school goal, which broke the school record for most goals in a career set back in 2001 by Rachel Radcliffe.

“It’s honestly such a humbling and amazing experience,” the Illinois commit said. “I have to thank my team for giving me all those opportunities to get to this point. Going into the game it was something I wanted to get, but whether I scored or not, I was excited to get the team this win and those accomplishments came along the way.”

WW South wouldn’t slow down in the second half, this time with the main point of their attack turning to counter attacks, with Clousing and seniors Lucy Jethani and Sabrina Stranski each converting on 2-on-1 situations with goals.

“We want to always go forward fast so that their defense can’t get back to defend us,” Callipari said. “They were just gassed on defense, and they also got people forward to try and get something to inspire them. And when they did that, we knew we had an opportunity to expose them.”

More stunning than the offense was the defensive effort from WW South. The Tigers allowed just two shots on goal in the contest for their sixth consecutive clean sheet, and finished the month allowing just one goal across 10 contests.

“You need to pressure the ball, good coverage when we make mistakes and pretty good balance, and that’s just been a formula that’s worked out for us,” Callipari said. “They’re fairly seasoned through the middle, so there’s a lot of communication and conversation and some pretty good leadership as well. And if we have greater numbers behind the ball than they have in front of it, we’re going to be okay no matter what happens.”

The North Stars (11-6-3) ended up falling just short in their quest for their third consecutive sectional title. But despite the shortcoming, North coach Brian Harks said he was proud of his team for getting to their 11th consecutive sectional final, even with the questions about the team heading into the season.

“We talk about a player’s ability to carry on the traditions of the past, not from a winning or accolades standpoint, but from the approach to practice and games and the ability to fight, and that’s exactly what they did,” Harks said. “Early in the season, we still didn’t know what type of team this was. But this group made me proud and they proved that they deserves to throw on the North Stars uniform and go out and represent the school and their community.