Lincoln-Way East doesn’t panic after slow start, dominates Sandburg to win regional title

JOLIET – Lincoln-Way East didn’t panic.

The Griffins had made it out of worse scraps than the one they were in Friday, down a goal midway through the first half. While it took a minute for them to get going, once they did, the Griffins were able to do what they’ve done so many times this year: Get a massive win.

Adelyn Thomas recorded a hat trick with three goals, Ellie Fiegl added two goals and the Griffins shook off a slow start to beat Sandburg 6-1 to win the Class 3A Joliet Central Regional championship. The win advances Lincoln-Way East to the sectional semifinals against rival Lincoln-Way West on Tuesday at Joliet West.

Early on, though, it was Sandburg who looked like it might walk away with the regional title. Gabby Dittmer scored for the Eagles just seven minutes in to give them the early 1-0 edge.

Again, the Griffins never panicked. They dominated possession and created some strong chances, but fantastic keeping by Sandburg kept Lincoln-Way East off the board for the first 21 minutes.

After that, though, it was all Griffins as Fiegl’s goal with 19 minutes to go in the first half began a string of six consecutive goals for Lincoln-Way East.

“Sometimes when you go down 1-0 teams start to panic,” Griffins coach Mike Murphy said. “We just played our game, continued to do our thing and chipped away at things. ...I told them entering the second half, ‘don’t let (Sandburg) think they can play with us. Get a goal quickly’ and we did. That put it out of the picture.”

Fiegl’s goal started an avalanche of them for the team in blue. Nine minutes afterward, Maddie Strzechowski knocked one in from close range to break the tie and give the Griffins the permanent lead. It made the score 2-1 at halftime.

“One of my biggest strengths is coming out hard and scoring goals as quickly as I can,” Fiegl said. “Obviously that was my goal the first half and I executed it well the second half.”

Lincoln-Way East (17-3-1) didn’t need nearly as much time to score in the second half as it did in the first. Fiegl put one in the back of the net just a minute into the second period to increase the lead to two.

After that, it was a freshman frenzy as Thomas scored five minutes later from distance. Five minutes after that, she scored another one in front of a crowded box. Four minutes later, she took a long free kick and snuck it into the net to give her the hat trick and give the Griffins a 6-1 advantage.

“I think we kept the intensity up and stayed calm throughout,” Thomas said. “We just have to keep playing as a team and as best as we can and we should be good (moving forward).”

It’s been a banner year for Lincoln-Way East. Friday marked its sixth consecutive victory. The Griffins have outscored opponents 84-15 on the year. That includes a 9-0 win over Joliet Central in the regional semifinals.

The Griffins’ three losses were 1-0 to Andrew on PKs back in March, 2-1 to an outstanding Lockport team in early April, and 4-1 to Naperville Central on May 1. So, aside from the Naperville Central contest, even their losses were close.

Fiegl is committed to Missouri State, one of three Division I commits on the team. Juniors Elizabeth Burfeind (Purdue) and Camden Cosich (TCU) are the other two. Seniors Kara Waishwell, Hannah Tokarski and Payton Lucitt have all been critical this season, too.

“We have freshmen, a group of sophomores and juniors, and some seniors that are playing really well,” Murphy said. “It’s a very cohesive group right now and they’re enjoying this.”

With Burfeind, Cosich, Thomas and Strzechowski (a sophomore) the future is bright for Lincoln-Way East as well. The Griffins aren’t thinking about the future right now, though. They’ve got a bright present in front of them.

After beating Lincoln-Way West twice in the regular season by a combined score of 11-0, the Griffins’ confidence is sky high. They won’t underestimate their opponent, however, as they know they have to keep grounded.

“The mindset doesn’t change going from this game to the next,” Fiegl said. “We want to come out with a win. It doesn’t matter if we’ve beaten a team twice or we’ve never beaten them before, that mindset is the same every game.”

The sectional semifinal will be at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday at Joliet West.