MILWAUKEE – An early goal may have been exactly what the Kimberly girls soccer team needed in Friday’s WIAA Division 1 state semifinal against top-seeded Waunakee at Uihlein Soccer Park.
The fourth-seeded Papermakers got a goal in the 11th minute from Senah Hanes and then hung on and rallied around keeper Lauren Heckert to hold off the Warriors, 1-0, and earn a berth in Saturday’s championship game at 7 p.m.
Kimberly (22-2-1) will play second-seeded Muskego (16-1-4), which beat Brookfield East 5-2 in the other semifinal.
The Papermakers are making their third state appearance and first since 2011. Kimberly had never advanced to the championship game until Friday’s win.
“Super excited,” Hanes said about playing in Saturday’s title game. “Obviously we haven’t been here in 13 years for one and our team has played together for such a long time. It’s just awesome to be here tomorrow.”
Kimberly played Waunakee in the second game of the season, losing on the road 1-0.
Friday’s game took a different path when the Papermakers’ Emily McCarthy found Hanes for the score in the 11th minute. It was only the sixth goal Waunakee had given up all season.
“It was quick and it certainly helped settle the nerves for them,” Kimberly coach Andrew Sutton said. “But I felt like we saw some things to do better. It certainly helped settle them and it put Waunakee in a position to chase and try to chase that goal to tie it up.”
The goal was scored in transition, according to Sutton, and Hanes described it as a collaborative effort.
“I saw Brenna (Wilson), our other outside winger, coming up with the ball and so I’m like, ‘I have to go in the back,’ so I did what I could and got in the box,” Hanes said. “Emily had a beautiful flick to me and I was there to score it.
“It was very important. I’m not going to say that we’re a team that if we get down 1-0 that we’re going to be down on ourselves. But going up 1-0 really helps us as a team. We get a lot more confidence and we know that we can beat the No. 1 seed being the No. 4 and that’s what we did.”
There is a certain amount of luck involved when playing the keeper position in soccer.
An opponent’s shot off the top of the cross bar here, a clang off the side there. A corner kick that goes askew and doesn’t find itself anywhere near the net. All those things happened during Friday’s game, but none of it takes away from Heckert’s superb effort.
Waunakee outshot Kimberly 15-4 and also led in corner kicks 6-1, which put the onus on Heckert and the team’s back line of seniors Molly Gronbach and Jadyn Dietrich along with sophomores Emily Urban and Skyler Brey.
“Our defense has been great all year,” Sutton said. “And it was on display today. We needed them to be at their best today and I would argue that they certainly were.”
So was the 5-foot-6 Heckert. She stood firm against the Waunakee onslaught at critical times of the game. None more important than the chaotic final few minutes as the Warriors desperately tried to earn the equalizer.
Heckert, who only started playing goalie full time three years ago, said Friday was one of her best performances. She also said when it comes down to crunch time, she tries to find the right balance of awareness and calmness.
“I just try to keep calm,” she said. “I obviously know how much time is left and there’s a lot of pressure. But I just try to focus on what’s happening right now and not worry about the clock.”
Hanes said Heckert has made great strides as a keeper.
“Lauren has worked these past three years trying to be a goalie and it showed in this game,” she said. “And she did a wonderful job, as did our whole entire back line keeping them out and scoreless.”
Muskego had five players score in its win over Brookfield East, though no goals were from top scorer Anna Sikorski. The senior forward leads the team in goals (33) and also has eight assists.
Muskego’s lone loss was to Arrowhead in the Warriors’ first game of the season. They also tied Waunakee early in the year.
Two of the Muskego coaches came over to Sutton to congratulate him on the win over Waunakee.
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“The thing I would like to have is some recovery time, so hopefully we can figure out some ice baths. A lot of the girls played 80 minutes,” Sutton said. “But (Muskego) will be in the same boat as we are because their kids play a lot of minutes.”
Said Heckert: “We know what we have to do for sure. We have a great team. Everyone knows their part. Everyone plays their role and if we do that, I 100% see a gold ball coming home.”
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