Plains pops Freeburg hopes: Cardinals survive blown tire to advance to 1A state tourney

COLUMBIA — Neither a flat tire nor the Freeburg Midgets could stop the Pleasant Plains girls soccer team Tuesday night.

The Cardinals’ bus blew a back tire on southbound Interstate 255, forcing players to disembark and pile into parents’ cars for the remaining 10 minutes of the trip.

It didn’t prove to be a bad omen. Freshman Bailey Leach’s goal in the 16th minute held up as Pleasant Plains nipped Freeburg 1-0 in the Class 1A Columbia Supersectional.

“Our team effort was amazing and I’m very proud of how well we worked together,” said Leach, a forward whose 28 goals and 28 assists lead the team. “My teammates have really helped me out. I just work at my position and everybody else (handles) theirs. We’re doing well.”

The Cardinals (26-2-1) earned their first trip to the state tournament since 2009 when they finished fourth. They will face Normal University (15-8-2) in the semifinals at 7 p.m. Friday at North Central College in Naperville. Normal U-High defeated Herscher 2-1 in penalty kicks in the Herscher Supersectional.

Leach struck a well-placed shot from inside 6 yards that was high enough to be out of the reach of Freeburg junior goalie Allysa Wolf. The play began with a throw-in from the right side by senior Brook Hermes, with freshman Caroline Willenborg serving Leach for the goal deep in the box.

“(Wolf) is a very good goalie; she’s an all-state goalie,” Leach said. “I knew I had to place it in the corner. If I played it to her, she would have saved it. I had to work my magic there. I felt like we could have gotten more (goals), but it’s all right. We got the win.”

Coach Greg Bryan is accustomed to seeing Leach weave her spell on opponents.

“Bailey is very special,” Bryan said. “Not only with the number of goals she’s scored, but also the assists. It’s incredible. And it’s not about her. She’s a team-first person. She just wants to win. She helped us get through this today.”

Bryan wasn’t sure what to expect after the flat tire. He was behind the wheel when it happened, and the bus was in the same place at 8:30 p.m., two hours after kickoff.

“We got here a half-hour later than we wanted to, but it is what it is, right?” Bryan said. “It’s all good. It’s laughable. You can’t just concentrate on the game. You’ve got to concentrate on something else. Maybe it was a distraction enough and when we got here … let’s just play. It helped us relax a little bit.”

The second half was anything but light-hearted. The Midgets (17-4-2), who were fresh off their first sectional championship, applied steady pressure for a sustained stretch of 30 minutes.

Coach Becky Ganz was confident a goal was in the offing, but Freeburg could only come close.

“We had a much better second half,” she said. “We didn’t come out the first half the way we should have, and it showed. I felt like it was going to happen, but they’re a good team and we couldn’t get one to sink. If we had 30 more minutes, it might have happened. But you can’t take back our first 40 because our first 40 were awful.

“That’s how it goes. I think it was nerves they’re hurting. They’re sore. We practice hard and go hard. Everybody does. But I don’t do a lot of subbing and they’re worn out. … We’re thrilled to make it this far. Nobody expected us to. We’re super proud of what we’ve accomplished.”

Freeburg’s first real chance came late in the first half when senior Kylie Kisgen rocketed a 28-yard free kick high off the football crossbar. Freshman Makayla Stover hit a volley that was grabbed in front of the left post by Pleasant Plains junior keeper Elle Walker in the 58th minute.

The Cardinals nearly went ahead by two in the 62nd minute when sophomore Sophia Taft shot from high in the box went off Wolf’s hands and the crossbar before Wolf fell on the loose ball.

Freeburg had three quality chances in a frenetic five-minute stretch. Walker made nifty saves on the first two opportunities before senior Ella Gagen’s drive from 30 yards out sailed high.

Pleasant Plains was able to make clutch defensive plays down the stretch and time finally expired.

“When you score a goal early, you kind of tend to defend a little bit more than you want to,” Bryan said. “Technically, we got out of our game very quickly once we scored. I told them at halftime it was going to be the longest 40 minutes of their lives.”

The Cardinals hope to still be standing after more action-packed drama in Naperville.

“We’re going to go up there and see what happens. It’s all we can do,” Bryan said. “Whatever happens, happens. We start eight underclassmen. We’ve been putting this together for the last couple of months. It’s not like everybody knew each other. We’ve done a good job together.”

Contact correspondent David Wilhelm: Twitter.com/@DavidMWilhelm.

This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: IHSA soccer: Blown bus tire doesn't prevent Plains from trip to state