Whitefish Bay falls short in bid to repeat as D2 girls soccer champions in state title match
For the third straight postseason and the fourth time in the last five years, Oregon and Whitefish Bay battled it out with the Division 2 state girls soccer championship on the line at Uihlein Soccer Park.
Just like in 2019 and 2022, it was the Panthers raising the gold ball after the full-time whistle in Oregon coach Bobby Nichols’ final game at the helm.
Oregon co-captain Addison Werth’s right-footed strike at the 49:14 mark of the second half following a strong run through the pitch was the difference for the Panthers, who won their fourth state title in program history, all since 2015.
The first 40 minutes belonged to the Panthers and their aggression on the attack. They outshot the Blue Dukes 12-1 and had a 6-1 corner advantage through the opening half. Whitefish Bay also avoided utter disaster when Ava Butsic was knocked down inside the 18-yard-box, but no penalty was awarded for the Panthers to keep the game scoreless.
SUMMARY: Oregon 1, Whitefish Bay 0
It was a carbon copy of their regular-season meeting that the Blue Dukes (17-6-5) hosted, which was also won by Oregon (18-1-1) with the same 1-0 score on May 18.
“The biggest thing for us is that we need to bring effort for eighty minutes,” Whitefish Bay coach Rob Dubinski said. “Pretty much the whole season, we’ve been a second-half team. We’ve been saying all year, ‘Eighty minutes, eighty minutes, eighty minutes.’ When we played them at (Whitefish) Bay, it was kinda the same thing. For thirty minutes, they kinda peppered at us and then we kinda started finding our footing.”
The final 40 minutes brought a bit more intensity from the Blue Dukes attack, but Oregon’s shape and physicality helped keep the defending champions at bay in their quest to become the first repeat champion in Division 2 since Catholic Memorial in 2012-13, before their move to Division 3.
“Bobby (Nichols) and I kinda made a joke entering the indoor facility (at Uihlein),” Dubinski said. “We said, ‘What’s a final without Whitefish Bay and Oregon?’ It’s been great and obviously the Madison area and the Milwaukee area always talk about how good soccer teams and schools are. It’s a nice little battle of, ‘Southeast Wisconsin’s better … no, Madison’s better.’ It’s been fun.”
Their runs are both likely over in Division 2 as the WIAA's success factor points will total up for both programs and will thus bump them up to Division 1 next season. The Blue Dukes could also extend their state tournament appearance record to 25 times and tie Catholic Memorial with 11 WIAA state championships next season.
“I’m sad they couldn’t make it back to the (Division 2) final in 2021,” Dubinski said with a grin, noting the year the Blue Dukes won their ninth WIAA title over Notre Dame, which upset Oregon 2-1 in the D2 semifinals that postseason.
“We could’ve kept it going with us and them, but it’s been a really fun rivalry and I think both of us are going up to D1 next year. We even made the joke that we’d see each other in the D1 finals, too.”
DIVISION 3 Catholic Memorial falls to Plymouth, which wins back-to-back titles
DIVISION 4 The Prairie School can't keep up with Cedar Grove-Belgium
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Whitefish Bay's bid to repeat as WIAA D2 girls soccer champions ends
