
NAPERVILLE — Though Williamsville faced the pressure of Chicago University for almost the entirety of the second half, Madison Rigdon stayed cool in the most heated moment.
In the 76th minute of the girls soccer Class 2A state tournament semifinal game at North Central College’s Benedetti-Wehrli Stadium on Thursday, Rigdon stepped up and put a 40-yard free kick over the University High’s goalkeeper and next to the far post to give Williamsville a 1-0 win and send the Bullets into Saturday’s Class 1A state championship game.
“It feels really great,” Rigdon said. “We all knew the clock was ticking down. I saw the clock and I was told to put it on frame, so it was go time.”
It was Rigdon’s sixth goal of the season but the second time in the last three games she’s come up clutch with a free kick. Her goal from 40 yards off a free kick pulled the Bullets into a tie in the 74th minute in their eventual 2-1 win over Bloomington Central Catholic to win the Williamsville Sectional crown on May 21.
“There are butterflies in the sense of, ‘It needs to go in,’ but also, I know I’m capable of it,” Rigdon said of her nerves in the moment. “(A Williamsville win) was going to have to either be someone hitting it far or a good breakaway. But in that moment, that’s what it felt like it could come down to.”
Williamsville (24-4) will face Belleville Althoff at 2:30 p.m. for the state title on Saturday. Althoff (15-9-3) beat Des Plaines Willows Academy 2-0 in the first semifinal.
“A wise person once said, ‘You can be the better team and still lose,’” University coach Josh Potter said. “At the end of the day, like I told our girls, you’ve got to put points on the board to win. We can say we were the better team, but ultimately, if you don’t put points on the board, you don’t win games.”
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The Maroons (13-4-1) had the ball deep in Williamsville territory for much of the second half.
But one foul with two players fighting for the ball changed everything.
“Their player did extend her arm and the ref made the call,” Williamsville coach Joe Fandel said. “Getting No. 10 (Rigdon) on that shot from that range, that’s her neck of the woods.”
Each team seemed to use the first half as a feeling-out period. University won the time of possession for the first 15 minutes while Williamsville’s offense possessed the ball for much of the final 20 minutes.
“You had to get used to the atmosphere,” Fandel said. “We kind of were giving them a lot of space. We told them, as we were making subs in the first half, you’ve got to tighten your marks up. That kind of kept (University) from being able to drop the ball and do what they wanted to do. We continued to do that in the second half, putting pressure on the ball when (the Maroons) had it.”
Williamsville never had that push again. The second half was University generating pushes into the Bullets’ defense, but the Maroons managed just two shots on goal and 11 total the entire game. Williamsville junior goalkeeper Lillian Johns was never thoroughly challenged.
“All the communication we had on the backline and knowing we were going to be covering each other; it was just such a huge team effort,” Williamsville freshman defender Kailyn Milnes said. “I think it was good for us; we were thinking they were having a lot of opportunities, but we’re just stabbing back at them every time and able to win the balls. I feel like that made us believe we were strong enough to win the ball.”
Milnes said she had a feeling Rigdon was going to be successful.
“I think once (the ref) blew the whistle, we knew that was our moment,” Milnes said. “That was our time and we took it.”
Williamsville finished fourth in the 2016 Class 1A state tournament. Whatever happens on Saturday will give the Bullets’ girls soccer program its highest finish in the program’s history.
Contact Ryan Mahan: 788-1546, [email protected], Twitter.com/RyanMahanSJR.
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