King comes through
Junior returns after being knocked down and scores as Metea Valley tops Lincoln-Way Central in state semifinal
Metea Valley’s Tyra King was served an unexpected, unpleasant meal after a hard foul knocked her to the ground midway through the first half Friday.
“I swallowed a lot of turf, so I couldn’t really breathe for a minute,” she said. “I had to get off the field, get some water and regroup myself.”
King, a junior forward, had already provided an assist when the foul happened. But after sitting out for several minutes, she was motivated to do more.
“I knew I had to make an even bigger impact and get a goal,” she said. “One goal ahead is nothing. They could have come back anytime.”
King scored almost immediately after returning to the game, and the Mustangs, making the program’s first state appearance, cruised to a 2-0 win over Lincoln-Way Central in a Class 3A state semifinal at North Central College’s Benedetti-Wehrli Stadium in Naperville.
Metea Valley (21-2-1) advanced to the state championship game against Barrington (23-2) on Saturday.
Lincoln-Way Central (24-2), which had a 14-game winning streak snapped, moved into the third-place game against Evanston (21-3-1).
After being mostly stymied by the Mustangs in the first half, the Knights controlled play over the final 40 minutes and created some good scoring chances but could not capitalize.
“We fought as hard as we could,” Lincoln-Way Central defender Grace Grundhofer said. “We did everything we could. We just couldn’t find the back of the net.”
King didn’t have that problem. Right after returning to the game, she took a pass from Lucy Burk and fired a shot from 15 yards
that deflected off a Knights defender and in to make it 2-0 with 14 minutes, 44 seconds left in the first half.
King, who scored her 20th goal of the season, said she and Burk have set each other up many times over the course of the season.
“She’s my best friend, on and off the field,” King said. “We’re so close away from soccer, and on the field we just have that connection.
“She played me the ball, and I took that shot, and when I saw it go in, I was pretty excited.”
It was King’s playmaking on Metea Valley’s first goal in the 14th minute that may have provided the biggest blow to Lincoln-Way Central’s chances.
On a counterattack off a corner kick, King dashed down the field, beat a defender and drew another one in before dropping off a pass to Jocelyn Grabow, who was wide open to tap it inside the left post.
“I just kept my composure and tapped it in with my left foot,” Grabow said. “I said to myself, ‘This is the moment. I’m about to score.’
“If you can’t visualize it, you can’t do it.”
It was a deflating moment for the Knights, who were starting to build some offensive momentum.
“We had our first corner kick, a big chance, and we were excited,” Lincoln-Way Central coach Sean Fahey said. “Then they counter and score. That was a heartbreaker.
“We were trying to get some of the nerves out early, and if we could have kept it 0-0 a bit longer, I feel like it would have been a lot different.”
The Knights threatened a few times in the second half, but Grundhofer sent a free kick wide and had another saved by Metea Valley goalkeeper Julia Straub. Abby Sudkamp missed just wide on a header with 5:30 left.
Lincoln-Way Central, making its first state appearance since 2007, hoped to end it with a win in the third-place game.
“We just have to know that we’re here for a reason,” Grundhofer said.
The Mustangs, meanwhile, looked to cement their place in the record books.
“No Metea soccer team has ever gone this so far,” King said. “So we’re making history, and we want to keep going.”