AURORA – From start to finish, the Genoa-Kingston girls soccer team struggled to do much of anything on offense, as Aurora Catholic's offense was dominant and kept the ball away from the Cogs for most of the game.
The Chargers won 4-0 against the Cogs in a Class 1A ACC Regional semifinal, ending G-K's season.
"I give them credit, they just outplayed us today," Cogs coach Randy Tate said. "We couldn't get anything offensively going, the we just give up three penalty kicks. That's more than we've had all year. They all came in one game. We got kind of unlucky there."
The first of the three penalty kicks for the Chargers (13-6-2) was turned away by Genoa-Kingston goalie Kayla Matas-Lang. A handball was called on the rebound, and the Cogs (8-9-1) turned away the direct kick to keep the deficit at 1-0 in the 32nd minute.
The Chargers finally started connecting more in the second half, with Victoria Opperman connecting from the left side in the 45th minute.
They tacked on penalty kicks in the 64th and 83rd minutes to secure the win.
"I don't think we showed as well as we normally do," G-K junior Rachel Younker said. "We didn't come out as strong. We come out stronger and quicker but it took us a while to wake up today."
The Cogs finished the year with their highest win total since 2014.
"I'm proud of the girls, they've had a good year," Tate said. "It's been awhile since we've been even, so we're happy with the season. We hate to end on a loss, but that's how most teams are going to end."
Even with eight seniors leaving the team, Younker said she's excited for next year.
"It's one of the best seasons we've had in quite a long time," Younker said. "It's the best seen we've had since I've been here. I'm very impressed with all these girls. We had a lot of freshmen step up. The seniors played great and everywhere in between we connected as a team."
The Chargers advance to face Indian Creek at 5 p.m. Friday for the regional crown. It's a rematch of a game from May 2 that ACC won, 4-0.
"I don't want our girls to be overconfident," Kane said. "I think Indian Creek is a good team and they could be a very different team then the one we played on Friday."
By the numbers: Mary Canning and Anna Dudzik scored on penalty kicks for the Chargers.
Beyond the stats: Right before the first penalty kick, Younker made a great clear on the ball that had gotten past Matas-Lang. However, the goalie was called for blocking, but deflected Canning's shot attempt. After the ensuing handle ball, the defense cleared the direct kick.
They said it: "They knew where the other girl was going to be, they knew where they were supposed to be, and they trapped us in triangles a lot," Younker said. "It's hard. They were a very good offensive team."