Lady Eagles set to defend sectional title

By Mike Wertman, Sports Writer Posted 29 October 2015 at 12:00 am

Photo by Cheryl Wertman – Kendall goalie Jenna Jacob, shown here making a save in the semifinals, and her Lady Eagles teammates will face South Seneca Friday for the Section V Class C2 championship.

Defending champion Kendall will seek a second straight Section V soccer title when the top seeded Lady Eagles face No. 3 South Seneca in the Class C2 final at 5 p.m. Friday at Caledonia-Mumford.

Kendall, which has reached the sectional finals for the third year in a row, brings an 18-0 record into the title contest while South Seneca is 17-1.

Kendall advanced to the finals by twice defeating the same school in the same round for the second year in a row, first 6-0 over Campbell-Savona in the quarterfinals and then 1-0 over Warsaw in the semifinals.

“We’re really looking forward to Friday,” said Coach Pam Beres. “It will be a tough match so we’ll have to step up and play our best soccer if we want to bring home another sectional title.”

Maya Rutland scored her team leading 28th goal of the season in the win over Warsaw which was Kendall’s closest call of the season.

The Lady Eagles offense has also been led this season by Taylor Rutland with 11 goals and 9 assists, Taylor ReQua 10 goals and 21 assists and Coralee Freitag 9 goals and 9 assists.

Goalie Jenna Jacob and her defensive mates including Liz Rath, Julia Smith, Lyndsay Wright, Andres Villalobos and Amelia Patrick have shutout 16 of 18 opponents and allowed only 2 goals on the season.

South Seneca gained a berth in the title contest by scoring back-to-back 3-2 wins over No. 6 Keshequa in the quarterfinals and No. 7 Bolivar-Richburg in the semis.

The Lady Falcons offense has been led by the duo of Kelsey Shaulis (32 goals, 10 assists) and McKenzie Kenyon (23 goals, 10 assists) as Emily Day has added 11 goals and 14 assists and Jenna McDonald 10 goals and 6 assists.

Kendall nipped Cal-Mum 2-1 in overtime for the title last year, a win which also avenged a 10 loss to the Lady Raiders in the 2013 final.

The victor will then take on the winner of the Class C1 final between No. 1 Gananda (16-2) and No. 2 Cal-Mum (16-2-1) next week for the Section V Class C berth in the state playoffs.