Hawks place fourth at state soccer tourney

The Gibault soccer team poses with its fourth place trophy at the Class 2A state tournament in Hoffman Estates on Saturday. For more photos from the state tourney, click here.

The Gibault Catholic High School soccer team concluded its season with yet another heartbreaking loss in penalty kicks Saturday in the IHSA Class 2A state third place game at Hoffman Estates.

The Hawks, who also lost 2-1 in penalty kicks Friday afternoon to begin state tourney play, finish their season at 17-6-5 and will bring a fourth place trophy home to Waterloo.

Saturday’s game was the last for nine Gibault seniors — Johnny Adams, Dylan Altadonna, Logan Doerr, Tripp Hasenstab, Karson Huels, Will Janson, Cam Kincheloe, Adam Stearns and Ryan Swindle — who played in three straight state tourneys. The Hawks placed third at the 2016 Class 1A tourney and lost in the Class 2A state title game last year.

In a display of sportsmanship, Chicago St. Ignatius allowed an injured Swindle to start the game and walk off the field to applause from the Gibault faithful.

St. Ignatius applied heavy pressure early on, making for a busy first half for Gibault goalkeeper Connor Olson. He punched away a strong shot attempt with 13 minutes to go in the half, only to surrender a goal off a corner kick at 12:17.

Olson kept the score at 1-0 with nice saves off a free kick and corner kick with more than eight minutes left in the half, and again on a long shot in the final minutes of the session.

St. Ignatius continued to control the action early in the second half, but Gibault finally received its first corner kick with 23:30 remaining in the contest. That came up empty, and Olson was forced to make another solid stop at 22:05.

St. Ignatius was playing keep away in the final 15 minutes of the game in an effort to run out the clock, but Gibault turned up the heat on offense in one last blast of energy.

A corner kick from Huels led to Doerr kicking in the tying goal from 20 yards out with just more than eight minutes remaining.

There is no overtime session in the third place game, so with a 1-1 score at the end of regulation the game went straight to penalty kicks.

Huels was stopped on his first attempt and the St. Ignatius player was successful. Doerr and Stearns connected on their PKs, but so did the next two St. Ignatius players. Tate Schilling’s PK attempt went off the crossbar, and St. Ignatius won it with a fourth successful kick.

For a recap of Friday’s semifinal loss, click here.

For photos from the state tourney, click here.

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Corey Saathoff

Corey is the editor of the Republic-Times. He has worked at the newspaper since 2004, and currently resides in Columbia. He is also the principal singer-songwriter and plays guitar in St. Louis area country-rock band The Trophy Mules.
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