Burlington soccer overcomes frightening injury to capture 3rd straight regional championship

Fifth-seeded Demons travel to No. 1 Waunakee Thursday at 6

By Mike Ramczyk

[email protected]

SAUK CITY – Sam Naber was straight killing it Saturday afternoon.

The freshman attacking midfielder, one of Burlington soccer’s strongest two-way threats, only needed 10 minutes to exert her will in a WIAA Division 1 regional final at Sauk Prairie.

Naber opened the scoring with her quick feet, executing a nifty maneuver past two defenders and capitalizing on a free ball inches in front of an open net.

But just minutes later, Naber was a mess of blood, screaming in agony on her back midfield while trainers and coaches circled. Two teammates had to hold her up as she tried, but was unable to walk it off.

Naber leaped for a header off a high-arching, deep kick from goalie Cora Anderson, but inadvertently head-butted a Sauk player.

Both girls collapsed, and though Prairie’s player walked off a few minutes later clutching an ice bag to her forehead, Naber wasn’t as lucky.

Naber was down for roughly 15 minutes before popping up, all smiles, and proceeding to hug each one of her teammates.

A potential game-changing injury galvanized the Demons, however, as Morgan McCourt scored two goals in five minutes to open the second half and Burlington cruised to its third straight regional championship, 3-1.

“I’m just really proud of these girls for overcoming everything,” said Burlington coach Joel Molitor Saturday in Sauk City. “We had one of our starting attacking midfielders (Naber) go down with a big cut on her face. She had a really nice goal for us.”

“She was fine, and she was concerned when they mentioned stitches. If you look at the cut, it would’ve been tough for her to continue without getting stitches.”

The Demons will play in a D2 sectional semifinal at top-seeded Waunakee Thursday.
Concussion protocol was passed for the moment, but Naber, who sported a large headband as trainers feared stitches would be necessary with another hit, was kept out of the final 75 minutes for precautionary measures.

“Once we got the third goal, we relaxed a little bit,” said senior midfielder Jessa Burling. “We focused on maintaining our cool throughout the game, because it did get a little chippy in the end.”

Naber, a Marquette University recruit for volleyball, was in great spirits on the sideline for the rest of the game, despite wearing the bandage and protective sunglasses.

Freshman forward Alex Lopez filled in for Naber, and Gracie Geyso moved backed inside defensively to her normal position.

Molitor was impressed by the overall performance of his defense, including senior Adrianna Castillo, who played six positions – both wings, defensive midfielder, attacking midfielder, wing defender and center defender.

Burlington coach Joel Molitor lauded the progression of his team. In the past month, the Demons have gone from a 3-1 loss to Union Grove, then a closer 1-0 to the Broncos in the SLC title game, to 2 playoff wins.

Credit the continued maturation of a green back line, along with the senior leadership of McCourt and Jessa Burling.

Sauk scored on a penalty kick to knot the match at 1-1 at halftime. A pivotal conversation with Molitor at the break changed McCourt’s attacking approach, and it resulted in a dominant second half.

“Morgan and I had different ideas on what she needed to be doing in the first half,” Molitor said. “We talked about winning the ball and playing the ball in space in the second half. When she was able to do that, that spread out the back line, she found space.”

After McCourt scored amid a scrum of athletes to make it 2-1 in the 50th, her incredible athleticism was on full display thanks to a Sauk Prairie gaffe and a ridiculous Burling read.

Prairie attacked the right edge and got all the way to the box before clearing the ball to the middle for a potential shot.

But Burling knew the Eagles were pressing, with extra bodies up trying to score, and she took advantage.

Doing her best Cora Anderson impression, Burling launched a 50-yard kick downfield to McCourt, who had single coverage.

Burling’s bomb put McCourt in sprint mode before the graceful, long-striding forward zipped past a Prairie defender for a 30-yard run before beating the goalie to give Burlington an insurmountable 3-1 advantage.

“They wanted to tie us 2-2, and they were really pushing us up,” Burling said. “I had space in the middle, and I glanced up and saw Morgan’s eyes get really wide and she’s like, ‘Over, over, over!’, so I just lofted it and hit it really far because I know she’s fast and she can run under it.”

“I knew she was going to finish it once it hit her foot. It was huge.”

Anderson, the Demons’ sensational sophomore, settled down after allowing the Eagles’ lone goal, which slipped underneath her left armpit.

She stopped any and every shot to the tune of 12 saves, and she said the defense, including Jaedyn Bieniewski, Victoria Van Dan and Caitlyn Kelsey, came up big.

Notably, Bieniewski thwarted what looked like a sure goal in front of an open net, and Kelsey’s body block on a low rocket may have prevented another goal.

“They saved my butt so many times today,” Anderson said of the defense. “We were tied 1-1 after their goal, which is the same as 0-0, so we still are in the game, and I just tried to pep up our defense. They didn’t hold their heads down, and we came back.”

Veterans like McCourt and Burling took it upon themselves to pick up the younger players and vocally encourage them on the field. Playoff games bring another level of intensity, and stress, and Burlington provides battle-tested players that have been through the storm.

That proves invaluable to the crop of roughly six or seven new varsity regulars.

“I think we definitely had a lot of leadership on the field today,” McCourt said. “Half our team is brand new, and we all did a great job. We’re at the top of our games right now, and this was our best game of the season.”

Though Waunakee (15-3), the No. 1 seed and Burlington’s opponent Thursday night at 6 p.m., is ranked ninth in the state in Division 2, the unranked Lady Demons (10-4-2), once in deep jeopardy of having a successful season a month ago due to injuries, are peaking at the right time.

“I know they’re the 1 seed, but they’re going to be scared of us because they didn’t see us coming,” McCourt said.

“We’re experienced, we’ve got our feet under us. We’ve built a great program here, and I’m so proud to be a part of Burlington.”

“We have a lot of confidence, and we work really well as a team,” Anderson added. “We all are really good friends, so that will take us a long way.”