Burlington soccer hoping to make noise in D2 playoffs

By Mike Ramczyk

Sports Editor

The Burlington girls soccer team has been in this position before.

Last year, the Lady Demons came off an impressive regular season that included a Southern Lakes Conference championship.

But after winning their regional opener, 7-0, the third-seeded Demons were upset by a bigger school in the Division 1 playoffs, No. 6 Janesville Craig.

This season, Burlington was just a bit better in the regular season, going 8-0-1 and claiming a second straight SLC title.

Now the real season begins, and the Demons will try a new, possibly easier road in the Division 2 playoffs.

Thanks to a slight drop in enrollment this year, Burlington has dipped down and become one of the biggest D2 schools in several sports.

The basketball team experienced some success, reaching the regional final, and now the soccer team will look to make a run.

The Demons, a No. 6 seed, will host No. 11 Baraboo Thursday at 6 p.m. at Burlington High School.

Burlington (11-3-3), which comes off its first undefeated conference season in school history, must play the role of spoiler if it wants to advance past regionals and beyond.

Possibly over-seeded and upset by a No. 6 seed last season, the Demons have a chance to upset No. 3 Oregon (11-5-1) in round two and No. 2 DeForest (13-3-2) in round three.

Last year, Oregon defeated DeForest in the playoffs and finished one game from the Division 1 state tournament.

Burlington has an uphill climb this postseason, but last Thursday was a solid tune-up for things to come.

The Demons put on a scoring frenzy in a 5-1 drubbing of visiting Delavan-Darien in the consolation round of the SLC tournament.

“It was a good game for us to use as a warm up for the state playoffs,” said head coach Joel Molitor. “We did well to score five goals against a Delavan team that has always given us trouble, and to keep our heads when the game started to get a little physical.”

“I was happy to be able to get contributions from all my players in this game. Our team spirit is good going into next week.”

Burlington jumped out to a 4-1 halftime lead, and the Comets stepped up the physicality in the second half. But the Demons kept their cool and cruised to victory.

Merin Mundt scored goals in the first and 19^th minutes, and Lindsay Kraemer added a tally in the third minute to turn the game into an early blowout.

Actually, Mundt’s first goal came in 32 seconds, and Molitor said it was the fastest goal he’s seen in his time at Burlington.

Ashlyn Barry added a goal in the 20^th minute, and she notched two assists.

In the second half, Tegan Rock smashed a penalty kick under the Delavan goalie in the 41^st minute for the fifth and final goal.

Kaitlyn Bonton led the Demons with two saves, and Erica Novak added one.

Burlington finished the season with flurry, winning seven of its final eight games. The one blemish was a 3-3 tie with rival Waterford.

If Burlington can get past Baraboo (5-8-2), the Demons would most likely have to travel to Oregon.

Earlier in the season, Oregon handed the Demons one of their three losses, a 1-0 decision April 22.