Corner kick goals help The Prairie School beat Xavier in title game
· Yahoo Sports
MILWAUKEE - You get the feeling the Xavier girls soccer team would be cool without ever seeing an opponent's corner kick attempt again.
The Hawks (22-2) fell victim to brilliant corner kick play from The Prairie School in a 5-0 loss in the WIAA Division 4 state title game June 20 at Uihlein Soccer Park. The loss spoiled Xavier's attempt at a D4 state championship repeat.
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Three of The Prairie School's goals came off corner kicks. Meghan Gavigan scored twice off headers off corner kicks in the first half for The Prairie School (20-1-1). Another goal off a corner kick came from Constanza Belaunzaran. Her Olimpico score came off a deflection from a Xavier defender in the box.
"They executed well. God bless them," Xavier coach John Meyer said of The Prairie School. "I wish we had kids that went after the balls like they did in the air. But we're getting better. I've done club for a number of years and we did headers all the time and it kind of went away. And people aren't really into headers anymore because they don't do them properly. And when you don't do them properly, you're going to have some injuries."
Kiera Kimbrough scored on a header off a serve from Belaunzaran in the 56th minute to put The Prairie School up 4-0 and Belaunzaran capped the scoring with a penalty kick in the 60th minute.
"It's something we've worked on all season, avoiding corner kicks," Xavier senior defender Eva Stankewicz said. "It didn't work out for us this game, but I'm proud of our resilience. We didn't give up and did a great job."
Xavier gave up just nine goals all season entering the championship game.
"They're a super technical and super talented team and that's something that we haven't really gotten to see this year," Xavier senior midfielder Sydney Neilitz said. "We haven't given up much corner kicks, so for us to face those today was very difficult for us."
It was the 13th WIAA state appearance for the Hawks and fifth trip to the title game. The Hawks won the D3 crown in 2004 and D2 titles in 2005 and 2008.
It was the final game for seniors Stankewicz, Neilitz, Aubrey Reed, Braelee Kiepert, Kate Jannette, Allison McKinnon, Sophie Vajda, Elizabeth Munao, Ella Heyndrickx, Annika Heimann and Lexie Simon.
"This program has helped us a lot to become strong leaders and better players," Neilitz said of the senior group. "The underclassmen are great and I think they'll take this team just as far as we could of."
Said Stankewicz: "I'm just so grateful for the opportunities that we all had. We all play for each other, keep that morale up. We did a great job carrying momentum throughout the years and building on each other with the coaching. It's just been amazing and I'm so grateful for the experience."
Meyer said he told the team the morning of the title game how important the group of seniors were along with the rest of the roster in setting the bar at a championship level for the program.
"I told them that they helped put Xavier back on the map," he said. "I've been around Xavier for a lot and you know we kind of went away. We've had some good records and won some good games. But this group, along with help from other people, helped put Xavier back on the map."
This article originally appeared on Appleton Post-Crescent: Xavier falls in WIAA high school girls soccer state title game