Mt. Zion girls soccer season ends in regional semifinal loss

By BLAKE FAITH
Staff Writer

The Mt. Zion girls soccer team finished its season with a 2-1 loss against Lincoln in the IHSA 2A Regional Semifinal in Mahomet.

The Railers opened up the scoring when Makinley Knapp nailed a shot from outside the 30-yard line to give the Railers a 1-0 lead with 13:51 remaining in the first half. The Railers goalkeeper Ella Hartman and her defense contained the Braves’ offense in the first half.

Knapp netted her second goal of the match with another far out goal to give the Railers a 2-0 lead with 23 minutes remaining in the match.

The Braves opened their scoring a few minutes later. McKenzie Krieger dished a pass inside the box to Kendall Allen, who netted the goal too-shelf to cut the deficit to 2-1.

The Braves defense of goalkeeper Chloe Kuncl and defenders Elena Howard, Claire Horne and Brooke Boston continued to try and contain the Railers. With less than 11 minutes remaining in the match, Horne made a crucial defensive play regaining her position and knocking the ball out of the bounds to keep the Railers from scoring another goal.

The Railers held on to win 2-1. The Braves ended their season 9-9-1.

“I was proud of our effort. I thought we played really hard,” Head coach Jonathan Moore said. “I thought we had our chances; it just didn’t go our way. But we were proud of the effort.”

The Braves graduate one senior in Maddie Kuiters and after 18 years Coach Moore will step down from being the head coach of the girls soccer program. The Braves will return junior captains Krieger, Maddie Kendall and Sydney Howerton, Kuncl, sophomores Paityn Koester, Gracie Larrison, Eva Patrick freshman Allen, Howard, Boston, Horne and Veronica Ballweg.

“We were young and I think our inexperience showed at times but we got better throughout the year and You know the future is bright for this program. I’ve had it a lot of fun the last 18 years coaching the girls, create a lot of good relationships over the years and people like you (Blake Faith), people like Assistant Coach Scott Crawford, there’s a lot of things that I’m going to miss and it’s just been a privilege to coach this program last 18 years.”