Tough Road For Pekin Soccer Team

EAST MOLINE, Ill. -
Could there be a tougher Illinois High School Association girls soccer regional in the state than the Class 3A East Moline Regional?
It’s doubtful. Going into the regional, the five teams in the field had a combined 68-25-8 record.
No. 1 seed Normal Community (21-1) and No. 3 seed Pekin (13-4-2) have set school records for victories in a season.
Normal Community has won 20 straight games and outscored its opponents 100-9. Its only loss is a 1-0 setback to Peoria Notre Dame.
No. 2 seed Normal West (15-4-3), which finished third in last year’s Class AA state finals, has won five consecutive regional championships.
No. 4 seed East Moline (11-7-1) and No. 5 seed Moline (9-10-1) are no slouches.
After being rained out Friday, East Moline and Moline collided in a play-in game Monday and East Moline won 2-0 thanks to two second-half goals.
East Moline will face Normal Community at 4:30 p.m. today, followed by Pekin vs. Normal West at 6:30 p.m.
The winners will play in the regional championship game at 5 p.m. Friday, with the champ moving on to the Normal Sectional to face the Minooka Regional winner May 26 at Normal Community.
Pekin is 0-2 against Normal West and Normal Community this season. The Lady Dragons dominated the second half but lost 2-0 to Normal West in the championship game of the Lady Dragons Invitational, and they fell 2-1 to Normal Community in their season opener.
Despite those losses, Pekin coach Edgar Sandoval is glad he added those teams to his schedule.
“I think my forward thinking has paid off,” he said. “At least our girls are familiar with those teams.”
Normal West crushed Pekin 11-1 in 2004 and 8-0 in 2005 in previous regional games. But this is an entirely different Pekin team. It’s filled with a talented freshman class and solid veterans.
“It’s special,” said Sandoval, who nearly has run out of adjectives to describe the Lady Dragons. “This is the first Pekin team I’ve coached that has the ability to be truly competitive in every game we play.”
The Lady Dragons went 9-1-2 in the rugged Mid-Illini Conference, good for second place. They were 3-1-2 against conference champion Morton, Metamora and Dunlap, outscoring them 12-9, after going 0-13 and being outscored 52-1 by the trio in Pekin’s first two seasons in the conference.
Shock waves reverberated across the area soccer world April 28 when Pekin upset Morton 3-2, ending the Lady Potters’ 68-match conference unbeaten streak. Morton hadn’t lost a Mid-Illini game since 2003.
Pekin hasn’t lost back-to-back games all season. In addition to their 13 victories, the Lady Dragons’ four losses, 59 goals and 21 goals allowed are all school records.
“What these girls have accomplished goes beyond my wildest expectations,” Sandoval said. “I would have been incredibly pleased if we had gone 8-4 in the conference.”
If Pekin beats Normal West and advances to Friday’s regional championship game, Sandoval will have to change his weekend plans.
He’s scheduled to fly from Peoria to Las Vegas on Friday for a family get-together. If he needs to coach Friday, he’ll fly out Saturday from Chicago.
“I’ve told the girls, ’Make me miss my flight Friday,’” Sandoval said.
Pekin’s leading scorers are freshman Sarah Zuercher (18 goals, 19 assists), freshman Michaela Quilty (13 goals, seven assists) and junior Shawna Swisher (10 goals, four assists.)