MILWAUKEE — The action in front of her weas hard for West Salem High School goalkeeper Baylee Faucett to follow.
The Panthers anticipated a heavy attack from top-ranked and 10-time WIAA champion Waukesha Catholic Memorial as the teams squared off in a Division 3 state semifinal at Uihlein Soccer Park on Friday morning.
They weighed the field defensively to try and counter that attack, but a six-minute stretch during the second half played a key role in the Crusaders’ 4-0 victory.
Catholic Memorial (19-2-1) peppered the goal with five shots during that segment of the match, and when Lucia Brown converted a header at 48 minutes, 24 seconds, it deflated the Panthers (16-4-1) a bit.
Faucett said West Salem didn’t think that the Crusaders attack could wear them down, but that’s what ended up happening. Catholic Memorial was able to feed the ball to the center from the outside and always seemed to get a touch when the opportunity came to get the ball where it wanted.
The Panthers did a good enough job of reacting to what Catholic Memorial threw at it, though, until Brown’s header gave it a 2-0 lead.
“That’s when we started to fall apart,” Faucett said, “and let that happen more.”
Faucett made 13 saves in West Salem’s state debut, but the Crusaders positioned themselves for 31 shots and put 17 of them on goal.
Conversely, West Salem manufactured four shots and put two of them on goal for Jenna Welsch, who recorded the shutout for Catholic Memorial. Junior forward Addy Ferguson had two in the second half, and Brynlee Kelly and Emily Graham had one each.
“That’s exactly how I thought it was going to be,” West Salem coach Lionel Karyea said of Catholic Memorial’s ability to possess the ball and push his defense. “We knew that team was going to be very good in possession.”
Brown’s first goal — the header that made the score 2-0 — was quickly followed by her second. That one came on an assist from Lili Bilicki at 52:32 and quickly ballooned her team’s lead to 3-0.
That stretch of time changed the temperature for the Panthers, who were happy with their first-half performance and 1-0 deficit despite being outshot 13-1.
“We felt good going into halftime,” Kelly said. “We let in that goal, but we were playing heavy defensively because we knew they’d be up top.
“We felt good and stayed positive.”
That focus on defense never allowed the Panthers to have positive numbers the few times they were able to clear the ball and send it to their end.
Kelly had a chance to shift momentum early in the first half when she took a pass after junior teammate Emily Graham beat a defender going from the right side of the field toward the center.
She pushed a pass to Kelly, who shot with her left foot but was stopped by Welsch.
“I was feeling it and trying to go lower corner,” Kelly said. “I’ll give (Welsch) credit for that one. That was good.”
The goal probably wouldn’t have changed West Salem’s style or opened things up very much, but it could have pumped up the confidence against one of the state’s elite programs. Still, the Panthers pressed on.
Coming back from Catholic Memorial’s strongest attack — that 6- or 10-minutes stretch of the second half — was more difficult.
That leaves the Panthers to try and replicate the trip with another sectional championship in the future. Faucett and Karyea both said the experience will do nothing but push the Panthers returning and those joining the program.
“I think we are going to have a lot of expectations for ourselves,” Faucett said. “I hope we come out strong (next season) and just kind of start where we left off.”
Karyea said earlier in the week that the big accomplishment — a first state appearance — was behind West Salem. Winning on the biggest stage the sport has to offer in Wisconsin would be a bonus, especially against an opponent that has won more state girls soccer championships than any other program.
But he thinks the taste the Panthers, who won the MVC before claiming regional and sectional championships, received on Friday will do nothing but push them forward.
“We have a chance to make it back here again next year,” Karyea said after pointing out the return of Faucett, defender Maya Hoff, Ferguson and others. “It hurts for us to come here and lose the way we did, so I think this is not the last time you see this program over at state.”
