LW East’s Madison Dziedzic delivers at state

Madison Dziedzic could not fight back the tears Friday night. After Lincoln-Way East’s state championship dreams were dashed, the senior forward was feeling all kinds of emotions.

There was the sadness of losing, the joy of playing on the biggest stage to begin with, and perhaps strongest of all, the will to come out with a better outcome in her final game.

“It’s honestly amazing,” Dziedzic said. “Being here my senior year with (Brooklyn Mortell), who is one of my co-captains and best friends, and other girls I’ve played with for years — my club team and coach were here — it’s just a feeling I can’t describe. That’s why I’m pretty emotional right now. I wanted to win so bad.

“But I told everyone, ‘We can be sad right now, but we’re coming out with a win (Saturday). That’s the only way to end this.”

Playing in the Final Four for the first time in program history, the Griffins fought hard but eventually succumbed to dynamic O’Fallon, losing 2-0 in a Class 3A state semifinal at North Central College in Naperville.

Mattea Arroyo made seven saves for Lincoln-Way East (21-5), which will take on Libertyville (17-3-2) — after a 5-0 loss to Barrington — at 5 p.m. Saturday in the third-place game.

Addison Baldus and Kiley McMinn scored as O’Fallon (20-3-1) moved one win away from its second state championship in three years.

Dziedzic, meanwhile, did for the Griffins what she has all year by setting the tone with her energy and tenacity.

As a matter of fact, Dziedzic and Mortell are the only senior starters on a young team with a bright future.

“Brooklyn is the sweetest girl in the world,” Lincoln-Way East coach Mike Murphy said. “Madison has that little bit of an edge. She’s the one that always gets us going because she’s the one who goes hard to the ball. She’s the one that hits people.

“Even in practice, sometimes we have to be like, ‘Madison, calm down. It’s your own teammate.’ She’s not going to score those pretty goals for us, but she’s going to be the one up there who’s always pressuring them.”

Dziedzic and Mortell have worked hard to make sure the Griffins’ chemistry was off the charts.

“The main thing we wanted was no animosity,” Dziedzic said. “We wanted a team full of high spirits, hopefulness and all that.”

The Griffins kept O’Fallon scoreless for nearly the entire first half, but Baldus headed in Ella Peterson’s corner kick just 13 seconds before halftime.

“Honestly, we held them up for that long, so it wasn’t a big deal,” Arroyo said. “It was like, ‘Keep going.’ We had a whole second half, and we kept fighting.”

Daily Southtown

Twice-weekly

News updates from the south suburbs delivered every Monday and Wednesday

The Griffins could not put a shot on goal, even with a player-up advantage over the final 22:54 after an O’Fallon red card.

Defensively, though, Lincoln-Way East made the Panthers fight for everything they got.

Junior defender Mia Hedrick and freshman defender Camden Cosich were able to slow down McMinn, a Marquette recruit who was named the state’s player of the year by the Illinois High School Soccer Coaches Association.

“I always take it personally because everyone knows her name and nobody knows our names,” Hedrick said. “It’s fun to root for the underdog, so I’ll take it as it comes. I know I’ve got a great support system behind me.”

McMinn did break through with a fantastic finish on a header with 25:44 to go. That ended the Griffins’ title hopes, but did not diminish Murphy’s pride.

“At the end of the game, I told the girls, ‘There’s nothing I can say right now to make you smile or keep your heads up, but I asked you to leave it on the field and you left it on the field,’” he said. “It stinks to lose, but we just lost to a better team.”

Steve Millar is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.