In the 51st minute of the Class 3 District 2 girls soccer championship, Windsor sophomore Symphony Schodroski dribbled toward the Hillsboro goal on the far right wing. Schodroski spotted sophomore Jordan Kolinski racing down the middle of the field and fed her with a perfect crossing pass that Kolinski buried past Hawk goalkeeper MacKenzie Baker.
The Owls shut out Hillsboro 1-0 on May 15 to win their first district title since 2014. The Hawks had won the District 2 crown the previous two seasons.
“It was a great play going in and (Schodroski) crossed it to me, I was wide open and I one-timed it into the net,” said Kolinski, who scored three goals in an 8-1 win against Festus in the district semifinals and leads the Owls with 16 tallies this season. “We always have to keep working together and always keep your head up.”
“She started the play by beating her mark, and keeping her run going,” Windsor head coach Mike Hutchison said. “She had good composure to just hit it into the box, and put it right on Jordan’s foot, and she did what she’s done all year, and that’s find the back of the net.”
In the 70th minute, Hillsboro senior Rachael Hamilton’s blast went right into Windsor goalkeeper Piper Montgomery’s midsection. Hamilton was injured in the first half, but returned to the game.
Hillsboro senior Payton Kuehn was injured earlier in the half, but did not return.
“Payton is really good on the wing because of her speed,” Hillsboro head coach Chris Schacht said. “Her foot got planted in the turf and it didn’t give. Not having her on the wing affected us.”
The Hawks and Owls played 100 minutes of scoreless soccer before
Hillsboro won 1-0 on April 18 in a Jefferson County Activities Association game. The last five games they’ve played against each other have been decided by one goal.
“I don’t think either team played that well, but they got the goal that mattered,” Schacht said. “They outlasted us. It looked like both teams didn’t have their legs today. When we played each other a few weeks ago, it was a much better game. There were more possessions. In postseason play, one goal decides it most of the time.”
In the eighth minute, Windsor sophomore Bailey Peters took a shot that caromed off of Baker and the goalpost. Late in the first half, about a minute apart, Baker made saves on shots by sophomores Maddie Gillick and Bella Spurgeon. In the final minute of the half, Baker tipped Gillick’s rising shot just over the crossbar.
“We feel like we’ve gotten better on offense because our attention to detail is a lot higher,” Hutchison said. “We want to be aggressive. We don’t want to sit back and absorb. We want to be proactive. (Baker) made a number of difficult saves. Our better shots early on were from longer range.”
Windsor’s season has included two four-game losing streaks and a three-game losing skid. After the Owls lost 6-0 to Perryville, they were mired at 4-11. But they had won seven of their last eight contests going into sectionals.
Junior Alyssa Weisner started at wing forward, but after the Owls scored, she dropped back to sweeper, where she was a solid mark against Hillsboro’s top scoring threats.
“She’s very good at timing her attempts and when she goes, she goes 100 mph,” Hutchison said.
Sophomore Elizabeth Spurgeon and seniors Sam Sabatino and Keri Voegtle held firm in the Windsor backfield and helped Montgomery post the shutout.
Hillsboro’s goal production dropped from 80 in 2018 to 49 this year. Senior Abby Schacht set the Hawks’ record for goals in a season last year with 31. Schacht led Hillsboro with 15 goals this spring and finished with 71 in her career.
“We’ve been tinkering with the 3-5-2 formation because it gives us more offense,” said Coach Schacht, who is Abby’s father. “They played a deep sweeper and when we played balls up, we didn’t hit our target and they had an easy clear. We generated some offense, but the ball got played behind or the runner wasn’t there yet.
“We had some rough patches this year where we didn’t win some games we thought we would. We didn’t have the offensive firepower we had last year.”
The Owls' season came to an end Tuesday in Cape Girardeau after they lost 2-1 to the Tigers in sectionals. The Tigers beat the Owls 4-0 in Cape Girardeau on March 26.