Soccer, to paraphrase T.S. Elliot, is the cruelest sport.

The state tournament series uses a knockout format.

The win-or-go-home nature is endemic to every IHSA state championship. 

The geographic bracketing arrangement throughout the state and unequal talent distribution means not every route to the state championship is the same.

Similar to the old Chicago Public League clashes in boys basketball, some programs had to endure a gauntlet just to advance. 

Plainfield North beat defending state champion Metea Valley in the sectional championship.

The Tigers lost in a penalty shootout to O’Fallon in the supersectional.

The way the brackets played out, it seemed pretty evident the winner from that area had a direct path to the state final against Barrington at the top half of the bracket.

O'Fallon started just one senior, but what a senior she was. Kiley McMinn was named the IHSSCA Player of the Year. The Marquette recruit scored 49 goals on the season, including one in the 2-0 semifinal win and the late overtime game-winner in the 1-0 championship match.

With 10 returning starters, the Panthers will open next season as the clear no. 1 team atop the Chicagoland Soccer First 50 poll.

At the start of this season, then defending Class 3A state champ Metea Valley was at the top of that list.

The Final 50 is the season-comprehensive grouping that mashes together the Chicagoland Soccer regular-season polls: the Top 25; the Illinois 10; and the Class A and Class AA Super 7 lists.

Back to the original point, the state tournament format is cruel and unyielding. 

Surveying the outcomes, so many overlapping factors come into play — luck, timing, injuries and the unexpected.

Metea Valley senior star Jordan Lange—the reigning Player of the Year—was limited to just 13 games due to an injury.

Plainfield North standout Emma Duval, a Tennessee recruit, tore her ACL.

Naperville North freshman phenom Claire DeCook, who scored 16 goals in 11 games, suffered the same cruel fate.

That top-end, elite talent is often the difference the deeper the state tournament goes.

Scoring is not egalitarian. Elite players have a particular knack for finishing.

“I always know to look for Kiley, and know where she is going to be, because she is always in the right place,” O’Fallon’s Allie Tredway said after McMinn sealed the Class 3A championship deal.

McMinn has accomplished the singular achievement of scoring the game-winning goals in two state championship matches.

Her free kick goal beat Lyons 1-0 in the 2021 Class 3A state championship game.

That season was thought to be an outlier after the entire previous year was wiped out by the pandemic.

That O’Fallon victory completed a three-game state championship sweep by St. Louis schools, following the Class A victory of Althoff and the Class AA championship of Triad.

Triad followed up with another state championship last year, beating Benet in the final.

The double overtime victories Saturday of Glenwood over Benet, and O’Fallon over Barrington are telling and deeper indicators of the shifting power dynamics throughout the state.

In the first 14 years of the girls’ state tournament series, University (Normal), which was also the Class A state champion this season, was the only program outside of Chicago to qualify for a state championship.

Significantly, that year (2001) marked the advent of the two-class system.

It was not until 2006, in Class A, that two teams from outside the Chicago area — Rockford Lutheran and Gibault — played for a state championship.

In 2010, Notre Dame (Quincy) defeated Manteno in Class A, and Althoff beat St. Viator in Class AA.

Those were the first examples of a downstate program beating a Chicago-area school in a state championship game.

In 2011, Granite City defeated Naperville North 1-0, a milestone game with the first victory by a southern Illinois program over a Chicago powerhouse in the large-school division.

Naperville North, New Trier and Barrington dominated the next decade, combining for eight consecutive state championships.

Now, O’Fallon can be mentioned in the same breath with two state titles in three years.

Perspective and balance are called for, given the two state championship games decided Saturday both required double overtime.

Barrington was arguably the better team in the two overtime periods until Tredway’s electrifying assist set up the McMinn goal.

O'Fallon's play earned the top spot in the Final 50.

Teams from outside Chicagoland have won eight of the last nine state titles in the past three years.

Now the question is: how will Chicago-area programs with state championship aspirations respond?

We eagerly await next spring to find out.

 

Key: FRSR-final regular-season ranking; PR-Preseason First 50 ranking; NR-not ranked; HM-honorable mention: I10-Illinois 10 final ranking; A-Class A Super 7 poll final ranking; AA-Class AA Super 7 poll ranking.