JACKSONVILLE – Alton’s first venture into Class 2A girls playoff soccer came to an end Saturday with a 3-0 loss to Jacksonville at Illinois College in a play-in game of the IHSA Class 2A Mattoon Regional.
Alton, which moved the 2A from Class 3A this season with IHSA realignment for girls soccer, trailed 3-0 at halftime
The Redbirds, who battled low roster number all season, finished their season 3-19 overall. To make their numbers problems worse, injuries, as well as the Alton High graduation ceremony Saturday morning, dropped them to one sub available for Saturday’s afternoon start.
Jacksonville will advance to he semifinal round of the Mattoon Regional Tuesday and face No. 1 seed Springfield High School at 4:30 p.m.. The Crimsons are now 11-13 on the season. The winner of their game against Springfield will play for the regional championship.
Saturday’s victory was Jacksonville’s first postseason win in 11 years. The game was moved to IC from Jacksonville’s Alumni Field after rain earlier in the day.
Alton created some scoring chances early in Saturday’s game, but Jacksonville took the lead when Madalyn DeFrates scored in the 19th minute to make it 1-0.
Ten minutes later, Jacksonville doubled its lead when Payton Murray scored with 10:52 left in the first half.
Myah Mefford capped the scoring for the Crimsons with a goal in the 37th minute, assisted by DeFrates, to make it 3-0.
Jacksonville goalie The Redbirds got off some dangerous scoring chances in the first half, but were turned away by starting goalie Chloe Kuhn, who made a pair of leaping saves and tipped the ball over top of the goal. Kuhn was replaced in goal by Mefford in the second half and they shared the shutout.