DeForest’s Cinderella Run Ended In State Semifinal
Wauwatosa East celebrating following their 1-0 victory over DeForest
Deforest’s Cinderella run finally met its match on Thursday, but the Norskies never stopped fighting. Making their first ever state tournament appearance after an improbable postseason run that saw them knock off three higher seeded opponents, DeForest entered Milwaukee as the ultimate underdog.
Wauwatosa East, controlled the match from the opening whistle. Senior Abbie Toyama found the back of the net just four minutes into the game off an assist from Chloe Kizewski. From that point, the Red Raiders never looked back.
While the score remained one sided. Tosa East dictated possession, outshot Deforest 19-1 in the whole game, and finished with 10 corner kicks as well. Toyama continued the form that got her selected to our Best X11 Team of the Week during sectionals. She was everywhere, recording four shots with three on goal while constantly terrorizing the Norskie defense.
To DeForest’s credit, they continued to battle through a physical midfield contest and several second half counterattacks. Goalkeeper Kobi Burdick made 11 saves while conceding just 1 the entire match, continuing to show how solid DeForest is on defense.
However, Wauwatosa East’s organized pressing, clean passing, and relentless pressure proved too much, securing a convincing 1-0 victory and a spot in the D2 state title match against the defending champions, Brookfield Central, which will be played at 11:00am on Saturday.
J.J. Mei, Wisco Mei-Hem