Vasiloff's Brace Sends Warriors Past Quincy And Into Regional Final Against Edwardsville

ALTON – After Edwardsville defeated Alton 7-0 in the night’s first Class 3A Alton Regional semifinal Wednesday afternoon, No. 3-seeded Granite City took on No. 6-seeded Quincy to see who would join the Tigers in the final on Saturday.

Last year’s regional semifinal game between the Blue Devils and Warriors had to be decided by a penalty shootout. This time around it wasn’t so dramatic, as Granite City went on to a comfortable 4-1 win.

“No, I didn’t want it to be anywhere near like it was last year,” Granite City head coach Kenny Prazma joked after the win.

His team couldn’t have gotten off to a better start, scoring just 43 seconds into the game.

Taylor Carson’s shot forced a save from the Quincy goalkeeper and Madison Vasiloff was there to collect the scraps and poke one home to take an early lead. It was her 26^th goal of the season.

The lead lasted for just a quarter of an hour as in the 17^th minute Quincy scored from a corner kick to level the game.

It was all looking a bit too familiar for coach Prazma.

“It was kind of a Deja vu moment because Maddie [Vasiloff] scored the first goal last year and then they got one off a corner kick just exactly like it was this evening. It kind of threw me back to last year and I was like oh my god, not again.”

The Blue Devils nearly took the lead in the 22^nd minute when a headed opportunity just fizzed wide.

The Warriors had the better of the chances in the first half and it led to their second goal in the 36^th minute. Savanhna Khammanyvong used her speed to score after a lengthy run that began just inside half field. She scored her 10^th of the season to grab a 2-1 lead right before halftime.

“I thought the first half was okay, the second half went a little bit better. I think some of [Quincy’s] players may have got a little tired, which left room for Maddie and Savanhna to do some work. They put some nice passes together and made some nice runs,” Prazma said about his two star forwards.

After Quincy hit the crossbar in the 48^th minute, Khammanyvong went the other way in a hurry and got tripped up inside the 18-yard box. The referee pointed straight to the spot for a penalty kick which Abby Knight stepped up to calmly and converted to double her team’s lead.

20 minutes later, Khammanyvong found Vasiloff with a perfect through ball and she made no mistake of finding the back of the net.

Khammanyvong had a say in three of the four goals on the night. Along with her 10 goals on the season, she’s racked up 19 assists.

“She’s really good with the ball at her feet, it’s hard to beat her,” Prazma said. “[Quincy] was playing physical which is what you have to do to beat her. But I think they were getting tired. Her and Maddie got through and knocked in a couple.”

With the result, the Warriors improve to 11-5-4 on the season and move on to the regional championship game against Edwardsville on Saturday, May 18 at 3 p.m. at Public School Stadium in Alton.

Edwardsville narrowly beat Granite City 1-0 back on May 6^th thanks to Ellie Neath’s late goal with 1:26 left in the game.

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