Girls soccer: Berkley Mensik’s hat trick sends Dundee-Crown to 3A sectional title game

ROUND LAKE – Senior Berkley Mensik has come through time and time again this season for Dundee-Crown.

Tuesday was no exception.

The Notre Dame commit scored twice in the second overtime to lead the Chargers to a Class 3A Round Lake Sectional semifinal win, 3-1, over Lake Zurich.

The Chargers (15-5) will play Barrington, a 2-0 winner over Hononegah in Tuesday’s other semifinal, at 5 p.m. Friday for the sectional championship.

Still tied at 1-1 late in the second overtime, Mensik received a pass slightly outside the Lake Zurich box with just under five minutes to go when she took a shot and placed it over the head of the Lake Zurich keeper to put the Chargers up 2-1. Three minutes later, she dribbled the ball across roughly three-quarters of the field, took a touch past the goalie, and placed it in the net with 15 seconds remaining to seal the win.

“It was the best feeling I think I’ve ever felt,” Mensik said. “Especially with all of our fans, everything, and hugging my teammates to celebrate the goal, it was everything. The third goal meant the most for our team because it really shows that we’ve never been here but we deserve to be here.”

Mensik tapped in the first goal of the game when she received a pass from Ariana Hernandez. Dundee-Crown held onto that lead for 55 minutes until Lauren Bailey got the Bears even late.

“That was the best defense we’ve ever played this year,” Chargers coach Rob Moulton said. “We were very tested early and often, but these girls responded very well.”

The Bears (13-6-2), despite playing from behind for most of regulation, kept the pressure on D-C.

“I’m really proud of our team and how they fought,” Lake Zurich coach Mike Castronova said. “We had some chances that I wish we could’ve put away, but it just didn’t go our way. I’m just really proud of them for giving it their all and leaving it all on the field today.”

Mensik, who is playing high school soccer for the first time this spring after previously focusing on club soccer, is excited for the opportunity to play Barrington.

“Being able to say, no matter what the score is, that we played Barrington is going to be huge,” Mensik said. “Everyone... knows that Barrington is the top-tier school. We only won one game last year, so being able to say that we’ve had the opportunity and we’ve worked so hard to play a team like Barrington shows so much.”

Moulton, the first-year head coach, is pleased with the senior leadership from this team and is thrilled for Friday’s championship match.

“We’re making history here,” Moulton said. “We’ve been through a lot of battles, we’ve been tested, and it just shows that we can fight through adversity and we can play our hearts out, and that’s what we’ve been doing.”