Boylan needed penalty kicks to win its sectional. Here's the breakdown

Izze Fritz fed Maggie Schmidt to get Boylan into position, and then another penalty-kick barrage sent the Titans soaring to the Class 2A Freeport Sectional title with a 2-1 win on Friday night.

Boylan (19-1) lost 3-1 to St. Charles East in the season opener and has now rattled off 19 straight victories. The latest boosted the Titans into next week's Grayslake Central Supersectional against Deerfield at 5 p.m. Tuesday.

A win there would vault Boylan into the 2A state finals played at North Central College in Naperville next Friday and Saturday.

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"That's been our goal all along," Boylan coach Taylor Meyers said. "This was quite an emotional game, and to get past this one is huge. My blood pressure was all over the place in this one."

Fritz got her team-leading 16th assist by feeding Schmidt for her team-best 28th goal with just under three minutes left in the second half for the first score of the night. But Crystal Lake Central (16-3) got it right back, popping one in over Boylan's freshman goalie Natalya Razo's head just 30 seconds later to knot it up.

Neither team could get anything going in overtime, and Boylan won its third game in penalty kicks.

"When it went to PKs, we really felt pretty good," Meyers said. "We knew we could do it. We had that confidence built in, and we were ready for it."

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Boylan got PK goals from Mae Nuccio, Annie Rose and Schmidt, and Razo made the key save that sealed the deal. Another of CLC's shots during PKs hit the crossbar and went out.

That's when Boylan's celebration really kicked in.

"They wanted this one," Meyers said, "so bad."

Boylan earned its spot in the sectional title game by staving off Cary Grove 2-0 in one of the sectional semifinals on Tuesday night. Now they just need to win three more games in a row to do exactly what the Boylan boys soccer team did back in the fall — lose the season opener, and then run the table and win the rest of their games, including the state-title game.

"The momentum and the energy we have right now," Meyers said, "is pretty powerful. We're ready to get back to business, and get after it, right away."

Jay Taft is a Rockford Register Star sports reporter. Email him at jtaft@rrstar.com and follow him on Twitter at @JayTaft. Sign up for the Rockford High School newsletter at rrstar.com.