‘The highlight of my year’: Thomas sisters elated for QND girls soccer team to eliminate SHG in sectional

GREENVILLE, Ill. — For how much beating Springfield Sacred Heart-Griffin means to the Quincy Notre Dame girls soccer team, look no further than Sierra and Alena Thomas’ thoughts on that subject.

“Sometimes I feel like our team wants to beat them more than we want to beat (Quincy High School), honestly,” said Sierra Thomas, a sophomore center back.

That makes beating them an unforgettable experience for Alena, Sierra’s sister and a junior wing back.

“This is probably going to be the highlight of my year, my entire high school career,” Alena Thomas said.

The stakes of the Raiders’ and Cyclones’ most recent clash was a battle for the Class 1A Greenville Sectional championship on Tuesday. The teams have met in the postseason in four consecutive years, three times with a sectional title on the line, and the Cyclones have won the last two meetings, so the Thomas sisters’ high marks for this rivalry are understandable.

“We want to beat SHG so bad,” Sierra Thomas said.

Sierra’s goal was responsible for making that happen this time around. She scored in the 12th minute, and that tally stood up as the lone score in the Raiders’ 1-0 victory over the Cyclones, sending the Raiders to their first super-sectional since 2022.

“I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I just scored against SHG,’” Sierra Thomas said.

The goal came off Lilly Schuette’s corner kick from the right corner flag. Senior forward Makayla Patton headed Schuette’s outward swinging ball toward the right post, where Sierra Thomas volleyed the ball out of the air with her right foot and into the top of the net.

“It was like, ‘Oh my gosh, we’re up 1-0. We’re beating them right now,’” Sierra Thomas said. “It was such a great feeling. It was so exciting.”

That sequence looked a lot like a designed play the Raiders sometimes run on corner kicks, but it was not called in that situation. Patton and Sierra Thomas simply used their instincts to get to the right spots at the right time, and it resulted in the Raiders’ most impactful goal of the season.

“We didn’t call that play, but that’s how it works, and that’s the ball that was hit,” Raiders coach Mark Thomas said. “Makayla adjusted really, really well and headed it back into a dangerous spot, and Sierra was there like she should be. We’re really dangerous on those. It was nice to see that one go in.”

Patton, who had just subbed back into the game before that corner, received a well-placed ball by Schuette and made the unselfish play to get the ball to Thomas.

“It was a great corner,” Patton said. “Lilly hit it over, and I didn’t have very good balance, but I just tried to get it back into where somebody could get it, and Sierra was there and put it in.”

From that point, the Raiders’ stingy defense made life difficult for the Cyclones — specifically all-state midfielder Caroline Sheehan, who had 28 goals in 20 games entering Friday’s contest.

“We were really concerned about (Sheehan),” Mark Thomas said. “She’s a fantastic player, and they go through her for a lot of things. We thought if we didn’t even allow her to get the ball, we would do a good job. Sage (Stratton), Lilly, Bayley (Weisenberger), Sierra, even our wing backs would pinch in sometimes. We really tried to find her and not allow them to find her. They’re so used to going through her. They adjusted a little bit, but she’s just so dangerous. She’s a really good striker of the ball, so you can’t give her chances.”

Sheehan got one of those chances in the 76th minute when she got on the end of Norah Long’s cross in a similar position to where Sierra Thomas scored. However, she sent a header trickling just wide of the far post.

“It almost looked like it was going to hit the post and go in, but it was almost like it curved out a little bit,” Alena Thomas said. “It was a few inches off. I was so scared, honestly.”

Mark Thomas, Alena and Sierra’s father, was impressed with Alena and the rest of the QND defense. The Raiders have not allowed a goal in the last 143 minutes, 13 seconds, dating back to their 3-1 victory over Alton Marquette in the sectional semifinals.

“Alena is gutsy,” Mark Thomas said. “She played one of her best games of her career. Sierra is just solid in the back. Bayley (Weisenberger) did a great job. Overall, our team defense really ignites us. That’s not just the goalkeeper and the defenders — that’s all the work the midfielders do in front and our forwards do, too. If we can win the ball in the other team’s half of the field, we’re even more dangerous.”

The Raiders last beat Sacred Heart-Griffin 3-2 in the 2022 sectional championship game, the first of four consecutive one-goal victories on their way to a Class 1A state title.

Was Friday’s one-goal triumph a bit of foreshadowing? If the Raiders can string together three more performances like the one they put forth on Friday, Sierra Thomas likes their chances.

“We’ve worked so hard to get here, and I think we were the better team tonight,” Sierra Thomas said. “We can keep going. If we keep working as a team, we can keep going and keep winning.”

Her sister agrees.

“My dad always says, ‘It’s about the present. It’s about this one. You focus on this one, then you go forward,’” Alena Thomas said. “I had my mind fully on SHG, but I’m ready to see what happens next.”

The Raiders (15-7-1) will face Columbia at 11 a.m. Saturday at North Mac High School in Virden for the right to go to the final four.

“One more to go to get to state,” Mark Thomas said. “It’s been a fun ride so far.”