BELLEVILLE – The Father McGivney Catholic High School girls soccer team ran into its Achilles heel of the 2025 season, the Columbia Eagles, Tuesday night, battling it out for the Belleville (Althoff Catholic) Sectional championship.
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Columbia, McGivney’s lone regular-season loss back on May 5, completed the double over their newly cemented Metro-East rivals, getting a goal with 8:47 left in the game, securing the 1-0 victory.
It ends another historic season for the Griffins, ending the campaign at 24-2, with both losses to Columbia.
“That’s special right there,” Columbia head coach Jamey Bridges said. “To say to a team that’s 24-2, and your two losses are us, I hope these girls, they’ll appreciate it one day.”
This season saw a third straight regional title for McGivney. Tuesday’s sectional championship was the farthest the Griffins had ever come in the postseason.
Last season, the top-seeded Griffins lost in the Belleville (Althoff Catholic) Sectional semifinals to the host Crusaders in a penalty shootout. Althoff would go on to win its third state title, beating Williamsville 1-0 in the IHSA Class 1A championship game.
The year before that, McGivney lost 3-1 to Freeburg in the Columbia Sectional semifinals.
Columbia halted a 17-game Griffins win streak back on May 5. Tuesday night, the Eagles ended their season.
The game seemed destined for overtime after the first 70 minutes of play, deadlocked at 0-0. But Columbia poured on the pressure with time winding down.
It led to a throw-in way downfield, one that was thrown into the 18-yard box. The ball bounced through a maze of defenders before Madi Ross headed it up and over McGivney goalkeeper Peyton Ellis to take a 1-0 lead in the 71st minute.
McGivney pushed for an equalizer that never came.
The best effort to tie things up came in the 76th minute when Rachel Kretzer’s corner kick bounced right to Devin Ellis, but her shot from right outside the six-yard box was straight at Columbia keeper Jessica Bearley.
McGivney’s other key chance came in the 54th minute when the team’s leading goal scorer, Natalie Beck, launched a left-footed shot from inside the 18-yard box that went high of the crossbar by inches.
“I know the score doesn’t reflect it, but I thought we were the better team,” Father McGivney head coach Matthew McVicar said. “Credit to them, their defense kept them in it, and they capitalized on a chance they had. We were doing what we needed to do, we were controlling the game, just one little mishap, and that’s all it takes to put something in.”
The Griffins played their typical, possession-based, lots-of-passing style of soccer, and it seemed to be wearing down Columbia.
“I think defensively, physically, all of us were exhausted,” Bridges said. “[McGivney] were exhausted. We knew if we got one, we could lock in defensively. That’s what happened.”
Columbia improves to 22-2-3 and moves on to Saturday’s Virden (North Mac) Super-Sectional at 11 a.m. The Eagles are just one win away from getting back to the state tournament, one that they won back in 2019.
“We’ve said that, but I hate saying that,” Bridges said when asked if this year’s team reminded him of 2019’s. “We’ve said it. It feels like it a little bit. This team’s special for sure. I don’t think super [sectionals] will be as easy as they were in 2019, but nothing’s given.”
They won’t be. The Eagles will face Quincy Notre Dame (17-7-1) in the super.
McGivney ends a fourth-straight winning season at 24-2.
“Last two years, we’ve set records for wins, records for shutouts, records for whatever. Three regional championships and conferences in a row,” McVicar said.
“And the teams that we’ve beat this year; it’s been an amazing accomplishment. Just, Columbia didn’t happen to be one of them.”
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