SIDNEY — Sidney was inconsistent defensively against nonconference games in regular season but contained a persistent Chaminade-Julienne in a Division I sectional final on a windy and rainy Thursday night.

The Yellow Jackets scored a goal two minutes into the first half to take a lead, then another midway through the second half to break a tie. They held off the Eagles the rest of the way to earn a 2-1 victory at Sidney Memorial Stadium and advance to a district semifinal.

“That was a hard battle,” Sidney coach Kevin Veroneau said. “You could tell how they really wanted it.”

Sidney, which is the sectional’s No. 4 seed, will host No. 6 Beavercreek in a district semi on Monday. The winner will advance to a district final at a neutral site on Thursday.

Chaminade-Julienne (9-6-4) had scored three or more goals five times, including in an 8-0 win over Springfield in a tournament opener on Monday. Senior forward Ava Peck led the Greater Catholic League Co-Ed Division with 17 assists and scored 13 goals in regular season; freshman forward Atuganile Mwamukonda had scored 14 goals.

The No. 7 seed Eagles possessed the ball for much of the first half and early in the second half, when they scored on a long shot to tie it.

“They were high pressuring and going after every ball, and they were putting us under some great pressure,” Veroneau said. “We talked about how we needed to alleviate that pressure. The first half, we were knocking a lot of balls down, and they would just eat them up.

“In the second half, we tried to go over that block line and try to get our forwards in 1 vs. 1’s. They responded. In the second half, you could see the game sort of changed. We were starting to attack more and not just sitting. On the goal, I thought we just sat back and were passive, and they were attacking. We changed our mentality and attacked after that.”

Sidney (13-2-3) controlled it for most of the rest of the way and scored with about 20 minutes left. Senior forward Olivia Barga passed from the left side through traffic to sophomore Kenzi Koester, who kicked it in from a few yards out.

“One of the biggest things we tell our forwards is not to stop and watch,” Veroneau said. “They’ll do that at times, and we tell them to keep going, keep battling for the ball. Don’t stop. We call that taking a play off. …We’ve been working on that, and that’s been something (Koester has) been working on all season. She kept going to that ball.

Sophomore Katie McKinney scored Sidney’s first goal on an assist from junior Larkyn Vordemark to give the squad an early lead.

“We talked about their back line and their keeper was always back, and there was space behind their backs, so we told them the whole game to look for those early balls,” Veroneau said. “We had several that we were not able to get on.

“We told them to play quicker, especially tournament time. For the most part, we looked to play quicker, and we had success when we did. It’s when we did not play quickly that we struggled.”

The Yellow Jackets have shut out eight opponents this year but have allowed three or more goals four times. Veroneau said he was proud of the defensive effort on Thursday.

“When we scouted them against Fairmont, they would work for corner kicks, and we told our girls no corner kicks,” Veroneau said. “I think we only ended up giving one or two the whole game.

“Then we knew they would take it to the end line and cross, so we told the girls we had to win those crosses. If we win the crosses, we’re good. They wanted to get it to their big girls, especially (Mwamukonda).

“… Defensively, we did a nice job of stopping them. We just had the one long-range shot that we mishandled, but other than that, we kept them to long-range shots.”

One of the Yellow Jackets’ rough defensive outings in regular season was against Beavercreek; they beat the Beavers 5-4 on Oct. 2.

Beavercreek (10-8-1) beat No. 3 Vandalia-Butler 1-0 in a sectional final on Thursday to advance.

“We scored plenty of goals against Beavercreek. Our problem was we gave up too many,” Veroneau said. “The girls know we can score against them. Now we just need to keep a clean sheet in back.”

Reach Bryant Billing at 937-538-4818, or follow @SidneyOHSports on Twitter and @BryantBillingSDN on Facebook.