Burlington Central feasting this postseason

Steve Gertz finally gave in.

Burlington Central's first-year athletic director remarked with about 9 minutes left to play in Tuesday's Class 2A Barrington boys soccer supersectional that he hadn't had dinner yet. But he also said he hadn't eaten before the end of a match during the postseason.

I pointed to the concession stand behind us and Gertz said, “No, not yet. I'm superstitious.”

With 6 minutes to go, and the Rockets still ahead of Lakes 3-0, Gertz finally gave in and headed over to grab some dinner.

The way Burlington Central dominated 70 of the 80 minutes of play on Barrington's pitch, Gertz would have been safe satisfying his hunger much earlier.

The simple fact of this match was that the Rockets were the superior team. They stayed focused early on, got the lead when senior standout Erik Uribe hit the back of the net on a rebound with 9:41 left in the first half, withstood Lakes' best shot late in the half, then dominated the second half.

And now they're headed to the state semifinals, the first Burlington Central boys team to advance to a Final Four in any sport, following in the footsteps of the state runner-up girls volleyball team of 2008 and the third-place state softball team of 2009.

“There are no words I can use right now to describe how I feel,” said sixth-year Rockets' coach Mike Gecan, shortly after sharing a congratulatory embrace from Gertz. “I feel a little shocked, but we definitely knew we were good enough to beat this team.”

The Rockets have been more than good enough throughout the postseason. For a program that had never won a regional championship prior to a couple weeks ago, they sure have seized the moment. They've done so with an offense that keeps the ball in the other team's half more than not. They've done so with a defense that may bend a little but never breaks. And they've done so with a hot goalkeeper in junior Riley Jensen, who withstood Lakes' push in the final 15 seconds of Tuesday's first half like a seasoned veteran.

“It's an incredible feeling, like nothing else in the world,” said senior captain Kyle Reopelle. “This means so much to us as a team and as a school. It means a lot, knowing we're raising the bar for future soccer teams at Central.”

Uribe says that staying within themselves is what has made the Rockets so tough this season.

“You try to just think game-by-game,” he said, “and I think that's what has gotten us this far. Our confidence has grown a lot ever since we knew we were state material and this is just an amazing feeling.”

Reopelle and Uribe both agreed winning the regional title match over a very good Marmion team was the key point for the Rockets.

“Once we got over that first hump and won the regional, that was it,” Reopelle said. “We felt like if we could beat a solid team like Marmion we could go downstate and that it could be a special postseason.”

“The regional final was the start to us building our confidence,” Uribe agreed. “This is just the best feeling, and the greatest way to end my high school career.”

Gecan, still breathing in the euphoria of the moment, said he had a feeling this could be a special team.

“I knew we'd be pretty good within our conference,” he said of his Big Northern East champs. “And I thought we could win a regional but we had never done that. That was our goal as a team. At this point it's all a bonus and they're playing hard and with a lot of confidence.

“At this point there's not much coaching going on. It's what we've talked about all season. It's play to win. It's not about tying or losing. This is the postseason and you play to win.”

As the Rockets will on Friday, when they face Ridgewood in the state semifinals at North Central College in Naperville.

Match time is 11 a.m.

And if BC plays like it has been, lunch will not be served late, and it will probably taste pretty good.