Carey shocks West Chicago twice
Initially, Wheaton Warrenville South senior Max Carey stunned West Chicago.
Then he completely ruined the Wilcats’ night.
West Chicago looked like it had a 1-0 victory in the bag during Tuesday’s DuPage Valley Conference contest. That was until Carey stepped up and buried a 40-yard free kick with just 1:47 left in regulation.
That only forced overtime, though.
After a scoreless overtime period, Carey came through with the game-winner with just 63 seconds left in a second overtime.
Sophomore Patrick Nielsen slipped a pass through the defense to Carey, who outran all defenders before firing a liner just inside the right post.
“Their defense had been shutting me down the entire game,” Carey said. “Patrick played a great ball through the defense, and I was able to slip past them and finish it.”
It was a huge victory for Wheaton Warrenville South (7-4-0, 1-0-0), which took the field in West Chicago having dropped three straight matches.
“We had a tough week playing some quality teams and not getting good results,” Wheaton Warrenville South coach Guy Callipari said. “I thought we played more composed defensively and didn’t just read the entry pass.”
West Chicago (8-3-1, 1-1-0) got rocked around a bit during a 4-1 loss to Benet on Monday and was looking to rebound.
The Wildcats jumped ahead to a 1-0 lead with 18:04 left in the first half. Diego Munoz and Jose Cortes lined up for a corner kick and Munoz sent the ball to Cortes, whose shot was batted away by goalkeeper Tim Reinders. That left Jesus Fernandez open and he pounced on the ball. His cleanup goal stood up until Carey debuted Round 1 of his heroic play.
“It’s tough to put into words how these guys feel and how emotional this was,” West Chicago coach Jose Villa said. “It’s not the end of the season, but it’s a rough OT loss in the DVC. Hopefully, we’ll keep our heads up and take it as a learning experience.”
Steven Porcayo and Ramon Euriloes both had scoring chances in overtime for West Chicago but came up empty. The Wildcats continued the pressure into the second overtime, firing four shots, including a 50-yarder from Edgards Alcantar that Reinders punched away just 50 seconds before Carey came through with his game-winner.
“He’s our top player, so it was great to see him come through like that,” Tigers senior Yusuk Yusuf said. “He made the biggest play when it mattered most.”