Spot kicks spark Neuqua Valley victory

Steven Nickla ran all over the field on Tuesday night.

He also landed on it - at least twice.

Both incidents were huge, as they both resulted in successful penalty kicks that lifted Neuqua Valley to a 2-1 overtime victory over rival Metea Valley in Aurora.

"He even beats the linesman downfield," Wildcats coach Arnoldo Gonzalez said. "He was able to continue to get behind the defenders in back and you saw what happened. Those were two clear PKs, both well deserved, because they took him down."

Neuqua Valley (4-2-2, 1-0-0) appeared destined to lose the DuPage Valley Conference opener for both teams 1-0 until Nickla went down with 2:41 left in the game.

Senior Douglas Smith converted the ensuing penalty kick and the game went into overtime.

If this would've been last year, the former members of the Upstate Eight Valley would've exited with a 1-1 tie, but the DuPage Valley Conference's rules afford a maximum of two 10-minute overtimes.

"It was a good thing that we were able to capitalize and send it to overtime," Gonzalez said. "We created opportunities and we played our hearts out, despite giving up that unfortunate goal, and then got the PK at the end."

Metea Valley took the 1-0 lead with 23:48 left in the first half when junior Michael Lothridge's shot bounded right over Neuqua Valley goalkeeper Jonathan Kesler.

It was one of the few solid scoring opportunities as both teams battled hard all night for possession.

"We've got to make sure we take care of our business and maybe get a second goal," Mustangs coach Josh Robinson said. "We didn't do enough to put the game away, but the boys fought hard all game."

Nickla sprinted downfield midway through overtime and was taken down in the penalty box with 4:39 remaining to set up the game-winner.

"I just beat two guys and I ran and saw a little gap between them," he said. "I split between them and they kind of pulled me down a bit. I knew right then that it was going to be a penalty."

Junior Josh Kolzow converted the penalty kick to win the game for the Wildcats.

"We knew we were going to be under pressure because Metea is a good team," Nickla said. "We got our chances at the end of the game. I knew we would and we just took them, I guess, when we got them."

The game was played in heavy rain for much of the second half, which likely limited both team's scoring chances.

"We considered everything before (Tuesday) as our preseason, so that's now over," Gonzalez said. "We know we have the skill, but do we have the will and that's what we pushed for, winning 50/50s, going up in the air and I think we saw 85 minutes of good soccer. It went back and forth because both teams wanted it."

This time it was the Wildcats that got it.