Neuqua Valley rallies to win in overtime

It's difficult for teams to rally from two goals down to win a soccer match.

It's even more of an accomplishment when you do it in the ultra-competitive DuPage Valley Conference.

Neuqua Valley fell behind 2-0 early but responded with a 4-3 victory in overtime to beat Glenbard North on Tuesday.

"We felt like we were dominating the game, but mental mistakes cost us and that was something we talked about at halftime," Wildcats coach Arnoldo Gonzalez said. "It was a concern of whether we could go out there and get focused in the second half or not and score that first goal and then the next ones, and it worked for us."

Junior Josh Kolzow scored a little more than a minute into the overtime to lift the Wildcats to the thrilling come-from-behind victory.

"It was right up there (with any other goal) for me," he said of his goal with 8:56 remaining in the overtime. "It wasn't one of the hardest goals and I couldn't believe how open I was. I think everyone was tired and just walking to their spots, and I was walking too. I just saw that I was open and hit it to the bottom left."

The Wildcats had rallied behind 3 second-half goals to stun the Panthers.

"I think if we could've gotten that third goal then maybe we would've been fine," Panthers coach Gregg Koeller said. "I'm not one of those coaches who thinks the 2-0 lead is the worst in soccer. I'll take it every game. They just came back with a vengeance, but we shouldn't have been in that situation to begin with so it's something we'll need to fix before the state tournament."

Neuqua Valley (9-8-1, 5-3-0) pulled to within 2-1 with 24:32 left in the game on Douglas Smith's penalty kick.

The Wildcats carried that momentum into the game-tying goal with 14:31 left thanks to Spencer Wierse's goal that was assisted by Laith Alhindi.

They seemingly took the lead for good then with 7:44 left on a goal from Billy Heniades from Calum Nettleton, but the Panthers wouldn't go away quietly.

Junior Eduardo Guereca scored with just 1:38 remaining in regulation to force overtime for the Panthers (12-4-2, 5-3-0).

"We never should've been in the position to play in overtime to begin with," Koeller said. "We made plenty of mistakes in the second half that we just can't make against a team like this."

Before the respective teams could even catch their breaths - despite a five-minute break before overtime - Kolzow delivered his game-winning shot.

"Even though we're out of the conference race, this is a big win for us," he said. "We came out and got it done against a good team."