Boys soccer: CL South's big comeback sinks Carmel Catholic
Crystal Lake South's boys soccer team had its back to the wall, trailing by 3 goals late in the their match against host Carmel Catholic on Thursday afternoon.
The Gators eventually broke through that wall, scoring three times in the final 16 minutes before Andrew Grabowski scored a golden goal in overtime to win it.
Third-seeded Crystal Lake South defeated second-seeded Carmel Catholic 4-3 in the PepsiCo Showdown semifinals of the Gatorade bracket in Mundelein.
The Gators (8-2-1, 3-0) have earned a place in the championship game to be played Sept. 25 at the campus of Illinois Tech in Chicago.
"I challenged our guys at half, because they left some goals out there in the first half," said Crystal Lake South coach Brian Allen, whose team is making its first appearance in the tournament. "Credit Carmel - we gave them chances and they buried them (in the first half). But this team has been great since the Warren loss. We challenged them really early.
"So at 3-0, I couldn't say we were confident. We knew that we had to get one, then the confidence started to grow. We knew our fitness, work rate and energy might play to our advantage. Because we knew (Carmel) had played three games in a row. They might have some heavy legs. We knew if we could keep pressing and put them under, then the pressure keeps going. The momentum starts to change."
Grabowski scored the winner in the 83rd minute off a pass from Alan Canfield that sent the entire Gators' team into a celebration.
"First, it started with Alex (Canfield), he stepped up, pressured the guy and won the ball," said Grabowski, who has 6 goals in the last 3 games and 13 for the season. "Then he played a perfect ball, and all I did is get the ball and play it to the far post, and it ended up going in."
Crystal Lake South started its rally in the 64th minute when Nikolas Getzinger scored on a header off a throw-in from Adam Greenfield. Getzinger scored again on another header in the goal area following a free kick from Jack Wruck seven minutes later.
Grabowski tied it in the 75th minute, when he took a through ball from Getzinger and found the back of the net.
Carmel Catholic (6-4-1, 2-1) got off to a great start in the first half with 3 goals of its own in a six-minute span.
John Grzesiak tallied the first one off a Chris Galla pass in the 27th minute for a 1-0 lead. Michael Alemu scored toward the end line off a touch from Robert Rao three minutes later.
The Corsairs added one more in 32nd minute, as Brett Cloe scored off a pass from Alemu for the 3-0 advantage.
"We let this one get away," Carmel Catholic coach Ray Krawzak said. "(Crystal Lake South) wanted it more. They put more effort in than we did.
"If you look at the two teams, (Crystal Lake South was) better than us today. They deserved to win the game. We need to take this experience and learn from it."