Boys soccer: Addison Trail breathes a sigh of relief

For nearly an hour on Tuesday afternoon, Glenbard West had all the elements of an upset going for it at Addison Trail.

The 13th-seeded Hilltoppers had a hot goalkeeper, a stalwart defense, help from the woodwork and an all-important early goal in their Class 3A Addison Trail boys soccer regional semifinal.

But the third-seeded Blazers kept their wits about them and kept pounding away until they finally got the tying goal to ripple the net, and then the winning goal too. The Blazers advanced to Friday night's final with a 2-1 victory. Addison Trail will host No. 6 Wheaton Warrenville South, a 1-0 winner over Hoffman Estates.

"We picked a bad game to play one of our worst games," Blazers coach Ryan Dini said. "(The Hilltoppers) battled, they battled. They might have had 2 shots all game. We hit the post, crossbar, came out sleeping. Give them credit, though. They've only let up 23 goals all year, so we knew it was going to be a battle. We knew we had to get off to a good start and score right away, and we didn't do that. They did, and we were on our heels."

Glenbard West (9-9-4) scored on its only shot of the first half, a David Reyes free kick from distance. It only got one shot in the second half also, an attempt that sailed high.

After the Glenbard West goal the Blazers went back to pounding shots on Hilltoppers goalkeeper Joav Garcia, who stymied them at every turn.

"Give coach Maciej (Kusmierz) all the credit. We practice a lot during practice," Garcia said.

The Blazers finally broke through in the 56th minute with some nice combination play ending with Jonathan Hernandez feeding Tomasz Kania for an open shot and a 1-1 tie.

"Huge relief," Kania said. "Our momentum just flew through the roof after I scored. We just kept attacking the net and didn't give up after that."

"The goalie was blocking every one of our shots," Hernandez added, "but we just didn't give up."

After Glenbard West went down to 10 men due to a red card in the 70th minute, Hernandez tapped the game-winning goal in from 3 yards following a Christian Santiago corner kick that the Hilltoppers couldn't clear.

"We hit the post so many times that game," Kania said. "The goalie was on fire."

The Blazers moved to 20-1 on the season, their first 20-win season since 1992. They haven't won a regional since 2000, when Dini played for Addison Trail.

"I'm so sad we lost," Garcia said. "... I can taste that win, but things happen on the field."

Dini saw the positives in the Blazers' close call.

"Sometimes you've got to get hit in the mouth to dig deep and find a way. I just like how our guys did stay composed. Once we got that first goal I knew the second one would come," he said.

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