Hat's off to Wheeling's Soto in OT win
Wheeling came back from a 2-goal deficit and then watched Abraham Soto explode for an overtime hat trick to lead a 5-2 victory over Prospect in a key Mid-Suburban East match in Mount Prospect on Tuesday night.
The victory helped pull the Wildcats (8-6-0, 2-2-0) even with Prospect in the MSL table with 4 points each in the race for a spot in the Soccer Bowl next month.
"It was a little frustrating watching our guys have the better run of play in that first half, yet go into the break trailing (1-0), then falling behind by another goal," said Wheeling coach Ed Uhrik.
"But I am real proud that we didn't give up when we fell 2 goals down, and then come back to get a big win tonight."
The Wildcats had a far brighter start than the home-side, and appeared more likely to score until the Knights (5-5-0, 2-3-0) made the breakthrough in the 12th minute with a bolt right out of the blue.
Tom Kujawa broke the Wildcats aggressive offside trap to outrun a pair of defenders to a ball sent through by Peter McBride on the left side. Kujawa calmly hit a low drive the other way and past keeper Ricardo Ballesteros, who was starting his third straight match for the injured Tom Lupa.
Trevor Rubin, Joel DelToro, Ricky Garcia, Leo Elizalde and Soto created countless chances throughout the first half, only to be denied by a combination of Knights' keeper Eric VanDivier, bad luck, good defending and an the inability to be more direct than lateral when possessing inside their opponents box.
"(Wheeling) dominated in that first half, and in the second half I thought we solved some of our issues that we were having and played (them) pretty well," said Prospect coach Kurt Trenkle. "But after that, Wheeling just ran through our middle and caused all sorts of problems for us."
Kujawa would make it 2-0 with a wonderful effort to re-direct a corner from Jose Legueur at 50 minutes for his 11th goal of the season.
An inspired effort from Rubin brought the visitors within one at the hour mark. VanDivier stopped his initial penalty kick attempt from the spot, then a second on the rebound, only to have Dan Hehn keep things alive in close to allow Rubin to slot along the endline.
Seven minutes later, Elizalde provided the equalizer on a brilliant shot which he wrapped around VanDivier from the left side and into the far right inside netting.
"This was just too big of a match for us to just give up," Rubin said.
After that, all Wheeling needed to do was look for its man-of-the-match in Soto.
The junior gave his club its first lead on the night with a superb touch to chip up and over VanDivier on a Joel DelToro helper. Moments later he used a hint of touch inside to finish off a scrum inside the 6.
In the 98th minute, Soto would add his third goal to seal the win.
"That's the first time that I've ever (scored) 3 goals like that, and it happened at the right time for us," said Soto.