Sectional title shot for Burlington

BELVIDERE -- Burlington Central can't get much better on defense.

After pitching a shutout to win the first regional boys soccer championship in school history, the Rockets doubled the efforts with a 2-0 victory over Freeport in a semifinal game of the Class 2A Belvidere sectional Wednesday afternoon.

The win marks the first on the sectional level in the history of the Central boys soccer program.

The Rocekts will be looking to add to the hardware when they face Sterling for a sectional title at 4:30 p.m. Friday at Belvidere.

But all of the credit for the shutouts doesn't belong exclusively to the defense.

“I don't think it's just the defense,” Central defender Zach Jochum said. “Our offense helps out by pushing it forward. (Goalkeeper) Riley Jensen came through in the clutch (as well).”

Central's offense knew it was going to need to get on the board early with the strong wind blowing through Funderberg Stadium. The Rockets (18-4-3) did just that as Kyle Reopelle and Erick Uribe each notched unassisted goals in the first half.

Reopelle, who scored the lone goal in Central's 1-0 regional title victory over Marian Central, put the Rockets up 1-0 with 26:19 remaining before halftime time and Uribe extended the Rockets' lead to 2-0 when he shot a ball past Freeport goalkeeper Justin Holden (7 saves) with 13:59 left in the first half.

“We wanted to come out as hard as we could at the beginning,” Rockets' coach Mike Gecan said. “We wanted more chances (in the first half) because we knew the wind would play a factor.”

The Rockets outshot Freeport (9-8-5) 9-6 in the game, but were tied 3-3 for shots on goal in the second half. The Rockets wanted to make sure to mark Freeport junior forward Mike Gordon during the game. Although the Rockets play a zone defense, they knew that Gordon was the type of player who could score at any moment.

He nearly did after getting an open shot on Jensen (6 saves) with 4:08 left to play. But Jensen made a quick grab to prevent the goal.

Even though Central was able to go up 2-0 at halftime, the Rocekts never relaxed because of the weapons Freeport possessed. Uribe had 2 good shots on goal in the second half, but both times Holden was able to come up with the save.

“It gave us a bit of a cushion, but we knew we had to be careful,” Uribe said of the early lead. “They have some dangerous players and we had to be smart.”