Batavia rallies by Waubonsie V.
Batavia’s seniors have had a final season to remember.
Freshman Ian Larson ensured the memories will continue.
Larson had a pair of assists in the second half and the Bulldogs rallied for a 2-1 victory over Waubonsie Valley on Saturday afternoon in the Class 3A Waubonsie Valley regional championship in Aurora to earn a spot in Tuesday’s Naperville North sectional.
The Bulldogs advance to next Tuesday’s Class 3A Naperville North sectional semifinals where they will face Naperville Central.
“It feels great,” Larson said. “I couldn’t have expected to do it. I went in there and got my opportunity and just did it.”
Batavia (16-5-2) certainly needed someone like Larson to come up big as they buried itself in a hole just 18 seconds into the contest when a Cam Callipari foul resulted in a successful Sam Bell penalty kick.
“It was a tough way to start,” Batavia coach Mark Gianfrancesco said. “But we’ve been preaching all year to stick with it.”
The Bulldogs had seven shots on goal in the first half but came up empty. They finally scored the equalizer almost midway through the second half when Larson secured possession near the left corner, dribbled toward the net and sent a beautiful cross to Erick Ontiveros who found the back of the net to make it a 1-1 contest with 20:06 remaining.
“We’ve got so many seniors and so many guys that want to step in and produce for the team,” Gianfrancesco said. “Erick got minimal time on Tuesday but stepped up today and when he got the opportunity he took advantage of it.”
Batavia took the lead for good with 12:21 left when Larson sent a perfect pass to Cody Witkowski who secured possession and placed a perfect shot over Waubonsie Valley keeper Jordan Ward.
“He pushed a great ball over the top and I took a little peak and saw the keeper off his line,” Witkowski said. “I wasn’t sure if he was coming out or not and I took advantage of it.”
Waubonsie Valley (9-8-3) had beaten Batavia 3-2 earlier this season in the Waubonsie Valley Invite, but both teams weren’t at full strength in that contest with players sidelined for a variety of reasons.
“I don’t think we played with the urgency that we had the first time, for whatever reason,” Waubonsie Valley coach Angelo DiBernardo said. “We didn’t seem to have the energy we usually have, we gave them too much space and too much time, and their key players kind of grew as play went on and became a bit of a factor.”