Lake Zurich prevails over Cary-Grove in marathon upset

Cary-Grove keeper Tom Breen came within a Tom Breen thick-beard whisker of extending the drama and a soccer match that refused to end.

“I thought I had it,” Breen said. “But I wasn’t close enough.”

When Lake Zurich’s John Pothast powered a penalty kick off Breen’s outstretched goalie gloves and into the net, two things ended:

A physical, intense, high-energy regional final that lasted 120 minutes, not counting nearly five complete rounds of penalty kicks, and featured five yellow cards.

And Pothast’s PK tough luck.

Pothast’s kick lifted the host Bears to a 2-1 win over Cary-Grove in Saturday night’s Class 3A Lake Zurich regional championship match. Lake Zurich prevailed 4-2 in the kicks.

“I’ve played club with him and he said he’s had this curse with penalty kicks,” Lake Zurich senior Brenden Seeger said of his Pothast. “He definitely broke it today.”

Lake Zurich (12-5-5), which got a big save from keeper Jeff Kreutz in the penalty-kick round, advances to the Barrington sectional and will play North Suburban Conference Lake Division rival Warren at 5 p.m. Wednesday in the night’s first semifinal.

Cary-Grove ends its season at 17-3.

“They’re a great team,” Pothast said of the Trojans. “(Playing) 120 minutes of soccer is hard, but I was confident in our team. We practiced hard and played hard all year, and we came through.”

A Cary-Grove shooter banged a shot off the crossbar in the kicks, while Kreutz punched another shot over the bar. Quality scoring chances were about equal during regulation and four, 10-minute, sudden-death overtimes.

“Both teams played incredibly hard,” C-G coach Mark Olson said. “It’s just a tough way to go have a season end. But it doesn’t take away from anything these guys accomplished. It was a lot of fun watching them.”

Cary-Grove had grabbed a 1-0 lead with 31:12 left in regulation when Mike McKune banged in a rebound after a flurry of activity in the Lake Zurich box. McKune blasted in a shot from in tight, showing no ill effects of a violent collision in the first half that resulted in him hobbling off the field.

Seeger netted the equalizer for Lake Zurich with 15:54 left, heading in Matt Montemayor’s cross from the right flank.

In extra time, Cary-Grove’s Erik Gustafson twice rifled head balls off corner kicks that just missed the cage. Breen snared a well-struck free kick off the foot of Lake Zurich’s Kyle Callender and then stopped Caleb Pothast shortly afterward.

“(The difference) was going to be whoever caught the lucky break,” Breen said. “It was that tight of a game. When you go to PKs, anything can happen. You got to put (the game) away when you can.”

Lake Zurich went first in the penalty kicks, and Montemayor opened by calmly making his. Carlo Fava and Callender also converted for Lake Zurich. When the Marquette-bound John Pothast, the Bears’ fifth shooter, slipped a shot barely past Breen, the home-squad Bears raced to the bleachers to celebrate with their fans.

“I was so nervous,” John Pothast said. “I’m notorious for not being a very good PK-taker. So this was a true test, all the pressure to win the game. I’m so happy.”

By game’s end, both teams had players physically hurting. Keeper Kreutz even collided with his Lake Zurich teammate Justin Marais during OT, with Marais taking the worst of it and having to leave the game.

“I feel we definitely stepped up our physical play and just our intensity all around,” Seeger said. “Seventy-five percent of us are seniors and we all have that senior mentality — do or die.”