Metea Valley nabs regional crown in 2 OTs

Soccer coaches often talk about taking advantage of opportunities.

Metea Valley made the most of a huge one.

The Mustangs converted the only corner kick taken after regulation during Friday's Class 3A Metea Valley regional championship against Oswego to pull out a 3-1 win in double overtime.

Metea Valley (16-3-2) wasted no time in jumping on the Panthers, scoring less than a minute into the match on a Tyler Proszowski goal.

"We've been working a lot during practice on crossing the ball," Proszowski said. "Jenna (Kentgen) pulled the defender aside and crossed it, and at the beginning of games there's often a lot of confusion. I knew I was supposed to go near post and Jenna sent a great pass and I kicked it in."

A little pinball-like play off the defense helped Proszowski find the back of the net, but the Mustangs were unable to capitalize on additional opportunities and ultimately saw the match get deadlocked with 10:02 left when Kaylan Mills netted the equalizer.

"After that happened I was thinking, this is not the time for us to end our season, because this is something we have to get through," Metea Valley defender Tracey McCoy said. "I think when they tied it up, it really brought us back into the moment and instead of thinking of the future, we were thinking now. It was a reality check for sure."

Oswego (14-6-2) may have gotten itself back into the match, but the Panthers didn't create many opportunities over the final 10 minutes in regulation and then watched the Mustangs dominate play during the 20 minutes of the two overtimes.

"When you get into overtime, you just look for chances," Panthers coach Brian Falli said. "In overtime it's all about you surviving and holding your own defensively. We gave up a corner, lost a mark, and credit Metea - they put it in the back of the net."

McCoy found Kentgen on the corner kick with 7:50 remaining in the second overtime as Kentgen slipped through a crowd to score on a header.

"I just find my way though sometimes," Kentgen said. "It was a perfect ball. Tracey does amazing corner kicks most of the time and I just saw it in the air and went for it."

Less than two minutes later, Kentgen found freshman Nikki Hernandez and she was able to slap it in for a 3-1 lead with only 5:26 remaining.

"I was so happy for somebody to be at the end of my pass," Kentgen said. "That gave us some relief."

The Mustangs advance to Wednesday's Naperville North sectional semifinal where they will face Plainfield North at 7 p.m.