Boys soccer: Bartlett loses heartbreaker to Quincy
For 76 minutes Friday night, it looked like the Bartlett boys soccer team had punched its ticket to the IHSA Class 3A state championship match.
And then, as Bob Dylan once famously said, the ax just fell.
Bartlett gave up an equalizer to Quincy with a little under 4 minutes remaining in regulation, then one apiece in each 10-minute overtime period, to fall 3-2 to the Blue Devils in the 3A semifinals at Hoffman Estates.
The Hawks, now 17-8-2, and will end their 2015 campaign by facing Morton in the third-place game at 5 p.m., Saturday. The Mustangs lost to Libertyville 2-1 Friday in the other semifinal.
Bartlett used strong offensive pressure to start the second half, which paid off in the 56th minute as senior forward T.J. Ivkovich tallied on an assist from fellow senior midfielder Igor Zwada. Zwada, coming down the left side, passed the ball inside to Ivkovich coming down the middle, who promptly blasted it past the outstretched arms of Quincy senior goalkeeper Eric Lubbert.
But to Bartlett coach Vince Di Nuzzo's line of thinking, that may very well have been his squad's undoing.
"I think we scored our goal, and mentally, we dropped back," Di Nuzzo said. "We got too defensive-minded, and I talked to my assistants, I talked to the players, I told them at 10 minutes we were going to switch systems defensively.
"The problem was, for 20 minutes there, we were on our heels defending."
Zwada agreed.
"To be honest, in my opinion, our (first) goal was probably the worst thing that happened in the second half," he said. "Because even though we scored, we're up 1-0, that's fine, we're up a goal, everybody freaked out, everybody dropped back, and from then on, it was kickball."
Quincy used a measure of its own offensive pressure to score the equalizer in the 76th minute, off the foot of senior defender Bradyn Nokes past drawn-out Bartlett goalkeeper Jake Hasenstein. And the Blue Devils nearly tallied again as time ran out, as senior Riley Roth fired a wide-open shot just wide right of the net as time expired.
Turns out, Roth was just getting started.
Six minutes into the first overtime period, he scored on a breakaway while being chased by a pair of Bartlett defenders, firing a shot into the right corner of the net, just past Hasenstein, with the assist courtesy of junior midfielder J.D. Sohn.
"I saw J.D. dribbling, and I saw the two center backs setting, so I had to get behind," Roth said. "So I made the run, and J.D. hit a perfect ball,"
He added another goal 3 minutes into the second overtime period on a penalty kick that gave the Blue Devils a 3-1 lead.
Bartlett got that goal back seconds later on a 35-yard goal from senior midfielder Oliver Saile, with an assist from freshman Kevin Nava.
But it was just too little too late for the Hawks, who outshot Quincy 17-10.
It didn't help that Bartlett lost senior defender Josh Merkel in the 26th minute due to concussion. Merkel was a key component of a back line that had given up just 2 goals in the tournament going into Friday.
It also didn't help that Ivkovich was also lost due to concussion at the end of the first overtime period, thus taking away another offensive weapon.
"The perseverance to go out and get another one after going down 3-1 kind of shows the kids' hearts, big hearts," said Di Nuzzo, a 2008 Bartlett graduate and goalkeeper in his first year as coach.
The Hawks have 18 seniors, many of whom have been playing together since they were youngsters in the Bartlett Travel Soccer Club, which made Friday's loss that much tougher. Nevertheless, Zwada pointed out that this season was a far cry from a 6-13 campaign a year ago.
"We probably had the best season we could have ever imagined," Zwada said. "Coming into this year, everybody doubted us.
"Coming here, participating in this? It's a dream come true."