Boys soccer: Alba nets winner as Mundelein wins own regional
Two years ago, Mundelein senior Bryan Alba was part of an epic struggle on a frigid night at the Lake Forest regional with then-Mid-Suburban League champion Wheeling.
Alba and his mates would battle the extreme weather conditions, and the stress of going into sudden-death shootout to claim victory and its first regional title since 2016.
Saturday morning, Alba faced yet another severe weather test and once again, he and Mundelein survived against Warren, 2-1 to lift the championship trophy of its own regional.
With the win, the Mustangs (14-4-1) advance to the sectional semifinals at Barrington on Wednesday to face North Suburban Conference rival Lake Zurich (12-5-3) at 5 p.m.
"Yes, I remember that regional final with Wheeling. It was so cold that night, but it felt really good to win the way we did," the affable Alba said after his 21st-minute strike held up against Warren (7-7-6). "This win today is even better than two years ago because it's my senior year, and we won at home as well."
Alba may have sealed the Mustangs' third regional title, but it wasn't easy against an opponent that stunned No. 6 seed Barrington earlier this week and was a shining example of youth and inexperience turning into a very dangerous No. 11 seed come the postseason.
"We knew (Warren) was going to be a very difficult club for us today, and even with the terrible weather conditions, they had a lot of the play in the first half when playing into the wind, created chances, and had players like Nos. 2, 10 and 14 (Clayton Mobile, Ishaan Shah, Cris Medina) who were just terrific," said an impressed Mundelein head coach, Ernie Billittier.
Eddy Avila's stunning wonder goal from 22 yards opened the scoring in the second minute and brought the Mustangs' fans out of their seats. Sunny weather at the start was followed by a mixture of rain and snow, plus a roaring wind out of the north.
That wind did not slow the Blue Devils attack, which went into it the first 40 minutes, but didn't miss a step with the aforementioned trio plus Josh Segura and Sebastian Rodriguez playing some neat, quick, possession soccer all throughout the first period.
"I really feel that we had a lot of the play in the first half (created) a couple of good chances, and could have maybe put at least one of them in. It's too bad they scored two on us at the same time," said Clayton Mobile, one of 10 juniors on the 2018 Warren roster.
Despite their high percentage of possession, the Blue Devils found themselves chasing a second goal, this one coming from Alba, whose icing cool finish from the right side doubled the Mustangs advantage at 21 minutes.
Mobile pulled his club back within one goal in the 56th minute with a bending left-footer cracker from the left side.
"At that point, with the way we were playing, and with the wind at our backs, we could have gotten back even, and maybe even scored another," Warren coach Jason Ahonen said.
Once again, both clubs would see glorious chances missed: Martinez in the 63rd minute, Alex Senko with a clever wind-aided slap shot with the hope of catching Chris Villasenior off his line.
he visitors went to a 3-4-3 formation in the final 10 minutes of regulation and looked to use a handful of 60-yard free kicks from Uribe to create chances, but the Mustangs back line was up to the task.
"We defended with a lot of heart and effort to beat a very good team in order to move on," a proud Billittier said.
To which Ahonen said closing:
"We came from nowhere (at) the start. To finish strong gives us all a really good feeling about our 2018 season. We hope for bigger and better things next year, especially (Jovan Selakovic and Chris Uribe) who bought into our youth movement to give us exactly what we needed from our two seniors."