Boys soccer: Guyer's blast sends Huntley past South Elgin in 2 OTs
As the regular season neared the end, Huntley defender Josh Guyer could be found playing striker more often.
The senior and his teammates were ecstatic that's where he was at with time running out in the second overtime of a scoreless Class 3A Huntley regional championship game on Friday against South Elgin.
Guyer scored on a ball from Logan Conary and the No. 6 seeded Red Raiders upset No. 3 seed South Elgin, 1-0.
They advance to next Wednesday's DeKalb sectional where they will play the winner of Dundee-Crown and Streamwood in a semifinal.
"The ball just fell to my feet," Guyer said. "I was at the right place at the right moment. It just came here to me and I finished. I don't know really. It happened so fast. I was in the moment."
Scoring opportunities were limited for both sides thanks to a stingy defensive effort, and, of course, the desire to win a regional trophy.
"That's the things about soccer," Storm assistant coach Michael Gecan said. "It's a lot of work for sometimes one goal and today one goal was the difference. Our whole season was a lot of games decided by one goal and unfortunately we were on the losing end tonight. Credit to (Huntley). They defended very well and made it hard to find scoring opportunities, and I felt like we did the same."
South Elgin (12-9-4) had a few decent scoring chances in the overtimes. Elias Hernandez had one with 4:04 left in the first overtime but Huntley goalkeeper Ethan Kornas was there to stop it. Danny Quintana had another on a free kick early in the second overtime and Kornas (6 saves) came out to defend leaving the Red Raiders vulnerable for a brief moment, but his back line had his back.
"We just shut them down basically," Huntley senior defender Nick Ward said. "It was everybody on everybody and marking man for man and making sure no ball got passed us. That's what we had to do."
Huntley (11-10-1) had a losing record entering the postseason.
"The whole year we've been putting in a lot of work trying to get to where we're playing our best soccer," Ward said. "Before, we were messy, messy, messy and now we're connecting passes and getting the ball down field and getting shots."
All that mattered was they finished the one while deterring those chances from the Storm.
"I think the longer it went on, the more likely we were to get that chance," Huntley coach Matthew Lewandowski said. "I think (South Elgin) got a little discouraged with their lack of success because they've been successful all year. They got a little off the line a bit and we had the heart and got one in there."
It was disappointing ending for what was an incredible turnaround season for the Storm who quadrupled their wins from 3 to 12 under first-year coach Jerzy Skowron.
"It's a credit to him and the seniors and all the guys who come out and work every day to get better," Gecan said. "I just couldn't be prouder with how we fought until the end."
Zach Juszko had 6 saves for the Storm.