Boys soccer: Romeoville stuns York in double OT
Luis Orizaba got outmaneuvered by teammate Ruben Mesta on a 22-yard free kick from Imanol Casillas midway through the second overtime of Romeoville's Class 3A state semifinal game against York on Friday at Hoffman Estates.
That didn't matter.
What mattered was that one of the Spartans, any of them, was able to get on the other end of the well placed kick from Casillas and Mesta was the one who got on it to lift the Spartans to a thrilling 4-3 victory in double overtime.
Romeoville (28-1-1) will meet either Naperville Central or Stevenson in Saturday's state title game tentatively scheduled for 8 p.m.
"I peeled off my defender and (Mesta) ran in front of me," Orizaba explained. "We both jumped for it and ultimately he got more contact than me and he scored. It was honestly probably one of the best feelings. We were stressing the whole second half so to finally break the tie and win it for the people in the stands felt great."
The defending Class 3A state champs did not back down from the adversity of losing a player to a red card with 10 minutes left in the first half and thus falling behind 3-0. Rather, the Dukes (20-1-3) came out with the wind at its back in the second half and the confidence that it was going to pull off a huge comeback.
"I'm unbelievably proud so it's a happy sad," York coach Jordan Stopka said. "Yeah, you lost, but you look back at how these boys responded and it could've been so much different."
Gustavo Herrera's booming 50-yard free kick found Alexander Menolascina with 30:47 left in the game to put York on the board at 3-1.
About a minute later, Herrera tapped a pass just to the right of the goal to Jayden Waski who pulled the Dukes to within 3-2.
Menolascina proceeded to fire a shot off the far post with just under 30 minutes remaining to narrowly miss tying the game; the Dukes would have to wait a little longer to net the equalizer as Joe Hernandez dribbled by a couple defenders and sliced in a shot with 23:18 left to tie the game.
"(Assistant) coach (Dave) Alvarez and I both said we were convinced it was going to go to PKs and we were going to take care of business," Stopka said. "But credit Romeoville for finishing that header on that free kick."
Romeoville jumped on the Dukes with a monster 35-yard liner from Ryan Budz with 16:39 left in the first half to give the Spartans the early advantage.
Joseph Duarte got fouled just outside the penalty box with 10:08 and drilled the ensuing free kick into the back of the net, while the Dukes lost a player due to a red card, making it 2-0.
Not even two minutes later and Armando Mejia fired in a close attempt to make it 3-0 with 8:12 left in the opening half.
"I opened up the scoring there and after that there was so much momentum and we scored again and again and it was 3-0 at halftime," Budz said. "Once they scored their first goal in the second half you could feel the momentum shift and they did the exact same thing we did in the first half."
Now the Spartans are a victory away from a state title.
"From the beginning we wanted this state championship," Duarte said. "From our first practice our goal was that state championship, that ring, and here we are. We're fighting for it and we're going to keep fighting for it."