Boys soccer: St. Charles East tops York, moves a win away from state tournament
One game away from state.
That's somewhere St. Charles East hadn't been since 2012, but the Saints now are after rallying past York in Saturday's Class 3A West Chicago sectional championship game.
After seeing its postseason dreams end during the past four playoffs in shootouts, the Saints beat the Dukes, 3-2, in a shootout after they had rallied to tie the game at 1-1 late in regulation.
"The amount of emails and text messages I received from former athletes saying to get this is something that sticks with them," Saints coach Vince DiNuzzo said. "It wasn't our best brand of soccer. We played at a level we're not used to, and it was disappointing, but to get the result is all that you need. You find a way to win and you get to see another day."
Junior Aaron Jobi had an open look and punished the Saints by converting the chance with 27:45 remaining.
The Dukes, who beat the Saints 9-8 in a shootout in a sectional in 2021 while on their way to a state title, couldn't hold onto the lead.
Senior Aiden Maloney saw to that and was driven to do so, having remembered that shootout well.
"Two years ago here against York I missed the game-winning penalty kick, so this was really big for me," he said. "I knew to put it where I've been practicing. Basically, the reason I've been working this hard is because of it. That's been my motivation, so this was really big but the job's not finished."
Speaking of jobs, the performance of goalkeeper Ivan Campobasso was simply outstanding. While Jordan Rolon was in net for regulation and the OTs, Campobasso served in a baseball closer-like role, looking to strike out York's five attempts. He made a pair of diving saves, one to his left, and another to his right, and the Saints are now marching into Tuesday's Class 3A St. Charles North supersectional against New Trier.
"I just went in there and said it's my time to shine and do what I got to do," Campobasso said. "It means a lot to me because obviously I don't go in that much so to go in there in the last minute, they gave me that trust and then saved the game for them."
Logan Lewarchick, Marc Walker and Maloney converted their PKs while Campobasso made a save and watched another bound harmlessly away from the post.
York goalkeeper Diego Ochoa then came up with a big save to keep the Dukes alive, but Campobasso followed with his second save.
"I just had to trust my teammates," Ochoa said. "Unfortunately, I missed three and actions come with consequences. That's losing the sectional final. I'm pretty happy with my performance, only letting in one goal and trusting my defenders to stay in front of the ball. (St. Charles East) had a lot of energy coming in and were outworking us."
Campobasso seemed to be oozing energy going from sitting for 100 minutes to making the Saints sectional champs.
"He's got so much reach," DiNuzzo said. "He's lengthy and he's got a very nice vertical. He reads penalties well."
Before ending York's hopes of advancing to state for a third straight year, Campobasso was stopping his coach.
"I like to think I'm a pretty decent penalty kick taker at 33 years old and he gives me problems," DiNuzzo said. "So he gives us confidence. In practice and in training we've seen it a number of times with him making those saves."