Warriors scramble for OT goal

ROCHELLE - From where he stood near the sideline, watching his long throw-in pinball in front of the Freeport goalmouth, time seemed nearly to freeze for Wheaton Academy senior Ian Moses.

"I was anxious," Moses said. "I don't know. It's like time slows down. You just don't know if it's going to go in or not."

Suddenly the soccer ball bounced a little bit wide to the far side where Warriors sophomore Devin Moore stood all alone, and Moore made sure nobody would get in the way of his dead-on shot.

Moore's goal gave Wheaton Academy a 2-1 victory just less than four minutes into the first overtime Wednesday at the Class 2A Rochelle sectional semifinals. The Warriors (14-4-4) will meet Oswego for the sectional championship Saturday afternoon.

"Ian Moses had a great throw-in far post, and the ball floated around and popped around and I just put it far post," Moore said of his golden goal. "People were all over the place. I didn't really know where the ball was. So I just found it and I saw the top corner so I put it there."

"It seemed like my keeper got a hand on it but couldn't get it out," added Freeport coach Nick Namio. "There were just so many people in there. It bounced around, bounced around. The ball ended up going upper 90. All I saw was the end result."

Wheaton Academy endured a poor start to get to overtime, giving up a goal in just the fourth minute of the game.

"We had some chances to score early, especially in the first half," Namio said. "Their keeper (Ryan Seager, who made 5 saves) had an excellent game. A very good Wheaton Academy goalie, and we couldn't find a way to put it by him."

But about the 22nd minute the Warriors seemed to find their composure, started playing more of a possession game, and it paid off with scoring chances. Moses tallied in the 26th minute off a cross following a free kick.

"I knew the play," Moses said. "We have plays for free kicks. We practice it, so I knew where the ball was getting slotted through to, so I just kind of found the spot and it was open."

Both teams had second-half tiebreaking goals waved off, Freeport (20-4-2) on an offsides call in the 72nd minute.

The Wheaton Academy call was more complicated. The Warriors' Tommy Fuller chased a long ball into the Freeport penalty area, where he, a defender and Freeport goalkeeper Scott Kesler challenged for it, all of them winding up on the ground as the ball slowly rolled into the goal. After conferring with his assistant, the referee awarded Wheaton Academy a penalty kick instead of the goal, and Kesler saved the PK.