Burlington Central falls in state semifinal

While Burlington Central was happy with the opportunities it earned this season, it couldn't help but regret some of the opportunities it missed Friday.

Playing in its first boys soccer state semifinal, Burlington Central saw Ridgewood score a pair of second-half goals and walk away with a 2-1 victory against the Rockets in a Class 2A game at North Central College in Naperville.

“A couple of times we should've taken advantage of some of our opportunities that we had, but they had some great goals and they earned it,” Rockets senior Kyle Reopelle said.

The Rockets (20-5-3) struck first, surprising Ridgewood with a Christopher Gousios goal off a quick counterattack in the 39th minute.

“We just had a quick clearance and we pushed into our offense,” Reopelle said. “It was a quick counterattack. A great run by Chris Gousios, and he tucked it away like he should have.”

But other Ridgewood mistakes went unpunished. The best of those was a 59th-minute shot by Alejandro Nava that hit the right post flush, and a second shot off the rebound was saved by goalkeeper Veli Milanov.

“We knew we needed at least two more goals if we wanted to comfortably win this thing,” Reopelle said. “We knew one goal or even two goals wouldn't do. We needed more offense in the second half and it just didn't come.”

Ridgewood (19-6-2) evened the score in the 62nd minute on Andy Mazurczak's goal off a Tom Kuczek assist.

“We just had a couple of miscommunications, who was going for the ball, and just left someone wide open,” Reopelle said. “They just tucked it in.”

Four minutes later Mazurczak struck again, this time challenging Rockets goalkeeper Riley Jensen for a pass chipped into the Burlington Central penalty area. As Jensen fell to the ground after the collision, Mazurczak knocked the ball into the net. No foul was called.

“It was the right moment at the right time,” Mazurczak said. “I guess I was just there. I went up for the ball because I knew if I didn't challenge it he would just punch it out. I was just there and it fell in front of my legs, so I poked it in.”

“I'm just not big on blaming referees,” Rockets coach Michael Gecan said. “I could have asked for a billion calls, but I'm sure they could have had theirs too.

“You've got to finish your opportunities when you get them, especially in the second half when we didn't get as many as they did. I'm pretty close to positive that we didn't get as many as they did. But when you get them you've got to put them away.”

The Rockets will finish their season at 11 a.m. today when they meet Waterloo in the third-place game. Waterloo lost to Peoria Notre Dame 4-0 Friday.

“We're just going to come out hard, give everything we have,” Reopelle said. “It's our last game, especially for the seniors, go out hard and end on a good note.”