West Chicago, Lake Park advance
The West Chicago boys soccer team knew it was going to have difficult task in beating South Elgin on Wednesday night during the nightcap of the Class 3A West Chicago regional matches.
The Wildcats gave themselves a bit of a cushion, scoring twice with the wind and a constant drizzle at their backs, and then held off a Storm team that applied constant offensive pressure throughout the second half, winning 2-0.
“We expected a battle from the start,” West Chicago coach Steve Brugmann said. “Knowing their record coming in and the teams they’ve played, we knew we were going to have our work cut out for us.”
Sophomore midfielder Jenaro Terrazas put the Wildcats ahead with 26:25 remaining in the first half when he took a ball from the left of the goal and shot it toward the opposite post.
They extended the lead to 2-0 when Jesus Duran dribbled from the corner and sent a cross to Erick Baeza who finished with 11:53 left before halftime.
“We did great in the first half with getting two into the net and then just had to control the game,” West Chicago senior midfielder Diego Munoz said. “Our plan today was to possess the ball, but this weather made it almost impossible, but we tried our best.”
South Elgin (10-6-5) controlled possession for most of the second half, but could never cut into the Wildcats lead, although they came close on several occasions. When their shots were off target, they were corralled by goalkeeper Marcel Carrasco, as well as Adrian Romero, who replaced Carrasco for the final 19:02. A couple others clanked off the crossbar or the vertical post, as Phil Saccameno did in the final three minutes.
“Soccer is cruel game,” South Elgin coach John Uveges said. “Give the credit to West Chicago though, they’re a good team. The bottom line was it didn’t go for us. How many times did we hit the post and how many nice opportunities did we have? It’s just one of those things that’s going to be tough to swallow.”
While the Wildcats felt the pressure, they never broke.
“I was very impressed with Martin (Orozco) in the back on the left-hand side,” Brugmann said. “He did a really nice job and (Spencer Scott for South Elgin) was doing a lot of things that we needed to stop. And Danny Ortega was strong again in back fixing those lapses we have every once in awhile.”
West Chicago (16-5-4) hasn’t lost since a 2-1 setback to Benet on Sept. 19 and now moves on to face Lake Park for the regional title game Friday night.
In the opening match it took the full 80 minutes of regulation as well as almost four overtimes before Lake Park (16-6-2) was able to to find the back of the net to keep its season alive, as well as the 30-year high school coaching career of Norm Hillner, shutting out Streamwood 1-0.
Joe Passarelli was able to take possession just beyond midfield, dribbled past goalkeeper Jose Resendiz, who had come out to try to stop him, and then blasted the game-winner with only 19.6 seconds remaining before the teams would’ve had to settle matters in a penalty kick shootout.
“I knew there wasn’t much left on the clock and had to leave it all on the field,” Passarelli said. “I had missed a PK and had an open header that missed so I needed to redeem myself.”
Passarelli and the Lancers will meet the regional hosts Friday.
“We’ve had a great season and don’t want it to end anytime soon,” Passarelli said. “We think we can go a long way because we have a lot of heart and a strong desire to win.”
Lake Park improved to 16-6-2 while Streamwood finished 5-14-4.