Morton stops Benet

Benet didn’t get many chances to score Tuesday night in Darien. Credit Morton goalkeeper Ian Chacon for that.

Goalkeepers get most of their recognition for stopping shots, but Chacon did his best work preventing shots in the Mustangs’ 1-0 Class 3A Hinsdale South sectional semifinal victory.

“That was the best goalie we saw all year,” Redwings coach Sean Wesley said. “He took away a lot of the chances that we normally get. A lot of the through balls, a lot of the diagonals that we connected on all year, he was quick off his line, he was fast and he read it very well. That probably took away a good five or six chances that (Michael Rindler) or Kyle (Kenagy) would normally get, that he just ate up. That probably was the difference in a game like this.”

Benet (17-4-1) took 11 shots, 2 in the first half, but Chacon only needed to make 4 saves, none of them especially challenging. He was that good at cutting off the Benet attack.

Morton got its goal in the 33rd minute, finally finding a way around the stalwart Benet defense off a quick free kick.

“A little unfortunate,” Wesley said. “A foul in the middle of the field that honestly I don’t know if anybody knew which way he was going to call it. And then he gave it to them, caught us a little bit by surprise. There was a gap in between our goalie and our center backs and our outside back.

“To their credit they played a great quick ball over the top and it landed in the perfect spot and a perfect finish. If you’re going to lose you might as well lose on a great goal, and unfortunately they got it when it mattered.”

Morton (25-2) moves to the sectional final to meet Lyons Twp., which upset top-ranked Hinsdale Central 2-1 in the first semifinal.

Follow Orrin on Twitter @orrin_schwarz