Boys soccer: Neuqua Valley's Bella, Bludgeon score when it matters
Quality trumps quantity for Neuqua Valley's Tom Bludgeon and Jack Bella.
The two midfielders haven't scored often this season, but when they have it has meant something.
Bludgeon and Bella both found the back of the net Tuesday night when the Wildcats edged Naperville Central 2-1 in a Class 3A Naperville North regional semifinal.
Tenth-seeded Neuqua (8-7-2) advances to play top-seeded Naperville North (20-0) in Friday's title game.
"The thing we can definitely remember about Jack's goal and Bludgeon's is they are happening when we most need them," Neuqua Valley coach Arnoldo Gonzalez said. "It's nice to see Bludgeon score and not just because it was the winning goal.
"He had an exceptional game. At halftime I said, 'Bludgeon, where has this player been?'"
Bludgeon's goal, his second of the season, was the decisive and most spectacular play of the match. The senior split a pair of defenders, turned and fired a 22-yard shot that deflected off a defender and into the lower left corner of the net with 13:47 remaining in the second half.
"I got a ball in behind from Jose Navarro and I had two guys (on me)," Bludgeon said. "I knew I had to make something out of it.
"I just turned and I guess I got a lucky deflection. I tried to curl it and it hit the outside of his knee and spun bottom corner."
The Wildcats, who avenged a 4-0 regular-season loss to Naperville Central, stunned the seventh-seeded Redhawks (6-8-4) by scoring on their first shot of the game.
Freshman John Pochyly dished a pass from the right side to Bella, who launched a 25-yard shot over the head of Naperville Central goalkeeper Ethan Conners and into the upper left corner at the 31:36 mark of the first half.
The Redhawks tied it 20 minutes later when senior Owen Jarrell ran around the right end and beat Neuqua goalkeeper Dylan Soto with a shot that rolled in off the inside of the far post.
But Jarrell left the game with a hip injury midway through the second half and did not return. The Redhawks did not muster another shot after that.
"It came down to the ball bouncing around in the box and we couldn't get a foot on it," Naperville Central coach Troy Adams said. "We probably had a half-dozen to a dozen of those opportunities, where the ball was bouncing and for whatever reason we couldn't get a foot on it to get that last little tap-in.
"That's the unfortunate thing with soccer. If you have opportunities and you don't score you know they are going to come back and bite you in the butt. Unfortunately, it did today."
Both sides were held to only 6 shots. The difference was the play of Bludgeon, Navarro and David Kuhn gave the Wildcats a slight edge in possession.
"We knew the only way we were going to win that game is if we outworked them," Bludgeon said. "We had more fight to us, I think, than any game we've had this season."