Boys soccer: Benet outlasts Addison Trail in overtime
Hunter Randolph was not going to be beaten.
The Benet goalkeeper was brimming with confidence as Addison Trail's Anthony Hernandez teed up a 28-yard free kick with 2.5 seconds remaining in the second overtime Tuesday night.
Hernandez fired a cracker toward the lower left corner of the net, but Randolph fully extended to knock the ball around the post as time expired.
That put the finishing touch on Benet's thrilling 2-1 sectional semifinal victory over the host Blazers. The seventh-seeded Redwings (17-3-1) will face top-seeded Lake Park (18-3-3), which edged St. Charles East on penalty kicks, in Friday's title match.
"Whether it was going in or not, I knew I had to be there and I just put everything I had into it," Randolph said. "I really wasn't able to show what I've got throughout the season and this game I really felt confident."
The Redwings, who have won 10 straight games, have recorded 13 shutouts this season, mostly because of a terrific defense that has surrendered only 10 goals, including 3 in the past 10 games. Randolph, a first-year varsity player, has been overshadowed.
"Really he's played great all year," Benet coach Sean Wesley said. "He's not called upon a lot and he's been kind of waiting, but he's an unbelievable athlete who has great instincts for the game, so he was big for us."
Randolph made 4 saves, including a point-blank rejection of Alexis Delapaz in the first half.
But Delapaz got a measure of revenge when he set up Julio Acosta for a short-handed goal with 7:43 left in the first overtime. The sixth-seeded Blazers (17-6) played with 10 men after a player was red-carded with 13:08 remaining in regulation.
Addison Trail, which had won 14 of its last 15 games and had 2 shots hit the crossbar during regulation, could not hold on.
Sophomore Hans Haenicke tallied the equalizer for Benet with 1:46 to go in the first overtime and junior Anthony Klos scored the eventual game-winner on a rebound of his own shot at the 7:26 mark of the second overtime.
Haenicke was an unlikely star. It was the reserve's second goal of the season.
"It was kind of a blur," Haenicke said. "I was trying to get my foot on it and trying to get something on it.
"I knew that we needed to get a goal and I knew we didn't have much time."