Boys soccer: Geneva wins wild one over Glenbard W. for 1st regional title in 9 years

Winning a regional championship is not easy.

For Geneva, finally winning one on Saturday night proved to be far more difficult than it probably envisioned, but the Vikings preserved, shrugged aside adversity and stay composed. They move on to a sectional for the first time in almost 10 years.

Geneva defeated Glenbard West by blanking the Hilltoppers 3-0 in a PK shootout after the teams were deadlocked at 1-1 after regulation and then 2-2 after the two overtimes during the Class 3A Conant regional championship in Hoffman Estates.

The Vikings will next face York in a St. Charles East sectional semifinal Tuesday as the Dukes upset St. Charles East.

"I can't say enough about our effort and what they did," Geneva coach Jason Bhatta said. "To have the composure in the penalties, to fight back during the game. Good for them. They deserve it and it's good to have a regional after (nine) years."

Geneva (13-4-4) was seconds away from winning 1-0 after senior James Fuller punched in a free kick from Shun Yonehara with 8:40 left in regulation.

"We were just happy to be up one but we knew we had to keep moving forward," Yonehara said. "We were feeling motivated and making sure we still had our best effort."

Glenbard West (11-7-2), which was vying for its first regional championship since 2014, tied the game with 5.5 seconds left after Jesus Meza converted a penalty kick after a handball call.

The Hilltoppers were ecstatic. The Vikings were aghast, but they kept on fighting.

Meza then buried a beautiful cross from Oscar Berrun with 5:27 left in the second overtime to give Glenbard West a 2-1 advantage.

This time it was the Vikings who delivered with time running out, getting an amazing rebound header from Jack Cannon with 1:58 left to play that had to be seen to be believed. Even Cannon can't recall how it happened other than he saw it settle in the back of the net, and that Glenbard West goalie Oliwier Holowinski initially made a tremendous one-handed save.

"The ball got sent in and someone flicked it on and someone else headed it and I just dove and it went in the upper corner," Cannon explained. "That's all that I saw. I hadn't realized who had flicked it, or who it went off of. I just saw it go in and we went crazy."

Set pieces have been crucial for the Vikings all season long and they ultimately spelled doom for Glenbard West's season.

"I think we played well especially against a team that was seeded higher than us," Hilltoppers coach Maciej Kusmierz said. "I think we had more clean scoring opportunities, but unfortunately for us, we gave up two set pieces."

Yonehara set the tone in the shootout by making his shot to get it started. Geneva goalkeeper Osten Lockner then stopped one to give the Vikings the early edge.

"During practice I'd be pretty calm on PKs, but here I felt pressure," Yonehara said. "Once I knew I was going to take the first one I had to put it in the back of the net to give the team motivation to put away all the PKs like we did."

Fuller and Christian Diaz followed for the Vikings and lifted their shots to deposit them in the back of the net while Lockner stopped the next two before the third one sailed well over the intended target to end the game.

"I want to say I kind of turn into an animal and was really focused on the prey, which is the other team and saving that ball," Lockner said. "We played with all our hearts too so that helped us complete this game and finished strong."

Lockner made it look easy, but it was far from it, with his time in a Vikings uniform potentially running out and playing in awful, cold, rainy conditions.

"I had a lot going through my head, really stressing out at the beginning," he said. "When we went into overtime I was freaking out. I was hyperventilating and thought I was going to get hypothermia because I was shaking so bad."