Boys soccer: Velasco's golden goal helps Gators hand Burlington Central 1st loss

After giving up the tying goal with 8 seconds left in regulation, the Crystal Lake South Gators could have packed it in, deciding it just wasn't their night. But that's not their style.

They kept battling until Nick Velasco scored the golden goal in the second overtime, giving the Gators a 2-1 Fox Valley Conference win against Burlington Central on Rocket Hill.

Velasco scored at the end of a frantic sequence in front of the Central goal, banging in a cross from Nolan Getzinger.

"I saw Nolan making the run," Velasco said, "And as soon as he crossed it was just second nature between me and him to just finish it."

"You give up a goal with 8 seconds left, the heads can go down, and sometimes teams can ride that momentum and put you away," said South coach Brian Allen. "So for our guys to bounce back and hold tight and find a game-winner, I'm really proud of that resilience."

South (7-3-1, 3-0) was less than 10 seconds from winning in regulation. The Rockets were awarded a corner kick with about 25 seconds left and rushed to set up the play.

A couple of strange caroms resulted in a scrum in front of the Gators goal with everyone, including Central keeper Charles Wyzukovits, getting involved. Somehow, the ball squirted out of the pile and into the net.

Central coach Adam Schmitt tentatively credited Daniel Nava with tapping the ball in, but the official scoring will have to await viewing the video.

"This team battles like not a whole lot of other teams," Schmitt said. "They give everything and it shows. We can compete with anybody as long as we play hard and the way we do. We showed it tonight, I think."

Ali Ahmed put the Gators ahead in the 53rd minute after following up a missed shot.

The Rockets suffered their first defeat of the season, falling to 7-1-3 overall.

"Burlington was undefeated for a reason," Allen said. "You can tell that this team under [coach] Adam [Schmitt] has really found an identity, they know how to knock the ball, and they've got some dangerous players. We contained that but we left a couple of goals out there."

Wyzukovits kept the Rockets in the game with a couple of acrobatic saves, including diving to his right to tip away a shot by South's Nick Prus early in the second half.

Chris Slawek recorded 5 saves in goal for the Gators.