Central beats Neuqua in OT, faces Tomcats in regional finals

 

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By Curt Herron

It happened quite suddenly, but such is often the case of decisive goals that are scored during postseason play.

And when it's also the initial score and it comes during extra play, the result is pure elation for the winners and devastation for the losers.

Such was the story of Tuesday's Plainfield North Regional semifinal match between upstart Plainfield Central and traditional power Neuqua Valley.

While Central had recorded quality wins this season over the likes of West Chicago and Oswego East, Neuqua was ranked much of the year, likely based on its reputation.

Although the Naperville-based Wildcats have enjoyed much more playoff success than their Plainfield counterparts with the same nickname, that didn't really mean much.

In the end, a well-executed throw-in glanced off the head of a defender and sailed into the net for an own goal during the 82nd minute of play.

As a result, 12th-seeded Central prevailed 1-0 over fifth-seeded Neuqua in overtime, earning a trip to Friday's 4:30 p.m. regional championship.

Coach Kevin Fitzgerald's squad will meet up with East Aurora, which captured a 6-2 victory over the hosts in Tuesday's other semifinal match.

The defeat denied Tony Kees' team a chance to avenge a 2-0 loss to the Tomcats, who shared the Upstate Eight Conference Valley title with them.

Instead, the Southwest Prairie Conference co-champs will try to make school history by winning their initial regional championship in the sport.

Central (15-6-2) has gone 12-2-1 since a 3-4-1 start while Neuqua (10-5-3) posted an 8-2-2 mark in its previous dozen matches prior to Tuesday.

As for the goal, Dan Rosenbaum's throw-in a little less than two minutes into the first overtime led to an own goal that determined the outcome.

"This is great," Rosenbaum said. "We've never beaten Neuqua before and never won a regional, either, and we have a chance to do that on Friday. Hopefully we can do it and break some more records for our school.

"We're really good on our corners and throw-ins, so we try to take advantage every time that we get one. And some times it's a game-winner, like it was tonight.

"This is one of the hardest sectionals in the state so each game, even a first-round one, can be really good. Beating Neuqua Valley means a lot for our program."

The Wildcats actually had a similar chance a little less than a minute prior to the final play that also involved a throw-in from Rosenbaum.

On that effort, the throw-in went to Dan's brother Josh, who headed a try toward the net that was deflected away by keeper Hunter Hollingshead.

It was the last in a series of excellent stops that Hollingshead and his counterpart, Central's Tyler Badertscher, made during the evening.

While Hollingshead had to come up with some big stops in the opening half, Badertscher took over a similar role during the final 40 minutes.

That helped Central record its eight shutout of the campaign while Neuqua was held without a score for just the third time this season.

"I told our guys to have some fun with this since they earned it and deserved it," Fitzgerald said. "We knew that we could win if we were with it mentally. But even if we'd lost, I couldn't have been prouder with our effort.

"We knew that we weren't going to get a dozen chances since they're too good. Give them credit, they also played their tails off. Beside having so much tradition, Neuqua also had skill, speed and size, we knew it was going to be extremely challenging.

"Set plays are just about getting to the ball or maybe getting the right bounce and that's kind of what happened tonight. We dodged a couple of bullets and they might have, too, but that's kind of what happens in a game like this.

"We knew that it was going to be tight, most likely a one-goal game, though I'm not sure everyone else thought that. We'll enjoy this one tonight but then we have to start preparing for East Aurora, which has been playing some outstanding soccer."

Central opened up the final half with a pair of threatening free kicks but efforts from Miguel Duran and Josh Rosenbaum were turned away.

But most of the last half hour of regulation play featured good opportunities for Neuqua, which ended up with similar results.

Stephan Kovacevic started the run with a try that was halted by Badertscher, who deflected a shot by Brian Benjamin a short time later.

With a bit less than a quarter hour left in regulation, Ryan Ross had a liner deflected away by Edgar Chavez and a rebound try went high

About 10 minutes later, Central had a good chance on a throw-in when Josh Rosenbaum headed a pass toward Chavez, who header was denied.

Neuqua's final opportunity before the 80 minutes elapsed came not long after that when Ross sent an attempt that went wide of the mark.

That set the table for what could have been four 10-minute overtimes, but instead the outcome was decided in a bit shy of two minutes.

"It was incredible to pull this off," Chavez said. "No one in this place, but us, believed that we could win. We had confidence and showed people what we're made of.

"My eyes never got as big as when I saw that ball go into the net. We've worked on set plays a lot and it's one of our strengths. We practice them every day and it paid off today.

"Both teams went back and forth and it was a good game. A lot of people expected this to be an easy outcome for Neuqua, but we opened some eyes. As long as we believe in ourselves, that's all that matters."

The best early chance belonged to Central, Billy Ballentine's free kick to Josh Rosenbaum which led to a header that was punched away.

Hollingshead was forced to make the same type of stop shortly before the halftime break when Miguel Sanchez sent in a liner for Central.

"They were obviously seeded much higher than us, but we were able to pull off the upset," Central's Nick Giocolo said. "It feels nice since we were knocked off early in the last year's playoffs.

"Both teams played with all of their heart and it could have gone either way, as the single-goal difference shows. We've had our ups and downs but hopefully we can more school history on Friday."

"This is an indescribable feeling," Central's Jon Iniguez said. "This is something that hasn't happened before in our school's history and we just want to keep making some more history.

"Neuqua is a team that's respected throughout the state and this is one of the best sectionals in the state. To beat a team like that shows how close some of the teams in this sectional are."

Bowing out in the opening-round was obviously a tough pill to swallow for Neuqua, which has fared well in recent years in the state playoffs.

In the previous nine years, it had won eight regional titles, four sectional championships and three state trophies, including one for first.

The Neuqua coach was disappointed to see things conclude early, especially since this group turned their season around following a slow start.

"If you watched the game as a casual observer, you couldn't tell a difference between the teams, so I give a lot of credit to Central," Kees said. "They played hard and honest and played for a break and got it, so hats off to them.

"Box to box, we didn't play well and we left some goals on the field, particularly in the second half. I didn't think there was going to be much soccer and there wasn't. We had to try to adapt to the conditions and didn't do a good job of that.

"The bottom line is that we didn't make enough plays today. We would have rather put the ball on the floor but we had to try to play more aerially because of the difficult conditions. We didn't do a good job of that and it evened the game out.

"A couple of the guys said this was too early since it's the first round. But you know what? This team was dead in the water in the second week. For them to pull together and turn their season around and win conference is a lot to be proud of.

"We were at rock bottom and were going in the wrong direction so I'm proud of these guys and this team is close to my heart because of what we went through. It shows their character because they stuck together and made a good season out of it."