Boys soccer: Plainfield East rallies past Plainfield Central

PLAINFIELD – Although Plainfield East’s boys soccer team wasn’t in the mix for the top spot in Southwest Prairie Conference, it certainly played a big role in determining who would eventually capture the championship.

One week after rallying to stun rival Plainfield North, the Bengals took on Plainfield Central, which was hoping to earn a share of the league title along with the Tigers.

The Wildcats jumped out to a 2-0 advantage less than half an hour in, and still were up by that score with less than 15 minutes left.

But East scored twice in the final 15 minutes of regulation, and then after 20 minutes of extra play, it defeated the Wildcats, 4-2, in penalty kicks to claim a 3-2 win on senior night.

“You have to give Central a lot of credit since they didn’t make it easy for us,” East coach Cosimo Patano said. “Obviously, there was a reason why they were contenders at the top of the table. We got off to a late start and started playing our best soccer now. We’re finding the back of the net and getting some good minutes from a lot of guys, and we’re staying healthy. You want to play your best soccer now, and it doesn’t matter what’s happened in the past.”

With North hosting Minooka on Tuesday, the Wildcats (11-5-3, 5-2) needed a win in order to likely earn a share of the title with the team that it had suffered its only other loss to. But the Bengals (8-9-4, 4-3) were determined not to let that happen.

“When you look at the run of play, I think that they outplayed us,” Central coach Kevin Fitzgerald said. “They outplayed us in the first half, even though we had the 2-0 lead and they obviously outplayed in the second half to find the tie. I think that they’re a good team. They’re senior-dominated with a whole lot of skill and speed. Our guys fought hard, but East was just the better team tonight. I feel bad for our four seniors who have worked and worked and this was an opportunity for them and we didn’t quite cash in.”

In the penalties, both teams made their first two attempts before East keeper Isaias Marquez deflected two straight efforts while the Bengals made their next two tries.

“At the end of the day, it was just me doing my job, just like my teammates do their job,” Marquez said. “I’m just as good as the rest of my team. We weren’t going to let them win, and we worked and put in the effort. We know our roles and put in the effort and work.”

East received goals from Jacob Stevens, Brice Tchamou, Carlos Giron and Michael Flores in the penalties, while Central got scores from Jarod Petrovic and Ish Contreras.

“This says a lot about our team,” Flores said. “In both games, we were down against really good teams. We started off slow but once we started clicking, we started doing really good. That’s the story of our season. At the beginning it was on and off and now we’re clicking.”

After getting some good chances early in the final half, the Bengals finally connected in the 66th minute when Christopher Garcia connected from close range.

Then in the 72nd minute, the Wildcats were whistled for a hand ball in the box, which resulted in Tchamou burying the penalty to even things.

“They’re a good team,” Tchamou said. “But we know good we are, too. The seniors know that we have to lead and trust our coach and the other players. Early in the season we were trying to find things but in the last four games we’re starting to come together as a team.”

The Wildcats, who won seven straight SPC titles through 2012, started off well against East by getting a score from Edgar Cardenas in the seventh minute to grab a 1-0 lead.

After Petrovic threatened with some long free kicks and Cardenas had a try punched away, Central made it 2-0 in the 29th minute when Joel Sanchez bent a nice corner kick in front of the net and Gustavo Sanchez headed the ball in to make it a 2-0 contest.

East’s best first half chance came just before the break when Alan Romero had a free kick punched away by Shane Badertscher and then had a corner kick bounce off of the post.

“Both teams are really good,” East’s Edgar Flores said. “But it all came down to our coach and our honest effort at the end of the day. We were determined and it was about how badly we wanted it. It was our biggest crowd and that really helped out. We’re tired of losing.”