Boys soccer: Keeper Brady Wendt’s incredible save preserves Ottawa’s 3-2 regional title victory

GALESBURG – With two minutes left to play in Saturday’s Class 2A Galesburg Regional championship game, Ottawa keeper Brady Wendt dove to his right to stop a potentional game-tying shot by the host Silver Streaks.

But then the shot was deflected back to his left.

At the last moment Wendt kicked out his leg, and the ball went off the toe of his shoe and harmlessly out of bounds.

The save, his seventh, helped seal the Pirates’ 3-2 victory and first regional championship since 2010.

“I sure did,” Wendt said with a smile when asked if he made his final save with his toes. “It was a play where you just have to make a quick, last-second decision and hope you get it.

“I feel like I played well today, but a lot of the credit has to also go to my defenders (Malikhai Stayton, Alexzander Houk, Mason Jaegle and Alen Sifuentes) in front of me. Sure, I had a few saves, but our defense did a great job of not really allowing (Galesburg) too many really good chances.”

Ottawa, the sub-sectional No. 4 seed, improved to 13-9-2 on the season and now meets top seed and defending 2A state champion Peoria Notre Dame (18-3-1) at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday in the Peoria Richwoods Sectional semifinals.

Galesburg, the sub-sectional No. 2 seed, finishes the season 14-8-1.

“I’ve felt like we’ve had a very competitive squad all season, one that has been in tight matches where we’ve won some and lost some,” Ottawa coach Kevin Olesen said. “I feel like all of those close matches really helped the guys today to just stay with it.

“I thought our communication was a big key today. The guys also did a tremendous job of covering for each other at times where we may have gotten out of position. Jorge twice gave us the lead, Evan’s goal gave us a little breathing room, and then Brady and the defense made it stand up.

“It was just an overall great effort from everyone on the team. I couldn’t be happier for them. ... Brady was huge today for us. He showed up in a big way.”

Ottawa took the lead in the 9th minute, as Joan Gutierrez’s initial shot was mishandled by the Galesburg keeper, and Jorge Lopez blasted home the rebound.

The Silver Streaks tied the match three minutes later.

Lopez then gave his team the lead for good with just over eight minutes before halftime when he took a pass from Alexio Fernandez and sent a short shot into the net. Evan Snook started the play by outworking a Galesburg defender for the ball in the corner.

“This feels amazing,” Lopez said. “Evan kept reminding me to get to the open space, be ready to shoot, and that’s what I did. I know that my teammates are going to find me with passes, but it’s also my job to get open for them. On both of my goals, I didn’t think about anything but putting the ball on net, and fortunately they went in.”

Ottawa, which played a man short after a red card in the final minutes of the first half, took a 3-1 lead in the 57th minute when Snook scored off a 40-yard shot from the left side.

“To be honest, I was trying to kick the ball towards the near post, was hoping for the wind to help bend it to the far post and a teammate would be there,” Snook said. “I kicked it with my left foot instead of my usual right to hopefully give it a little more hook. I wasn’t trying to score on the kick, but I guess it worked out pretty well.

“Sometimes the ball goes in when you least expect it to.”

Galesburg, which held a 14-12 overall advantage in total shots, including 9-8 in on-goal attempts, scored with three minutes to play on a shot that deflected in off an Ottawa player.