Josue Lopez was feeling good about his set pieces on the day.

With an assist off a free kick and a goal on a penalty kick, the Streamwood senior had a chance to secure a regional title over Geneva with another free kick from 20 yards out in the 71st minute.

And as he heard Sabres coach Matt Polovin right behind him yelling to slot it into the back post, he knew what he needed to do.

“I just got a good hit on it with my right foot,” Lopez said. “I got some good power on it and then I heard coach Polovin telling me it was going in, and that was kind of surprising.”

Lopez’s second goal of the day proved to be more than enough, as the sixth-seeded Sabres would hold on for a 3-1 victory over the second-seeded Vikings to win the Class 2A Crystal Lake Central regional title.

“It’s been a couple of years, but with this group it’s really special,” Polovin said. “It’s been a season of not having the same lineup game after game because of injuries. Everyone had this next man up mentality all season, and to do what we did against a phenomenal Geneva team we lost to earlier in the season, it’s so well deserved.”

Lopez scored the eventual go-ahead goal for the Sabres (10-10) in the 67th minute. After a Geneva defender used their hands to protect their face from the ball inside the box, the senior slotted the penalty kick to the left side of the net for the lead.

“I’ve scored three of those so far this season, so I knew I could get another one,” Lopez said. “Doesn’t matter where I’m at, just who I am when I get into the box.”

The Sabres got the scoring stated in the 12th minute of play when Lopez sent a free kick into the box before senior Emiliano Bermadez headed the ball into the net.

“I asked them before the game how much do they want to bring another regional plaque back to Streamwood,” Polovin said. “And they were locked in, even with it being a morning game. I made sure they were going to be fired up, and they just never let the foot off the gas.”

Polovin said that he was also especially proud of the defense, especially with guys like Chris Cardenas, whose main goal of the match was to shadow Vikings midfielder Ben Murphy for the entire contest.

“I don’t usually have one guy man-marked the whole way, but we knew he was a phenomenal player, so I told Cardenas his one job was to follow him all day,” Polovin said. “He’s someone I bought up from JV earlier in the season, and here he was doing a great job defending one of the best players around.”

And his presence was felt almost the entire way.

“It was so annoying, I’ve never been man-marked like that in my life,” Murphy said after the game. “No matter where I was, that kid (Cardenas) just kept following me, trying to keep me out of the game. But you can’t do much with that, just try to beat him a few times. That’s what soccer is.”

Murphy would still make an impact on the game for the Vikings (16-6-2) when he buried a penalty kick to tie the game at 1-1 in the 22nd minute of play. The Vikings finished the game out-shooting the Sabres at the net 5-3, but could only manage the one goal.

“Set pieces in the playoffs can win or lose games, and they scored off of three of them,” Vikings coach Jason Bhatta said. “Unfortunately that’s how it goes. We had a lot of chances, and I felt like the boys did what they needed to do to put the chances away, but sometimes it doesn’t go that way.”

Geneva will graduate 15 seniors from its 16-win season, which was the most wins the team has had since an 18-win season in 2009.

“It’s been an amazing run,” Murphy said. “We’re all such good friends and coming up through Geneva soccer, which is an amazing program, together it’s been great. It’s so sad that I won’t be able to play with them anymore, but I wouldn’t want to do it with anyone else.”

Streamwood will face top-seeded Boylan Catholic (18-2-1) on Tuesday in a Class 2A sectional semifinal at Geneva. The Titans defeated fourth-seeded Burlington Central 2-0 to win the Burlington Central regional.

“We just need to get the most set pieces we can get and shoot as much as we can,” Lopez said. “That’s how we usually win the game.”