Despite holding a sizeable advantage in shots on goal and corner kicks, Wheaton Academy trailed 3-1 with roughly 20 minutes left in its Class 2A sectional semifinal against Harvard on Tuesday night.

A defensive breakdown on the Wheaton Academy side created wide-open space for Harvard’s Jesus Aquino, who blasted a shot past Warrior keeper Jared Jardis during the 60th minute to give the Hornets a two-goal lead. The No. 1 seed in its subsectional, Wheaton Academy found itself on the brink of elimination as the Warriors fought to keep their season alive.

That’s when senior Luke Rodriguez and the Wheaton Academy offense came alive. Capitalizing on their superior size, the Warriors scored from inside the box during the 61st and 63rd minutes. Shortly after, senior Gabe Stein-Rodriguez fed a ball down the far sideline and Luke Rodriguez powered a right-footed shot into the bottom left corner during the 68th minute.

“We’ve played since our freshman year and we have a connection,” Rodriguez said. “He had the ball wide and he lotted me in. The bottom left is my corner and I placed it bottom left for the goal. We made an adjustment to a 3-5-2, but after we equalized, we changed back to the 4-3-3. I felt that having another attacker helped us because we knew we could press them all game.”

The three-goal stretch over a seven-minute period enabled the Warriors to surge ahead and oust the No. 2 seed Harvard 4-3 in a fast-paced battle that featured nearly a dozen corners and goals from six different players. Wheaton Academy (20-3-1) will advance and face No. 6 seed Streamwood in the sectional final at Geneva High School at 10 a.m. Saturday morning.

“It’s a great win,” said Wheaton Academy freshman Paul Stefurak, the first of three Warriors to score goals on Tuesday. “Our game plan was to go at them and we watched film, so we knew what they were going to do. We were down, but our brotherhood and love for the team helped us push through.”

Harvard (17-9) saw its season come to a close with the loss. Although the Warriors controlled the ball early in the first half, posting three quality shots on goal over the first 10 minutes, the Hornets were the first to strike. In the 17th minute, senior forward Bryan Gorostieta ripped a shot on goal. Jardis made the initial save, but sophomore Eddie Fuentes put in the deflection.

“That’s what we wanted,” Harvard head coach Victor Gonzalez said. “We knew we were going to create and have opportunities against them. We put some of them away, but we didn’t put away enough. ... We talk about how, if we ever want to compete for a state title or anything like that, we have to beat teams like that. It was a learning experience for them, for sure.”

A wild sequence ensued over the 23rd and 24th minutes, when both teams converted goals in a back-and-forth series of events. In the 23rd minute, Wheaton Academy’s Mason Brooke bent a corner kick into the box, where the freshman Stefurak found position and headed the ball in from the back side.

Harvard immediately answered, pushing the ball down the field and earning a corner kick in the 24th minute. Amid a crowd of players, Hornet senior Edgar Robles-Monge tapped the ball into the net to give the lead back to Harvard. Wheaton Academy, which owned a 5-1 advantage in corner kicks and a 7-4 advantage in shots on goal at halftime, found itself trailing by one goal.

“It’s about the bond these boys have for each other,” Wheaton Academy senior defender Carlton McClure said. “We knew this was going to be a tough match and we knew they had the ability to score, but we knew we had that ability too. ... We didn’t want our season to end here, so we kept fighting.”

Trailing 3-1 after Aquino’s goal in the 60th minute, Wheaton Academy scored twice in a three-minute stretch to even the score once again. In the 61st minute, Warrior junior Andrew Lopez heaved a long throw-in from deep down the sideline toward the Harvard box, where freshman teammate Aksel Escareno navigated through a swarm of defenders to cut the deficit to one.

“It feels great,” Escareno said. “We had belief in each other and raising each other up really helped us today. ... It’s all about the bond we have and that really helped us to not lose confidence and keep the belief that we could win. Even when we’re down 3-1, we know we have the ability to come back.”

A nearly identical scenario played out in the 63rd minute, when another long throw-in led to a corner kick for the Warriors. Rodriguez, stationed at the right side of the box, worked through a crowd and converted the corner kick into the game-tying goal. It’s the first 20-win season since 2018 for the Warriors, who’re attempting to win their third sectional title in five years.

“They beat us on those long throw-ins and those set pieces,” Gonzalez said. “Those have hurt us all season. We practiced those, but we weren’t good enough there. ... We can’t coach height and we’re shorter than they are, but they’d go up and win it. Credit to them, they played how they play and won.”

Jardis totaled four saves for the Warriors, while Osvaldo Nova, who made three saves in the first eight minutes, finished with eight for the Hornets.