LA SALLE – It was a hard-fought, physical contest between rivals during the late Class 2A La Salle-Peru Regional semifinal Tuesday night, and Streator came away with a 2-1 victory over the regional host Cavaliers on Brady Grabowski’s goal with 1:26 to play.

Streator advances to Friday evening’s championship game against regional top seed Orion.

The Bulldogs were aggressive from the start, controlling the tempo early on. It was the Cavs’ Antonio Martinez who got the game’s first good look at the net, however, but he was just wide with the kick.

L-P goalie Erick Laurrabaquio-Moscosa was aggressive all night coming out of the net. Grabowski almost took advantage of it early, but sailed the shot just over the net 15 minutes into the game.

With Streator pushing the ball up the field, L-P did a nice job defensively to keep the Bulldogs off the scoreboard. With just under 19 minutes left in the half, Seth Adams had a good look at the net for the Cavaliers, but missed just over the net.

With 14 minutes remaining in the first half, Noah Russow had a wide-open look at the net for the Bulldogs, but once again the shot sailed high to keep the game scoreless.

Then with 34:26 remaining in the game, Laurrabaquio-Moscosa slipped in front of the goal, giving Grabowski a good look. But the Bulldogs senior’s shot hit the side of the post and bounced away.

Five minutes later, it was Grabowski getting another quality opportunity with Laurrabaquio-Moscosa away from the net, but the Bulldogs again were unable to hit the back of the net.

But two minutes, later Adam Williamson sailed a shot over the head of Laurrabaquio-Moscosa from 40 yards out to give Streator a 1-0 lead in the defensive battle.

Streator did a nice job of cutting off the passing lanes, but with less than 20 minutes left in the game, Martinez had L-P’s best look of the night to that point. Streator keeper Noah Camp was able to make the save, however, and keep L-P off the board.

With just over 13 minutes remaining, Giovanni Garcia ran down the ball as it appeared to be going out of bounds and turned toward the net. From a tough angle he blasted the ball into the back of the net to tie the game 1-1.

“We did a nice job getting to that ball there and fighting to tie the game up,” L-P coach David Spudic said. “We have a young team with only two seniors, and they just kept battling.”

The intensity picked up on both sides of the field the last 10 minutes. Finally, with 1:26 left in the game, Grabowski got control of the ball after Laurrabaquio-Moscosa ventured out to make a play. Grabowski scored to give the Bulldogs the lead again at 2-1.

“I thought L-P’s goalie was living dangerously all night coming out,” Streator coach J.T. Huey said. “I think that’s how we got both goals.

“I have to give L-P and their coach a ton of credit, though. He has really built this program, and if they keep going the way they have, this is going to be an even bigger regional rivalry for sure.”

From there the Bulldogs’ defense was able to prevent the Cavaliers from getting any good looks, securing the victory.

“We have accomplished so much this season,” Spudic said. “We came up short of a regional title, but we placed second in the [Earlville] War on 34, and it was the first time we’ve finished in the top half of the [Interstate 8] Conference as well, and we have a lot of guys coming back next year.”

Streator (15-6-1 on the season) advances to Friday’s regional championship back at the L-P Sports Complex, facing Orion (20-3-3), a 3-0 winner over Morris in Tuesday’s early semifinal.