Boys soccer: Joliet West rallies late to top East Moline United and advance to regional final

JOLIET – It was a case of better late than never for Joliet West on Tuesday in the Class 3A Joliet West Regional semifinal match.

The Tigers had plenty of scoring chances throughout the match, but were unable to find the back of the net and found themselves trailing 1-0 with 13 minutes to play.

Then, in a 2-minute span, everything changed.

Joliet West (15-5-3), the No. 2 seed in Sub-Sectional B of the Moline Sectional, increased the urgency with which they were playing and put the pressure on the East Moline defense. With just under 13 minutes left to play, West’s Adrian Maldonado took the ball deep down the right side and passed it back to teammate Alex Garcia. Garcia battled both East Moline goalkeeper Ismael Hernandez and defender Kayden Marolf for control of the ball. Garcia emerged with control and, with Hernandez scrambling back to his position, booted the ball into the net with his left foot to tie the score 1-all at the 12:37 mark.

The relentless Tiger attack continued.

Landon Brouwer moved the ball up the left sideline before being cut off and got the ball to Victor Antomez. Antomez then hit Garcia in the center, and Garcia put home his second goal at the 10:37 mark.

“We just kept playing our game,” Garcia said. “We had a lot of chances, but the ball wasn’t going in. We knew if we kept playing our game, we would get some goals to go in.

“It doesn’t matter how pretty it is as long as the ball finds the back of the net. Now, we get to keep playing and hopefully win a regional.”

With the win, the Tigers advance to Friday’s 5 p.m. title match at Ray Klootwyk Field against the winner of No. 3 seed Normal Community and No. 6 Bradley-Bourbonnais.

The Tigers dominated the action in the first half as well, but could not finish their scoring chances. East Moline United, the No. 7 seed that advanced after beating No. 8 Joliet Central 2-1 last Friday, made the most of its few opportunities. With 10:42 left in the first half, the Panthers’ Jayden Kerr had a free kick from 30 yards that floated over West goalie Daniel Gudino into the goal. Until Garcia’s spurt, it looked like that lead would hold up.

“Better late than never, I guess,” Joliet West coach Mike O’Shea said. “This is the seventh time we have come back and won a game this year, so I guess it’s just how we like to play.

“When we get going and do what we’re supposed to do, then we can score in bunches. We had a little more urgency in the second half. We moved some things around, and what we moved seemed to work.”

East Moline’s Hernandez did his best to keep the slim lead. He saved nine shots, and his defenders turned away several other West advances. Antomez had three shots on goal in the second half that were saved by Hernandez.

“Give a lot of credit to East Moline,” O’Shea said. “They came to play. They didn’t care what the seeds were.”