‘They make movies about teams like us’: Romeoville excited for state soccer finals

ROMEOVILLE – After going 19-5-3 and winning a regional championship last season, the Romeoville boys soccer team lost only three starters and had high hopes entering this season.

The Spartans set lofty goals. They wanted to be unbeaten, untied and win a state championship.

At 27-1-1, the unbeaten and untied goals are gone, but the state championship dream is still alive. Romeoville beat Edwardsville on Tuesday in the Class 3A Bloomington Supersectional and take on unbeaten defending state champion York (20-0-3) in the first semifinal at 5 p.m. Friday at Hoffman Estates High School.

Romeoville and coach Nick Cirrincione couldn’t be more excited.

“This is a great group of kids, and they have had good experience,” Cirrincione said. “They play with a lot of confidence. A lot of these kids have been playing soccer since they were little, and quite a few of them play with high-level club teams. Their clubs promote playing high school soccer, which is great.

“It’s a different feeling playing with the school team. They are playing with all their friends that they have gone to school with their whole lives. Their teammates, their high school friends, the whole community is behind them. If you play for a club soccer championship, pretty much the only people there are parents. If you play in a state high school championship, you become a part of that school’s history. Years later, you can bring your own kids to the school, and they will see your picture on the wall and know you were a part of that.”

Cirrincione said his team has received tremendous support from the Romeoville student body, faculty, administration and community members.

“There is definitely a buzz around the school,” Cirrincione said. “A lot of the kids in school are excited, and we should have a big crowd Friday.”

The Spartans won their first nine games of the season before a 2-2 tie against Southwest Prairie Conference rival West Aurora. They then went on a 13-game winning streak that included a defining 1-0 win over Plainfield North, a team that was ranked No. 1 in the preseason in some circles.

“We knew Plainfield North was picked No. 1 and they had nine or 10 guys coming back from last year,” Cirrincione said. “The club team that the Plainfield North kids played on over the summer won the state title over a team that had a lot of our kids on it, so we wanted to show them we were just as good.

“That was a pretty exciting game for us.”

Romeoville suffered its only loss of the year in the final game of the regular season, falling 4-0 to Naperville Central, which plays Stevenson in the other state semifinal. Mike Ortiz, an assistant coach for Naperville Central, is the father of Romeoville goalkeeper Lucas Ortiz. Mike skipped Naperville Central’s supersectional game in order to be in the stands to watch his son’s team win.

“When we played Naperville Central, we didn’t really go in with a game plan,” CIrrincione said. “We just told the kids to go out and play. We wanted to give them a look that they won’t see again if we play them for the title.”

Romeoville has been dominant all season, outscoring its opponents 128-21. The Spartans allowed more than one goal in only five games.

Joseph Duarte is the leading scorer with 41 goals to go with 11 assists, but he is far from a one-man show. Demian Martinez (14), Luis Orizaba (11) and Christian Agyekum (10) all have scored double-digit goals, while Imanol Casillas has eight goals to go with his team-leading 23 assists. Orizaba has added 14 assists, and Martinez has 10. In all, 18 players on the Romeoville roster have scored.

“All 11 of our starters could play offense and be very good,” Cirrincione said. “We also have very strong backups, which is great in high school soccer. A lot of teams have five to seven studs. We have 11, and in nine out of 10 years, three or four of our backups would be starters. They are all asking me how they can get more minutes, which is a good problem to have. We don’t lose much if anything when we take a starter out to give him a rest.

“I think we are a problem for anyone. Sometimes I have to remind our kids that someone has to stay back when we are attacking, because they are all able to score.

“Does York have studs? Yes. Are they the defending state champions? Yes. Are they undefeated? Yes. We couldn’t ask for a better situation. We are playing against three schools [York, Stevenson, Naperville Central] that have a lot of history of success across multiple sports. We don’t really have any. We want to go show everyone what we can do.

“This is the story of a lifetime. They make movies about teams like us.”