Forget about it

Naperville North's Elvis Garcia heads the ball against Bolingbrook.
(Jon Cunningham/For the Naperville Sun)

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Thanks to Emerson Beck, Ediz Yorulmazoglu doesn't have to worry about the goal that should have been on Monday night in the semifinals of the Class 3A Bolingbrook Regional.

Beck's goal with 1 minute, three seconds remaining in the game gave Naperville North a 3-2 win over Bolingbrook and changed Yorulmazoglu's miss 57 seconds earlier from a season-defining mistake into a teaching point for coach Jim Konrad. Kevin Wyrostek and Andrew Menendez also scored for the Huskies in a game that North led 2-0 with 13 minutes to play.

"I always say 2-nothing is the worst lead in soccer," Konrad said. "We escaped with the win and if we play like that on Friday, we'll lose by five goals."

North (16-3-2), the third seed in the Naperville Central Sectional, will play the winner Plainfield Central Friday afternoon for the regional championship. The Huskies have won three consecutive regional titles and 18 overall.

With the Huskies winning Monday night 2-1, junior midfielder Chris Boswell beat Bolingbrook goalie Brandon Baaske with a perfect pass to Yorulmazoglu on the left side of the goal. Only the slightest of touches was needed to put the Huskies up 3-1. Instead, his shot hit off the left post and gave the Raiders (9-11-2) another chance to extend their season.

Bolingbrook responded 40 seconds later as freshman Alex Cruz corralled a harmless shot that bounced off the chest of North goalie Devon Moon. Cruz put the ball in the net to knot the game at 2 in the 79th minute.

"This time of year you can't afford to make those kind of mistakes, and it almost cost us," Konrad said. "So we were lucky. Very lucky."

It didn't take long for Beck to respond with his 13th goal of the season. Taking advantage of what Bolingbrook coach Jamie Clemmons termed a marking error from the Raiders backline, Beck got free on the right side of the box and the senior reclaimed the lead for good.

"That game brought a lot of us really close to ending our careers," Beck said. "So we just know that we have to work harder, a lot harder, for the next game."

The Raiders advanced to the regional semifinals for the second season in a row thanks to a 1-0 win over district rival Romeoville last Friday. With that victory came the loss of leading scorer Arturo Cruz, who picked up a red card and had to sit out Monday's game.

Clemmons used a rotation of players at central midfielder to replace Cruz, including his younger brother Alex, as well as Patrick Bizimana and Jim Faught.

"Our kids, I don't think they really have it in their head that they have the ability to beat a team like this," Clemmons said. "But I've been telling them for four years that if you do what you're supposed to do, you can beat anybody. It doesn't matter who it is. We talked up Cinderella upset all week. There's no reason why we couldn't do it. I'm kind of proud of them that they showed they weren't going to give up."

North dominated time of possession in the first half, not allowing a shot on goal and winning four corner kicks without allowing one for Bolingbrook. The Huskies had several scoring chances in the first half, but only Wyrostek's header off Riley Breese's deflected throw-in found the net for a 1-0 lead in the 10th minute.

Menendez put the Huskies up 2-0 when he scored on a direct kick, taking advantage of a quick restart. His 30-yard strike seemingly gave North all the cushion it needed.

Things changed.

"We just weren't doing anything right, really," Beck said. "We couldn't tackle. We couldn't pass. We just let them take over the game. Really, even though we were winning most of the game, we let them dominate the game."

Junior Rodrigo Perez pounded in a goal off his right foot from 20 yards out to get Bolingbrook back into the game at 2-1 with 13:02 remaining in the second half.

Bolingbrook got its equalizer. Then the Raiders relaxed.

"That's when you're the most vulnerable is right after you score," Clemmons said. "Because you let your guard down. You think, 'Oh, we got this. We're going to go to overtime.' (The Huskies) aren't thinking that. They're thinking, 'We got to hurry up and score. We don't want to go to overtime.'"