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Good fortune follows Huntley
Updated: September 8, 2011 9:36PM
Huntley boys’ soccer coach Kris Grabner walked with purpose up to his players at halftime against visiting Hampshire and told them they were “lucky” to be up 2-1.
Luck of all sorts was on speed dial Thursday for the Red Raiders, who escaped with a 3-2 win when Niko Miholopolous’ header off a right cross found net with 16 seconds left in the first overtime for a golden goal.
“I told them we should have been down 5-2,” Grabner said about his halftime speech. “Defensively, one of the worst games I’ve seen us play. We were so disorganized. ... They pulled us apart and we had guys in bad positions making bad decisions. But our keeper (Austen Emery) came up big on so many breakaways. And they gave us some breaks by missing when they should have had them on frame.”
Hampshire (2-5) got down 2-0 early when Red Raiders’ midfielder Sean Tlapek snuck a ball between Whip-Purs keeper Bryan Contreras and the near post seven minutes in, before a penalty kick was awarded to Lucas Baker, who went upper 90 on the right in the 23rd minute.
Hampshire’s Ismael Morales finally converted one of his team’s many breakaways two minutes before half.
The goal broke a two-game scoreless streak for the Whip-Purs, who tied the game in the 55th minute on Andrew Obmalay’s lofted little flick from inside the right side of the box.
“They are going to kick themselves for the next five days until we play again,” Hampshire coach John Gosling said. “Last couple of days we didn’t have those kinds of opportunities and today we did. Today we were finding each other. We’ll put those away next time.”
Contreras contributed to Huntley’s bad luck late in regulation, stopping five straight shots in a six-minute span, all part of his 10 saves.
“He had an unfortunate error for their first goal and then a questionable PK put us in a hole,” Gosling said. “We climbed back out of it, but what can you say? Make your chances count.”
An injured Morales was stopped point blank early in overtime, allowing Huntley (5-1-2) one more opportunity.
The Red Raiders stole a ball in the midfield with time winding down to set up Scott Dorvilier’s pinpoint cross and a pretty header from Miholopolous that popped just over the outstretched arms of Contreras.
“It was perfect,” Miholopolous said. “Just had to jump up and get it.”
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