East Aurora continues magical season

Updated: March 22, 2011 5:16PM

BOLINGBROOK - Can East Aurora's magical season go further?

That is the question since the Tomcats grinded out a 3-1 victory over Oswego on Saturday to win the Bolingbrook Regional - only the second regional soccer title ever for East Aurora's trophy case, where the last plaque has been orphaned since 1996.

As good as the Tomcats' 17-2-4 campaign had been, it was late in the year when they managed a 0-0 deadlock against a then No. 2-rated Neuqua Valley squad that finally earned them a second look. Thanks to a final league road win coupled with another tie against Neuqua, East Aurora captured a conference title for the first time ever and jumped into the Chicago Sun-Times Top-10 poll.

But those No. 8-rated Tomcats now find themselves going up against a familiar nemesis in Tuesday's 4:30 p.m. Naperville North Sectional opener: those Neuqua Wildcats, who are now ranked No. 4 and fresh off a 2-1 victory over Plainfield South, which earned them first place in their own regional and a 15-3-3 record.

Of course that fact wasn't known when East Aurora was holding Oswego on Saturday. Oswego won the toss and immediately opted to use the wind, gusting from 17 to 25 miles per hour in the opening half.

However, East Aurora patiently used a series of quality short kicks to get to the Oswego end of the field and when Eddie Llamas crossed the ball into the goalie box, teammate Eddie Gaytan was in place for a five-yard tap inside the right post.

With the wind now in its favor, East Aurora went up 2-0 just 33 seconds into the second half when Llamas' through-ball assist led to Ricardo Camacho booting a 35-yarder over Oswego goalkeeper Luis Gallardo but under the crossbar. Four minutes later, Camacho chipped the ball over his head so that teammate Llamas could beat Gallardo for a seven-yarder.

"In the first half we knew we had to be patient against the wind and in the second half we tried to use it to our advantage," noted Llamas, who raised his season totals to four goals and three assists. "As long as we get something on the board, I don't care if I have an assist or a goal. Actually, just to be part of a play that leads to a score is what matters."

The three-goal deficit seemed to energize Oswego and the Panthers took over the momentum and kept it after Max Calderon's pass led to a Fernando Chavez goal with 28 minutes 26 seconds still to be played. Although Oswego pulled even in overall shot attempts for the match at 15, East Aurora's 9-7 edge in on-target shots also translated to a 3-1 win.

Oswego, which was hoping to post a third consecutive victory over an opponent it had faced during the regular season, wasn't able to add a regional title to the most recent one from 2008 and finished at 9-11-2.

"I would've wanted us to play all year with the sense of urgency we showed at the end. This match was a microcosm of our season," Panthers coach Travis Carlisle said. "We've got a bunch of kids with big hearts that went without a win in their first six matches and didn't understand that most people figured they'd just keep on losing. As much as you hope the wind can help you, it can also not necessarily be an advantage at times and we saw that. I'm still very proud of our guys, and I'm sure East Aurora knows they had to play the whole game to win."

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