Stagg shuts down Crete-Monee

Updated: March 22, 2011 5:20PM

Stagg has a date with rival Sandburg for the Class 3A Andrew Regional

championship on Saturday afternoon after defeating Crete-Monee

3-0 Tuesday night in Tinley Park.

Crete-Monee junior forward Carlos Posada came into the match with 63 goals

on the season, putting him third in state history for goals in a season.

He stayed at that mark because of double-teams and a swarming defense by

Stagg (12-5-2).

"It was disappointing," Posada said. "Stagg doubled me, marked me and got in

my head today and I just couldn't score, but we'll be back next year."

Zack Judickas and Tom Lojek played give-and-go, with Lojek blasting the ball

from 25 yards out past the outstretched hands of Crete-Monee goalie Luke

Cogan for a 1-0 lead with 14:36 remaining in the first half.

"I just stepped back and hit it from beyond 18," Lojek said. "We knew we had

to stop Posada, but we knew if we stopped him, we'd win the game. Our whole

team wants to play Sandburg, so it should be an interesting game."

Judickas scored on a header off his own rebound of a shot off the crossbar

early in the second half.

Alberto Torrez added the final goal with 19:30 left to seal the win over

Crete-Monee (17-4).

Stagg has some unfinished business with Sandburg after the Eagles defeated

the Chargers 1-0 in their last meeting. Five minutes into the second half

that game was called because of weather. One half of play, however, counts

as a game.

"Without question we feel like we have some unfinished business against

Sandburg," Stagg coach Mike Kealy said. "They are the No. 1 seed in the

sectionals, we are the No. 8 seed, so we will have to come out and play the

best soccer we can."

The date was made official thanks to a 4-2 win by Sandburg (16-5) over

Andrew (6-14-2) on Tuesday.

After two goals by Danny Lojek and one by Eric Maier put the Eagles up 3-0

with 24:17 left in the game, the Thunderbolts scored goals by Kevin

Hennington and Mike D'Ambrosio to make it 3-2 with just under 10 minutes

left.

Sandburg's Kevin Kroll put the game out of reach, scoring with 4:20

remaining.

"At this point everybody is playing like it's their last game and you have

to come out with a win or it will be," Sandburg coach Jack Ferraro said. "No

matter who you play, it's going to be a hard game."

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