Torres’ late goal lifts Morton

Updated: October 5, 2011 10:51AM

Downers Grove South gave Morton a great challenge for 99 minutes Tuesday night.

But Morton aced the test in the 100^th minute.

Alonso Torres scored on a rebound off a free kick from Abdon Delgado with 28 seconds remaining in the second overtime to lift visiting Morton to a 1-0 victory in a key West Suburban Conference Gold Division match in Downers Grove.

It was the 12^th goal of the season for Torres – equaling Downers South’s output for the entire season – and his second game-winner.

“I was on my assigned position on the back post,” Torres said. “I was expecting the ball, but once it went to the middle, I was just on my spot and the ball arrived and I just scored it.”

Delgado, a sophomore defender, triggered the decisive play by sending a 39-yard free kick just inside the six-yard box, where several players jumped to try and get a head on it. The ball glanced off the back of Morton forward Marcos Romo’s head and straight to an unguarded Torres on the left post. His five-yard shot beat lunging Downers South goalie Nick Tannenbaum.

It wasn’t the first dangerous free kick Delgado had taken. Earlier in the match he had several 50-yarders either go just over the crossbar or saved by Tannenbaum, who kept Downers South in the game by making 11 saves.

“We practice those at practice,” Delgado said. “Our goal is to put it on goal. Sometimes they go in, sometimes I put it near our offenders and if it goes in, great, and if it doesn’t, well, this team will get the rebound, like my friend Alonso [did] there.”

The win kept Morton (15-3, 4-1) in the hunt for the WSC Gold title. Morton needs Downers South (6-10-2, 2-2) to knock off Leyden (11-3-3, 4-0) on Thursday to force a tie for the lead.

“[Downers South] can beat anyone on any given night,” Morton coach Mike Caruso said. “They play well and they just lack a finisher up top, otherwise I think they’d be in great shape.”

Morton, which has scored 43 goals, has plenty of finishers but they had trouble finding the range against Downers South despite outshooting the hosts 21-7. Jesus Morales hit the post twice, once in each half, and had a hard 17-yard shot saved by Tannenbaum, with the rebound just missing the foot of Torres in front with 10:50 left in the second half.

“We missed three or four on the door step, two in the first half and two in the second half,” Caruso noted. “If it goes to PKs anything can happen. We got saved at the end there but we’ve got to put away those chances in the six-yard box.”

© 2012 Sun-Times Media, LLC. All rights reserved. This material may not be copied or distributed without permission. For more information about reprints and permissions, visit www.suntimesreprints.com. To order a reprint of this article, click here.