Peotone ends Cristo Rey’s big season

Updated: October 19, 2011 7:32PM

Most teams usually have some sort of scouting report on their playoff opponents, but that wasn’t the case for Peotone when it met Cristo Rey in a Class 1A Lisle Sectional semifinal on Wednesday.

The lack of familiarity, though, was not a problem for the Blue Devils, who overcame windy and wet conditions to end Cristo Rey’s historic season with a 4-1 victory at Wilde Field.

“They were a team with a blank face,” Peotone sophomore Christian Slinkard said. “They never played any of the teams we played this season, so we knew we had to come out with high intensity. We wanted to take that next step for our program so we came out and played as hard as we could.”

Christian Thompson gave Peotone (17-4-2) the early lead by scoring on a breakaway 3:00 into the contest, but the Cristeros, who were making their sectional debut, held firm for the rest of the first half.

“We were just playing sloppy,” Slinkard said. “We knew if we came out strong in the first 10 minutes we were just going to dominate that whole second half and come out with a win.”

That’s exactly what happened. Junior Kevin Goeke set up two goals with long throw-ins from the left side, the first of which bounced through the crease to Slinkard, who tapped it in with 29:27 remaining. Goeke’s second heave was headed home by senior Tony Gill for a 3-0 Peotone lead at the 22:56 mark.

Freshman Eduardo Novoa added an insurance goal when he scored on a breakaway with 11:49 left for the Blue Devils, who only outshot Cristo Rey 9-7.

“That first half we were going into the wind, into the rain, and our goal was to keep it close here it half and then jump on them in the second half and that’s kind of what we did,” Peotone coach Kevin Mikuce said. “It’s hard with the field so slick to play good possession and it was getting a little bit sloppy, but I was real proud of our guys’ effort today. It’s the first sectional win in a quite a long time so it’s a good feeling.”

Cristo Rey (17-1-2) avoided the shutout when senior Oscar Noguez scored on a penalty kick with 2:42 to go.

“We didn’t make the chances,” Noguez said. “They got the lucky shots in. We couldn’t make them in. That’s how they won.”

The loss ended a terrific season in which the Cristeros won the Chicago Prep Conference and beat Hope Academy 7-0 last Friday to become the first boys sports team in school history to capture a regional title.

“It’s a great achievement for the school,” Cristo Rey coach Manny Chavez said. “Since it’s such a new school it’s hard to get a good program going, but with the staff we have right now the school is doing so much better. Being my first year as head coach with the guys it’s just amazing having a season like this.”

Friday’s sectional championship game will pit Peotone against defending state champion Lisle, which edged Chicago Christian 3-2 in triple overtime in the completion of a match that was suspended by darkness after two overtimes on Tuesday.

Junior Eric Osika scored the game-winning goal with 5:57 left in the third overtime when he headed home a corner kick from Pat Webb. Chicago Christian goalie Josh Mollema got a hand on the hard nod but was not able to stop it.

“Pat played a great ball back post and then I just got a head on it and put it right upper 90,” said Osika, who scored the only goal in last year’s state championship game and now has 16 goals this fall. “It felt great because mainly we worked our backs off the whole game. We brought it to them the first five minutes and we ended it.”

It was the second consecutive triple overtime match the Lions (17-5) have won. They blew a 2-0 lead when Chicago Christian (18-6-1) scored twice in the final 63 seconds of regulation, including one as time expired.

“We were definitely very angry, just emotional that we couldn’t do anything about it,” Osika said. “Two tough teams playing, something like that is going to happen.”

Lisle beat Peotone in the sectional final last year at Wilde Field after losing to the Blue Devils in the regular season. Peotone beat the Lions 4-2 on Sept. 8.

“We lost to them on the same field last year and they went on to win state, so it’s going to be a little payback for us,” Slinkard said.

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