West Aurora hosting Neuqua Valley to begin the regional semi final round of the post season. The Wildcats are the 13 seed of the Plainfield North sectional while the host Blackhawks are the 4 seed.
1st Half
West Aurora on the attack in the first half, Loretto Lopez with a great pass ahead to Omari Rashidi. Neuqua Valley goaltender Nick Varrone dives and makes the stop with his legs. The Wildcat defense then gets back and forms a wall to keep the Blackhawks from getting another clean look.
2nd Half
Second half now, no score yet. Hector Huerta with a corner to Blake Studdard who lines the header a little too high over the cross bar. He can’t believe it as Neuqua dodges a big play there.
Midway through the second half, Jack Georgi creates a little space and unleashes a shot that sails about a foot over the cross bar. Neither team can seem to break through.
Neuqua with a corner now as Georgi puts a pass right to Tomas Puente for the header. But Carlos Garcia gets a hand on the ball to keep the ball out of the net.
Nice setup here by West Aurora as Rashidi drops a pass to Hector Huerta who centers to Loretto Lopez. But the shot is off the crossbar and out of bounds. So many close calls in this one as the tension mounts. We remain scoreless and head to overtime!
Overtime
After a scoreless first ten minutes of OT, Jack Georgi on a fast break but Garcia slides in and knocks the ball away. The Blackhawks goalie is ruled to have made a clean play on the ball. No score in overtime so we are going to penalty kicks.
Penalty Kicks
Hector Huerta is the first kicker for the Blackhawks. He goes to his left but Nick Varrone dives and knocks the ball away. Great start for the Wildcats.
Ayel Kikama is up for Neuqua Valley, West Aurora turns to sophomore Nicholas Martinez to handle the net for PK’s. Martinez guesses correctly but Kikama’s shot is high enough to find the net. 1-0 Cats.
In the next round, West Aurora evens things up as Isaac Romero gets the goal in the right hand corner.
Neuqua’s turn in round two. Ved Asur goes right while Martinez dives the opposite direction. The Wildcats up 2-1 after the first two rounds.
Juan Garcia up third for West Aurora. Varrone makes the stop diving to his left, but the line judge rules that he moved in front of the goal line before the kick, so Garcia gets another chance. He tries to trick Varrone by going to the exact same spot, but the sophomore keeper makes a massive save to give Neuqua a big time edge.
Tadiwa Nyamunduru in to kick for Neuqua in round three. The lefty kick is high and to the left side for another goal. The Wildcats now just need either one more save or one more goal to win.
Matthew Lopez-Martinez steps in for West Aurora in round four. He keeps the team alive with a goal into the right hand corner. Neuqua still leads 3-2.
Senior Harshit Gupta gets the ball and a goal will give the Wildcats the victory. Martinez makes the right decision but Gupta keeps his shot just out of reach of the goalie and finds the left corner. Neuqua Valley pulls off the upset to advance to the regional championship. The Wildcats will face Plainfield East who took down Plainfield Central in the other regional semi final.
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