Reavis rally takes down Thornton
Guzman sparks, Montero finishes Rams' comeback in 3-2 OT win
By Steve Millar
BURBANK -- Things appeared bleak for Reavis when it trailed Thornton (co-op) by two goals with less than 20 minutes left in regulation in Tuesday’s Class 3A Reavis Regional semifinal, but Rams senior midfielder Pedro Guzman did not panic.
Guzman thought back to Reavis’ rivalry match with Argo at SeatGeek Stadium on Oct. 7.
“I was thinking that we were in the same situation against Argo where we got down 2-0,” Guzman said of the game the Rams came back to tie 2-2. “It’s just those first moments where you have to get out of it. Once you get out of it, we start passing the ball and start to connect, and that’s how we want to play.”
Guzman started the comeback against Argo with a penalty-kick goal. He sparked an even more important rally Tuesday night, scoring twice in the final 15 minutes, 5 seconds of regulation. He set the stage for Emanuel Montero’s overtime goal to lift the eighth-seeded Rams to a 3-2 win over the ninth-seeded Wildcats.
Reavis (13-2-5) will take on top-seeded Lincoln-Way Central (16-1-2) – which beat Lincoln-Way East 3-1 in the first semifinal – in the regional final set for 4 p.m. Friday.
“We’re super excited to be in that game,” Montero said. “Hopefully we can play the same we played here or even better.”
Reavis will definitely want to play the way it did over the final 16 minutes.
Thornton (10-5) looked in control after taking a 2-0 lead with 18:30 to go.
Nate Olivo drew a foul in the box, and Hector Gonzalez converted the ensuing penalty kick to give the Wildcats an insurance goal and seemingly commanding lead.
“It certainly wasn’t pretty,” Reavis coach Mark Gniadek said. “We came out slow. We gave up that early goal, unfortunately. Thornton is a good team; so, if you go down early, you have to battle. Then we go down two, and it was even harder to battle back.
“But our guy, Pedro, if we need someone to spark us it’s him, and he did in a big way.”
Guzman, Chicagoland Soccer’s Man of the Match, had a quick response to Gonzalez’s goal.
He took a long pass from Diego Rodriguez in the center of the box and fired a shot from 15 yards that went off the inside of the right post and in to pull the Rams within one with 15:05 to play.
“It all started with Pedro,” Montero said. “His first goal brought up our team when we were down 2-0.”
Reavis continued to put on pressure in search of the tying goal and had a few chances, including one sequence where Guzman had three shots from around 15 yards.
Guzman took a pass from Montero and fired a shot that Thornton goalkeeper Leo Gutierrez saved. Guzman got the rebound and shot again, this time striking the post. He tracked the ball down again and had another shot stopped by Gutierrez with 12:30 to go.
Thornton could not hold off the Rams long enough, though. An extended period of pressure resulted in Reavis freshman Diego Ochoa getting taken down in the box while making a move down the end line.
Guzman took the ensuing penalty kick and buried it inside the left post to tie it with 4:29 left.
“I was super nervous,” Guzman said. “I knew if I missed it, the game was over. There were only four minutes left. I had to choose a side and stick with it, and that’s what I did.”
Gniadek was proud to see the young Ochoa make a big play in his first playoff game.
It was a sign of how Reavis’ young players persevered through some early nerves.
“At times we played good soccer,” Gniadek said. “We kept the ball, we moved it around. Then at times, I think maybe the atmosphere of the playoffs got to our younger players.
“But those young guys were huge for us. (Freshman defender Krystian Paluch) didn’t come off the field. Diego Ochoa drew the penalty for that second goal. It wasn’t exactly how we drew it up, but winning’s winning.”
Montero made sure Reavis finished the comeback on the winning end when he took a left-footed corner kick from the right side and bent a shot inside the far post with 6:31 left in the first overtime period.
Montero said he had never attempted a shot like that on a corner kick.
“I tried bending it,” he said. “There was no wind, so I just put spin on it, and it went in. I’ve worked on adding spin to the ball, but never on a corner kick. It was tied 2-2. I had to try something different. It had to be a miracle. I shot it and it went in.
“I was excited. We had a good crowd, so it was fun.”
Reavis goalkeeper Jacob Nosek came up big to keep the Rams in front early in the second overtime.
Gonzalez took a shot from 20 yards that resulted in a routine save for Nosek, but Victor Lopez pounced on the rebound and fired a shot that seemed ticketed for inside the right post. Nosek made a diving save, slapping the ball wide.
“At the beginning of overtime, we had a couple chances, but they put their chance away; and we didn’t,” Thornton coach David Gonzalez said. “Their keeper made a couple nice saves.”
The game started well for Thornton. In the 13th minute Alexander Lopez collected a loose ball and fired a looping shot from 35 yards. Nosek jumped and got a piece of the shot but not enough to keep it from tucking into the top corner of the net to give the Wildcats the lead.
David Gonzalez was disappointed his team let the late 2-0 advantage slip away, but encouraged for the future.
“We’ve got a lot of young guys who played a lot of minutes,” he said. “We’re happy with what we started with to be where we’re at right now. We wanted to play for a regional championship, of course, but we’re excited with what we’ve got here.
“We think we’re going to compete in the future and get back to where we were at. It’s a process. We got hit bad with COVID, lost a lot of numbers, and we’re still building back up.”
Gutierrez made 11 saves for Thornton. Nosek finished with seven for Reavis.
The Rams now look ahead to Friday and their opportunity to upset top-seeded Lincoln-Way Central.
“Instead of starting out slow like we did tonight, we have to start out really fast,” Guzman said. “That team is really good and in order to be at their level, we have to play really good from the start.”
Starting lineups:
Thornton (co-op)
GK – Leo Gutierrez
D – Jesus Mendoza
D – Antonio Andrade
D – Alex Bernal
D – Victor Lopez
MF – Francisco Albarran
MF – Nate Olivo
MF – Hector Gonzalez
MF – Alexander Lopez
F – Mariano Delgado
F – Luis Flores
Reavis
GK – Jacob Nosek
D – David Meza
D – Krystian Paluch
D – Julian Menchaca
D – Steven Solis
MF – Pedro Guzman
MF – Emanuel Montero
MF – Diego Rodriguez
MF – Diego Ochoa
F – Ahmad Suleiman
F – Carlos Ramos
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: Pedro Guzman, sr. MF, Reavis
Scoring summary
First half
THORNTON – A. Lopez (unassisted), 13th minute
Second half
THORNTON – Gonzalez (penalty kick), 62nd minute
REAVIS – Guzman (D. Rodriguez), 65th minute
REAVIS – Guzman (penalty kick), 76th minute
First overtime
REAVIS – Montero (unassisted), 84th minute
Second overtime
No scoring
Guzman sparks, Montero finishes Rams' comeback in 3-2 OT win
By Steve Millar
BURBANK -- Things appeared bleak for Reavis when it trailed Thornton (co-op) by two goals with less than 20 minutes left in regulation in Tuesday’s Class 3A Reavis Regional semifinal, but Rams senior midfielder Pedro Guzman did not panic.
Guzman thought back to Reavis’ rivalry match with Argo at SeatGeek Stadium on Oct. 7.
“I was thinking that we were in the same situation against Argo where we got down 2-0,” Guzman said of the game the Rams came back to tie 2-2. “It’s just those first moments where you have to get out of it. Once you get out of it, we start passing the ball and start to connect, and that’s how we want to play.”
Guzman started the comeback against Argo with a penalty-kick goal. He sparked an even more important rally Tuesday night, scoring twice in the final 15 minutes, 5 seconds of regulation. He set the stage for Emanuel Montero’s overtime goal to lift the eighth-seeded Rams to a 3-2 win over the ninth-seeded Wildcats.
Reavis (13-2-5) will take on top-seeded Lincoln-Way Central (16-1-2) – which beat Lincoln-Way East 3-1 in the first semifinal – in the regional final set for 4 p.m. Friday.
“We’re super excited to be in that game,” Montero said. “Hopefully we can play the same we played here or even better.”
Reavis will definitely want to play the way it did over the final 16 minutes.
Thornton (10-5) looked in control after taking a 2-0 lead with 18:30 to go.
Nate Olivo drew a foul in the box, and Hector Gonzalez converted the ensuing penalty kick to give the Wildcats an insurance goal and seemingly commanding lead.
“It certainly wasn’t pretty,” Reavis coach Mark Gniadek said. “We came out slow. We gave up that early goal, unfortunately. Thornton is a good team; so, if you go down early, you have to battle. Then we go down two, and it was even harder to battle back.
“But our guy, Pedro, if we need someone to spark us it’s him, and he did in a big way.”
Guzman, Chicagoland Soccer’s Man of the Match, had a quick response to Gonzalez’s goal.
He took a long pass from Diego Rodriguez in the center of the box and fired a shot from 15 yards that went off the inside of the right post and in to pull the Rams within one with 15:05 to play.
“It all started with Pedro,” Montero said. “His first goal brought up our team when we were down 2-0.”
Reavis continued to put on pressure in search of the tying goal and had a few chances, including one sequence where Guzman had three shots from around 15 yards.
Guzman took a pass from Montero and fired a shot that Thornton goalkeeper Leo Gutierrez saved. Guzman got the rebound and shot again, this time striking the post. He tracked the ball down again and had another shot stopped by Gutierrez with 12:30 to go.
Thornton could not hold off the Rams long enough, though. An extended period of pressure resulted in Reavis freshman Diego Ochoa getting taken down in the box while making a move down the end line.
Guzman took the ensuing penalty kick and buried it inside the left post to tie it with 4:29 left.
“I was super nervous,” Guzman said. “I knew if I missed it, the game was over. There were only four minutes left. I had to choose a side and stick with it, and that’s what I did.”
Gniadek was proud to see the young Ochoa make a big play in his first playoff game.
It was a sign of how Reavis’ young players persevered through some early nerves.
“At times we played good soccer,” Gniadek said. “We kept the ball, we moved it around. Then at times, I think maybe the atmosphere of the playoffs got to our younger players.
“But those young guys were huge for us. (Freshman defender Krystian Paluch) didn’t come off the field. Diego Ochoa drew the penalty for that second goal. It wasn’t exactly how we drew it up, but winning’s winning.”
Montero made sure Reavis finished the comeback on the winning end when he took a left-footed corner kick from the right side and bent a shot inside the far post with 6:31 left in the first overtime period.
Montero said he had never attempted a shot like that on a corner kick.
“I tried bending it,” he said. “There was no wind, so I just put spin on it, and it went in. I’ve worked on adding spin to the ball, but never on a corner kick. It was tied 2-2. I had to try something different. It had to be a miracle. I shot it and it went in.
“I was excited. We had a good crowd, so it was fun.”
Reavis goalkeeper Jacob Nosek came up big to keep the Rams in front early in the second overtime.
Gonzalez took a shot from 20 yards that resulted in a routine save for Nosek, but Victor Lopez pounced on the rebound and fired a shot that seemed ticketed for inside the right post. Nosek made a diving save, slapping the ball wide.
“At the beginning of overtime, we had a couple chances, but they put their chance away; and we didn’t,” Thornton coach David Gonzalez said. “Their keeper made a couple nice saves.”
The game started well for Thornton. In the 13th minute Alexander Lopez collected a loose ball and fired a looping shot from 35 yards. Nosek jumped and got a piece of the shot but not enough to keep it from tucking into the top corner of the net to give the Wildcats the lead.
David Gonzalez was disappointed his team let the late 2-0 advantage slip away, but encouraged for the future.
“We’ve got a lot of young guys who played a lot of minutes,” he said. “We’re happy with what we started with to be where we’re at right now. We wanted to play for a regional championship, of course, but we’re excited with what we’ve got here.
“We think we’re going to compete in the future and get back to where we were at. It’s a process. We got hit bad with COVID, lost a lot of numbers, and we’re still building back up.”
Gutierrez made 11 saves for Thornton. Nosek finished with seven for Reavis.
The Rams now look ahead to Friday and their opportunity to upset top-seeded Lincoln-Way Central.
“Instead of starting out slow like we did tonight, we have to start out really fast,” Guzman said. “That team is really good and in order to be at their level, we have to play really good from the start.”
Starting lineups:
Thornton (co-op)
GK – Leo Gutierrez
D – Jesus Mendoza
D – Antonio Andrade
D – Alex Bernal
D – Victor Lopez
MF – Francisco Albarran
MF – Nate Olivo
MF – Hector Gonzalez
MF – Alexander Lopez
F – Mariano Delgado
F – Luis Flores
Reavis
GK – Jacob Nosek
D – David Meza
D – Krystian Paluch
D – Julian Menchaca
D – Steven Solis
MF – Pedro Guzman
MF – Emanuel Montero
MF – Diego Rodriguez
MF – Diego Ochoa
F – Ahmad Suleiman
F – Carlos Ramos
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: Pedro Guzman, sr. MF, Reavis
Scoring summary
First half
THORNTON – A. Lopez (unassisted), 13th minute
Second half
THORNTON – Gonzalez (penalty kick), 62nd minute
REAVIS – Guzman (D. Rodriguez), 65th minute
REAVIS – Guzman (penalty kick), 76th minute
First overtime
REAVIS – Montero (unassisted), 84th minute
Second overtime
No scoring