Despite playoff loss, Raiders thrived in '09

On Tuesday, Bolingbrook fans found out that football is not the only game of inches.

Trailing 1-0 with under 15 seconds remaining in a semifinal contest of the Raiders' own regional against third-seeded Wheaton Warrenville South, Christian Ontiverous' left-footed free kick from 20 yards away beat the goalkeeper, yet it hit the bottom of the cross bar.

Eventually the ball was cleared away, ending the season for Bolingbrook, seeded 14th in the Downers Grove South Sectional.

"We took a step forward this season and we didn't stay where we were from last season. One of our goals was to win a conference title and we did that," Raiders coach Jamie Clemmons said. "This year we had nine sophomores on varsity and six started so all I can say is that we only lost 1-0 to a very good Wheaton Warrenville South team. That says something about the strength of our program."

Bolingbrook finished with an overall record of 11-10. It was the best record in Clemmons' tenure as coach and the best record in seven years. Bolingbrook's conference championship win was the first in 10 years.

One sophomore who was thrown into the spotlight was goalkeeper Fransisco Luna. He was told just two days before Bolingbrook's first game that he would be the starting goalkeeper because the projected starter was out for the season due to medical reasons.

After a shaky start for Luna which included taking some lumps against Neuqua Valley and Geneva, he recovered and had six shutouts during the season, making his career total eight. Four shutouts came against conference opponents.

"He settled down and really started playing like a junior or senior keeper. He came up to varsity this year and he has two more years in the program. I only see an upside for the kid," Clemmons said.

Bolingbrook will lose the bulk of its offense, however, as senior Arturo Cruz played his last season for the Raiders. Cruz had 18 goals along with seven assists during the season and he was the key to the Raiders' attack. Throughout the season, the Raiders scored a total of 31 goals and Cruz had a hand in 25 of them.

He finished his career with eight three-goal games. Cruz had hat tricks in his last two regular season games as he torched both Homewood-Flossmoor and Joliet.

"He's someone that will be hard to replace. He got most of our goals and he was just a flat out good player for us," Clemmons said. "He was big for us this season, I can't say enough about him."

Cruz had the unique experience of sharing the field with his brother, Alejandro, who was yet another sophomore starting on varsity. Arturo often found himself on the receiving end of his brother's throw-ins or passes.

"I think the key to me scoring goals was my brother and the great passes from my team," Arturo Cruz said. "Scoring a goal is a great feeling and I wanted to have it again and again during the season."

The biggest victory of the season happened to be the last regular season game of the year as Bolingbrook defeated Joliet 3-1 in a match that would decide who would win the Southwest Suburban Blue championship.

Going into the game, Joliet was 19-0-2. However, the Raiders were able to fight the Steelmen off with two goals in the second half to record the upset victory.

"We had been talking about the match for the week before and we constantly heard that Joliet was undefeated," Clemmons said. "We wanted a chance to show that we could play and we came out well and got the win and the conference title was a goal of ours."

Besides Cruz, Bolingbrook also says farewell to two key members of the team as Steve Biala and Ontiveros both graduate this spring.

While those players will be missed, seven or eight starters are projected to return for the 2010 campaign.

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