Three area teams advance to regional finals

On Tuesday night, Wheaton Warrenville South fans found out that football is not the only game of inches.

With the Tigers up 1-0, a WW South defenseman fouled a Bolingbrook forward just outside the far end of the box with less than 15 seconds to play.

Bolingbrook's Christian Ontiverous fired a left-footed free kick that hit the cross bar and caromed out to the 6-yard box where it was promptly cleared out of danger by the Tigers' defense.

When the final horn sounded, the Tigers (18-4-2), seeded third in the Downers Grove South Sectional, exhaled as they survived a scare from the 14th-seeded Bolingbrook Raiders

(11-10-0) in the regional semifinal held at Bolingbrook High School.

Despite having the majority of the possessions and numerous chances, the Tigers' offense only came away with one goal which was just enough for the victory.

"One (goal) in the playoffs is all you really need. It is

about getting the result, not getting further damage physically to anyone on your team, and moving on to the next opponent," Tigers coach Guy Callipari said. "Right now, I feel pretty good where we are at this point."

After a scoreless first half, Andrew Bellmer found the

back of the net past Raiders goalie Fransisco Luna midway through the second half on a wide-open shot for what would be the game-winning goal.

"Bolingbrook had nothing to lose so they threw the kitchen sink at us today. Sure, we had the majority of chances and majority of possession but you have to close out games. If they get that free kick goal with under 20 seconds left, it is a different game," Bellmer said. "We had a couple of chances that could have made this a 4-0 or 5-0 game, but I'm ok with a 1-0 win. We got the win, we got the

shutout and now we can move on."

WW South plays sixth-seeded Benet in the regional final Oct. 23 at 4 p.m.

Wheaton North 1, Lake Park 0: The Falcons prevailed Oct. 21 and will face Bartlett in the Falcons' regional final Oct. 24 at 11 a.m.

Glenbard South 9, Chicago Jones 0: The Raiders were led Oct. 20 by Michael Pyle with three goals and one assist and Isaac Agguire with two goals and two assists. Dan O'Brien scored two goals and Matt Traynor and Kevin Miller scored one goal each. David Shapiro and Derek Yeh each chipped in two assists and Andrew Peterson and Matt Kulpa had one assist each. The Raiders advance to 15-1-2 on the season.

South, seeded No. 2 in the St. Francis Sectional, takes on No. 5 Chicago University in that school's regional final Oct. 23 at 4:30 p.m.

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