Striker is right on the Mark

Minooka's Thomas Stokke (center) losses the ball as he tries to split the Riverside-Brookfield defense.

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NEW LENOX -- He was the biggest secret in high school soccer.

Now, Mark Phillips is merely the 6-foot-6 big man who does some of his best work on little flicks of the ball.

Phillips, a senior striker, twice used his head to set up goals in Minooka's 6-1 upset victory over previously undefeated Bloom in the semifinals of the Lincoln-Way Central Sectional on Tuesday night at Lashmet Field. He used his best kicking foot to assist on two other goals. And he was credited with a bizarre goal of his own when a Bloom defender booted the ball into the Blazing Trojans' net during their first-half meltdown.

The victory for Minooka will go down as a historic first.

Never before had Minooka won a soccer game in Class AA sectional competition. The Indians beat Joliet Township 3-1 on Saturday to win their first regional.

Next up for Minooka (15-4-2) is Thursday's 6 p.m. sectional championship game against fellow giant killer Andrew (15-7). The Thunderbolts shocked top-seed Lincoln-Way Central 2-1 in a shootout in the rain on Monday night. Bloom (21-1) was the No. 2 seed in the sectional.

"It's our first time as a school ever getting this far," Phillips said. "Beating them as an undefeated team -- that's huge. They were 21-0. That's big numbers. That's kind of intimidating.

"We talked about it early in the game. We figured they'd never been down. They'd never been scored on first. So, we decided we were going to be the first to score and put the pressure on. And we did that."

On a restart nearly 8 minutes into the first half, Phillips flicked William Harvey's long throw-in off his head and over to teammate Tyler Seddon. Seddon scored from in the crease, and Phillips picked up the assist as Minooka jumped to a 1-0 lead. His crossing pass minutes later set up Ryan O'Rourke for goal No. 2.

Then, Phillips made it 3-0 as Jim Kelly pushed a pass ahead to him in a breakout situation. Bloom's Jose Garcia stepped up on defense. In an attempt to send the ball back to goalkeeper Jose Estrada, Garcia redirected the ball into the Blazing Trojans' net. Kelly scored a few minutes later off a pass from Phillips to extend the Indians lead to 4-0 at halftime.

Kelly and Seddon scored again in the second half and both finished with two goals. Minooka goalkeeper Jordan Cabrera made a spectacular diving save on a first-half penalty shot by Bloom's Alonso Flores, a 40-goal scorer. Cabrera maintained his shutout until the Blazing Trojans' Rene Chavolla finally dented the net on a penalty kick with 23:21 remaining.

"This is business for us," Minooka coach Jason Boe said. "We're not surprised by this win. Even though we upset Bloom, it's not a surprise to us. Because we know what type of players we have on our team, the leadership that we have, the ability that God's given us. And it's not a surprise. We're basically telling the world, 'We're here. Welcome to our world.' "

Phillips turned his part of that world upside down while also stepping out of the shadows of his teammates.

"Yeah, what a great game Mark had," Boe said. "He's been kind of hiding in the background. He's got 16 goals -- now 17 -- and he's leading us in assists. You really don't hear his name. He's awful quiet. But he gets the job done.

"Tonight, he comes in with four assists and a goal. He's no longer able to hide in the background. He's in the limelight. He gets little things, like those little flicks. The little flick may go to somebody else who gets the touch and gets the goal. So, he loses the goal. But, tonight, he got the flick and he got the assist. He's been doing that all year long for us."

Minooka finished with a 16-10 edge in shots and 9-3 margin on corner kicks. Cabrera made six saves. Mike Ornelas, Nick Mancini and Ryan Zarley were stalwarts for the Indians on defense. Kory Seddon won a number of 50/50 balls at midfield.

"It's hard -- I was kind of asked, 'What side of the ball would you praise more?' " Boe said "It's both. I mean, the offense when you score six, and the defense, when you hold them to one, we played both sides of the ball. That's just playing great soccer. That's winning soccer."

Andrew vs. Minooka will be a battle of the sectional's 3-4 seeds.

Boe anticipates the Indians will bring the same mindset.

"They anticipate they're going to win," he said. "That's just the way they've been doing it from the very first day. We get in the huddle, and it's, 'Champions on three.' And that's just been our mindset. That's who we are. That's what we do. We come out and we win in the playoffs."