Wildcats win trip to state

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Remember what happened last year.

For a long 12 months, the Neuqua Valley boys soccer team has had a sour taste in their mouths after losing in triple overtime to Barrington in the Class AA state championship.

However, after Tuesday's 3-0 win over Hinsdale Central in the Class 3A Benedictine Super-Sectional, the remaining Wildcats will get what they wished for: a chance for redemption.

"This feels incredible, especially because we lost something like 20 seniors last year," Scott Davis said. "Our goal was to get here and then see as far as we can go."

After Neuqua (21-4-2) had two shots miss the net within the first 12 minutes of the game, Bryan Ciesiulka scored the first of his two goals and gave the Wildcats the lead with 23:16 remaining in the first half.

Neuqua Valley's defense switched the field around the midfield stripe and Mike Kowal fed a streaking Dan O'Leary by the edge of the box.

O'Leary beat his defender, then made a short cross to Ciesiulka who made a cut move with the ball to shake his defender. Then, he ripped a left-footed shot from 10 yards away past the Red Devils' goalkeeper Sean Donovan for the goal.

"The goals for me were good build-ups, and we had good connections. I just got good balls from my teammates," Ciesiulka said. "This was a great win, and we played really well the whole game, but we know we have a tough game ahead of us though - so we are focusing on that."

In all four matches leading up to the supersectional, Neuqua Valley has jumped out and scored the opening goal of the match.

The Wildcats' lead though was almost short-lived, as just over three minutes later Cameron Legan burned two Neuqua defenders and lofted a shot from 40 yards away. The shot went just over the top of the bar, however, and resulted in a goal kick.

Hinsdale Central's chance seemed to rev up the Neuqua offense, and they generated two chances late that could have put the game out of reach.

With 6:18 left, Neuqua's Jaymie Bullard dribbled the ball to the corner of the box and crossed it right to the foot of Ciesiulka, who shot the ball toward the far post. Donovan made a great diving save to bail out the Red Devils. Three minutes later Bryan Dosch hit the post with a shot from 25 yards away.

"We were getting some good looks, and that's because they attacked us and left themselves vulnerable in the back," said Neuqua coach Jim Johns. "I thought we had scored a couple times, but we either hit the post or the goalie made a miraculous save."

The Wildcats had a 1-0 lead at the half, but Ciesiulka quickly doubled that lead just 4:15 into the second half. After he corralled a deflected ball, he blasted a well-placed shot into the top corner of goal with his right foot.

Just seven minutes later Neuqua took advantage of an exposed Red Devils team as O'Leary made a sliding cross just before it went across the touch line to Davis, who broke free from his defender and blasted the ball into the back of the net from just five yards away.

"I knew how hard it was last year losing like that in overtime at state but we, like everyone else, wanted to go back to state and we did it," said O'Leary, who played club soccer last year. "The guys are great, and I think we all fit in really well with the way we play."

Neuqua kept on attacking and with 24 minutes left to play, it had its last great chance. Off a free kick 45 yards away from the box, Davis had a header that hit the side post and a Red Devils defender was able to scamper to the ball and clear it away.

The three-goal victory was a rarity for the Wildcats, who won all four of their previous playoff matches by a single goal.

"The kids this year want to make their own history for themselves and just play their best throughout the season," Johns said.

Neuqua had nine shots on goal compared to the Red Devils' six, and it had four more overall shots in the game than Hinsdale Central.

"We just didn't take care of the chances that we got. We thought we had a pretty good plan in place and matched up really well," said Red Devils coach Michael Wiggins. "We didn't possess the ball the way we could of, we didn't connect passes the way we could have, we didn't challenge the balls the way we could have and at the end of the day they were the better team."

Neuqua goes on to play New Trier in the first state semifinal at North Central College on Friday.