Boys soccer: Posada’s late goal gives West Chicago 2-1 win over St. Charles North in St. Charles Invitational

ST. CHARLES – It was a right place, right time kind of shot for Leonardo Posada.

With 14:41 left on the scoreboard and with West Chicago driving down the field, Cung Thawng sent a ball over to the junior midfielder, who shot a ball that could have scored a point in croquet.

Through the defenders.

Past the goalie.

And into the corner of the net

“It was a perfect, well-placed, second-post low shot,” West Chicago coach Jose Villa said. “It’s tough to get, and the keeper did the best he could, but Posada could not have placed that shot any better.”

Posada’s late score was all the Wildcats needed to secure a 2-1 victory against St. Charles North on Wednesday night to secure the night’s final game of the St. Charles Invitational and send them to the tournament’s championship game Saturday.

“We knew coming into the game that it was going to be a tough game against St. Charles North,” Villa said. “They’re tough, they put you under pressure, and they’re well-coached.”

The Wildcats got the early advantage on the board. With 14:33 in the half, Alan Alfaro managed to corral a center from Julian Lopez in the box, where he easily sent the ball to the close post to put them in the lead.

The second half looked as if the tide of momentum had shifted towards the North Stars. With 21:39 left in the game, Oliver Longosz scored the 1-1 equalizer after grabbing a ball from the air and lofting it into the top-right corner of the goal.

But just 18 seconds later, the elation on the North Stars’ sideline died down drastically after Cole Weddle got sent off with a red card, forcing them to play the final 20 minutes down a man. North Stars coach Eric Willson said after the game he was told from the head referee that the red card was given due to the use of vulgar language.

“As soon as we scored, the original thought was that we’ve fought our way into making this a brand new game, and it’s time to go,” Willson said. “But with 17-year-old boys, you’ve got to control your emotions and what you say on the field, and we didn’t do that and were a man down because of it.”

The disadvantage eventually led to Posada’s score, marking the North Stars’ second 2-1 loss to the Wildcats in two seasons, with the last one coming in the regional finals. Despite the loss, Willson said that he was happy with the fight that his team showed, especially in the second half.

“We got some better looks than what we had originally, and there certainly wasn’t a lack of effort out there,” Willson said. “To go down a man is more than frustrating. But even then, we continued to fight and continued to work. But there were some moments where West Chicago was just better than us, so you’ve just got to tip your cap to a good team.”

The Wildcats will face Leyden in the title match of the tournament at noon Saturday at St. Charles North.

“We just need to play our game and stick to our style of play,” Villa said. “We need to stay true to who we are and how we play. Leyden’s going to be very tough, so we’re definitely going to be able to tuck two days to prepare for them, and we’re looking forward to it.”

The North Stars, on the other hand, finished pool play with four points to put them in third place. They will host Marmion in the fifth-place game at 10 a.m. Saturday.

“We’ve got to go back and look at the film and see some of the things that we did really well and build off of that, while also looking at some of the things we need to get better at, which is probably a decent number of things,” Willson said. “It’s early in the season, though, and we’ve got a lot of guys that are eager to get it going, so it’s no time to hit the panic button yet.”