Boys soccer: Joseph Duarte scores twice as Romeoville punches ticket to state

BLOOMINGTON – Nick Cirrincione knew he had a special group of guys. Now the Romeoville boys soccer team is going to state.

Joseph Duarte scored a pair of goals, and Luis Orizaba and Isiah Pina also scored as the Spartans toppled Edwardsville 4-1 on Tuesday evening in the Class 3A Bloomington Supersectional.

Romeoville (27-1-1) will face defending Class 3A state champion York, a 3-2 winner in a game decided in penalty kicks over Elgin at the Streamwood Supersectional, at 5 p.m. Friday in the opening state semifinal at Hoffman Estates High School.

“This was the goal at the begging of the year,” said Cirrincione, who is in his 13th season as Spartans head coach. “We’re facing York right away, and we’ve got to go through the best to get the shiniest trophy.”

Duarte, who is an All-State senior forward and now has 48 goals on the season, appreciated the history that the Spartans set.

“It’s unreal,” said Duarte, who played his first two seasons at Plainfield East before transferring to Romeoville before his junior year. “It’s something different, something that doesn’t happen all the time at Romeoville. I feel like we have created a new community with all the support here.

“My brothers Christian and Anthony played here and never got to experience this. But they were here to support me tonight.”

This is something not many teams at Romeoville have got to experience. Since opening as Lockport West almost 60 years ago, Romeoville rarely has had a top-four finish in an IHSA tournament.

Romeoville earned a third-place finish in Class AA boys track and field in 2000. The Spartans placed fourth in Class AA in wrestling in 1975, and the 1995 football team made it to the Class 6A semifinals. The 1985-86 boys basketball team was fourth in the Class AA state tournament, but that was forfeited for use of an ineligible player.

“We’ve got to do better than third,” Cirrincione quipped. “I’m already on it.”

The Spartans got on it midway through the first half. Edwardsville (17-6-2) had a couple of opportunities early, but like most teams couldn’t get a shot past senior keeper Lucas Ortiz. Then Orizaba took a perfectly placed long pass from fellow senior Demian Martinez and headed it in for the opening goal with 21:27 left in the first half.

“I saw it coming my way, and it was a perfect pass, so I had to put it in the net,” Orizaba said. “To get that first goal gave us the momentum and then we just wanted to score more.

“I transferred here from Plainfield East before the season. This is why I came. It’s everything. We are trying to go as far as we can and make sure the 2022 Spartans go down in history.”

Pina, a junior, also converted a header for his goal. That came on a pass from senior Christian Agyekum and came only 87 seconds later, with exactly 20 minutes left in the first half.

“It was an amazing feeling,” Pina said. “With all the energy we had, we knew what we needed to do. We just had great ball movement.

“It’s a big accomplishment, and now we’re reaching for more.”

Duarte made it 3-0 when he converted a penalty kick past senior keeper Zach Chitwood (five saves) with 32:20 to play in the game. Less than five minutes later, Duarte deposited another goal as he took a feed from Agyekum and booted a shot in from the right side with 27:38 remaining.

“I’m a penalty kick specialist – I haven’t missed my whole high school career,” Duarte said. “Then on the last goal [Agyekum] saw me running and found me. I had to do it for the fans.”

Everyone got to play for Romeoville, and with the substitutes in, the Tigers scored their goal by senior midfielder Tyler Dacus with 2:27 to play in the game.

That prevented another shutout by Ortiz, who has 15 of them on the season.

One of those came in last week’s 1-0 victory, which came via a 4-3 win in a shootout, over Bloom Township in the title game of the Lockport Sectional on Friday.

“When we score, we score in bunches,” Cirrincione said. “When we do that. we’re hard to beat. Everyone is excited and this is fun for everyone.”