By Randy Whalen

Coming into the season, the Joliet West boys' soccer team felt it could play with anyone.

The Tigers did just that. 

Unfortunately, the Tigers weren't there when they hosted a Class 3A Sectional last week. But they defeated and tied the two teams that played for the title, 

No. 2-seeded Lincoln-Way Central topped No. 12-seeded Lincoln-Way West 3-0 on Saturday, November 1, to win the championship of the Joliet West Sectional. 

Earlier in the season, on Thursday, August 28, Joliet West defeated the host Knights in a penalty kick shootout. Regulation was a scoreless tie, but the Tigers took the PK round by a count of 4-3 to advance to the quarterfinals of the Windy City Ram Classic. Just over a week later, on Saturday, September 6, Joliet West hosted Lincoln-Way West, and the game ended in a scoreless draw. So yes, the Tigers could hang with anyone.

"We went from seven wins to nine wins and improved to five (5-6 in the Southwest Prairie) Conference wins," Joliet West coach Alan Stewart said. "We made it to a regional championship for the first time since winning one in 2022. So I'm proud of the kids."

Stewart was proud of his No. 6-seeded team's postseason victory as well. That came on Tuesday, October 21, in a wild 4-3 overtime victory against No. 11-seeded Andrew in the second semifinal of the Lincoln-Way East Regional. 

"This was kind of the microcosm of our entire season with the highs and the lows," Stewart said afterward. "Credit to Andrew. I know they’ve had a couple of big injuries. But they showed up and just played their hearts out, and more power to them."

The Tigers played their heart out, too, and in the end, had one more goal in one of their highest scoring games of the season. 

The final goal came 3:52 into the first overtime. That was by senior forward Santiago Sanchez, who corralled the ball in front and then shot to the right side of the net and slipped it in past senior keeper Carson Solomon.

"When I touched the ball, I saw the goalie at the left post," Sanchez said. "So I took it to his right and got it.

"We didn't give up. We knew we had the game because every day I'm with these guys, and I know what they can do."

In the Illinois High School Association playoffs, there is no golden goal, so both 10-minute overtime periods must be played out. Andrew (5-13-2) had a good opportunity in the final minute of the first overtime, but senior forward Nate Fortino saw his shot go just wide left. Joliet West's defense held up in the second overtime, and the Thunderbolts, who had captured 10 regional titles since 2003, including the previous two seasons, saw their season end. 

Sophomore midfielder Alan Martinez scored two goals for Joliet West. The first one came from in front in the 13th minute. But exactly 13 minutes later, Andrew senior midfielder Will MacLeod tied the game by chipping a shot over senior keeper Noah Tarver with 14:07 left in the first half.

But with 3:05 left in the first half, senior midfielder Xavier Garcia had a beautiful goal as he put a nice bend on his shot from the right and into the back of the net on the left side, and Joliet West led 2-1 at intermission.

The T-Bolts countered with a pair of goals in less than five minutes. Senior midfielder Victor Martinez fired in a goal from in front with 23:33 to play. Senior forward Nate Fortino then got a rebound tally at the 18:57 mark, and Andrew led 3-2. 

However, Martinez didn't let his team lose as he was able to put in the equalizer with 7:28 to play in regulation.

"We kept high pressure, and I was able to score," Martinez said. "I wasn't going to let this be the last game for our seniors. I had to get that one.

“We just didn’t give up. We knew there wasn’t much time left, and if we lost today, there would be no tomorrow. So we had to win."

Just over two minutes later, senior midfielder Alex Mendoza nearly had a go-ahead goal for Joliet West, but his shot rattled off the crossbar, and the game went into overtime. But all ended well for the Tigers. 

It didn't, however, three days later on Friday, October 24, in the regional title match. There, Joliet West was blanked 2-0 by the host Griffins. Junior forward Owen Bohren had both goals in the first half for No. 3-seeded Lincoln-Way East (12-12), which lost 3-0 to Lincoln-Way Central on Wednesday, October 29, in a sectional semifinal. 

The Tigers ended the season at 9-11-2.

"It's easy to say we could have done a better job on him," Stewart said of Bohren. "But he's good."

It was still a good season for Joliet West.

"We cut our goals against down by 24 and only allowed 26 goals on the season," said Stewart, who completed his second season as boys coach. "We had 15 different guys score, and no one had over five goals. So to do what we did and go as far as we did with a top goal score of five is pretty impressive.

"We had 16 seniors, and it was a good, strong group. Some of them I coached for all four years, and that was great."