Burbank, IL (August 28, 2012) - In front of a packed house at Hanke Stadium, the Reavis soccer team punched its ticket to the championship game of the Windy City Classic tournament by defeating St. Joseph High School 3-0 tonight. "This was a great win for us," said Coach Morack, "and the crowd really got us going in the right direction early in the contest." The crowd Morack referred to - a frenzied group of students that included the varsity football team armed with horns and thunder sticks - created a World Cup atmosphere at the game.
"Our kids really seemed to feed off the energy of the crowd that, to me, was like a 12th player on the field," said Morack. Jose Estrada got the Rams on the board first, scoring a goal with 20:56 left in the first half and the fans showed their appreciation with their rendition of the soccer chant "O-le, O-le" by singing in unison "Jo-se, Jo-se, Jo-se, Jo-se!" Nine minutes later Danny Vallejo received a perfect pass from sophomore Roger Valdez and netted it to give Reavis a 2-0 lead. Kamil Szczesniak added a goal late in the second half to put the game out of reach.
The real story of the game, however, was the stifling Ram defense that allowed only one shot on goal in the first half and five shots on goal all game. "Our defense has been good in all four games this season (only two goals allowed), but today was by far our best game," said Morack. Goal keeper Christian Ayala turned out a terrific game as well. The senior made two diving stops that thwarted scoring opportunities for St. Joe's in the second half.
Tonight's win was a bit of redemption for the Rams as St. Joseph knocked Reavis out of the Windy City Classic last year by beating the Rams in the quarter-final round. This is the team's first trip to the finals since 2010, when they won the 34 team tournament by defeating, who else but St. Joseph.
Reavis will play the championship game at Toyota Park on Monday, September 3 at noon against Andrew High School. The T-Bolts earned a spot in the title game by upsetting top seed Marist 2-0 earlier this afternoon.
To view Southtown article on the semi-final games, CLICK HERE.