East Aurora assistant coach Sergio Rodriguez will probably remember his latest birthday for some time, but the memories will not all be happy ones.
Filling in for head coach Jason Rollins, who was out of town, Rodriguez skippered the second-seeded Tomcats in second-round action of the Pepsi Showdown on Thursday night in Aurora. But a wild sequence in overtime of a scoreless game ended up with No. 15 Deerfield scoring on a penalty kick and leaving with a 1-0 triumph and a berth in Saturday's quarterfinals.
After blasting Glenbard South 5-0 on Tuesday, the East Aurora offense never really got going against the Warriors (7-1) and the two teams played to a scoreless draw for 80 minutes of regulation and almost five minutes of the first sudden-death OT period.
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But Deerfield’s senior star was tripped and awarded a penalty kick with 5:30 left to play in the opening extra session. When his shot to the right side of the goal was knocked away by a diving Tomcats keeper Osvaldo Mata, the home teams and its fans roared with excitement.
But the celebration was short-lived as the referee ruled that Mata had come too far off his line before the kick, allowing Calistri another opportunity to win the game. This time the Warriors’ leading scorer buried a low shot just inside the left post to end the contest.
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“I was still confident going into that,” Mata said when asked how he felt after his first dazzling stop was whistled away. “But I thought they got the call wrong.”
Rodriguez, who unsuccessfully tried to plead his team’s case after the first PK was called off, felt the Tomcats just didn’t play their best soccer and may have pressed a little too much while attempting to advance far in their first Pepsi Showdown.
“I think we were a little too excited for this game,” he said. “We just didn’t really ever click on offense. I never expected to be shut out once this season with the offensive firepower we have. But I told the guys this is a wakeup call.”
The Warriors controlled the midfield for much of the first half and held a slight 3-2 edge in shots on goal. East Aurora had a 3-2 edge in the second half before Deerfield got the big calls and prevailed on Calistri’s 16th goal already this fall.
“We knew it was going to be a close game. We knew they were a great team,” Deerfield coach Elliott Hurtig said. “For this early in the season it’s definitely the most passion we’ve played with.”
