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ALTON – On paper, Saturday morning's IHSA Class 3A Edwardsville Regional play-in match between Granite City and Alton may not have looked like much of a pairing. The Warriors entered the match with a 1-14-1 mark on the season while the Redbirds came in at 10-8-2.
The thing about the postseason, though, is that it sometimes can be predictably unpredictable.
Take Saturday's match, for instance. The two teams battled through 100 minutes scoreless and had to go to a shootout to decide a winner.
The initial shootout ended level at 2-2, forcing sudden-death penalty kicks before the Warriors finally emerged on top, winning the shootout 6-5 to advance into a regional semifinal match against the host Tigers at 4 p.m. Tuesday at Tiger Stadium. The Warriors moved to 2-14-1 on the season, while the Redbirds were eliminated at 10-9-2. The result goes into the record books as a 1-0 win for the Warriors.
“It was an emotional roller coaster,” said Warrior coach Ryan Reeves. “I”m so proud of these guys coming in here (at 1-14-1) and having lost to these guys 4-0 last time; the score wasn't really indicative of how good the first game was – we were down 1-0, and I believe late in the second half, we gave up a couple of goals to (Joe Morrissey) – he's a great player – a great team, a good young team, a well-coached team – I love those guys.
“It's just the way things go; you never want to see a team lose like that, a lot of tears leaving the field, a lot of kids who aren't going to sleep well tonight. Fortunately for us, we were on the top end – I just couldn't be happier for our guys. A lot of guys were put on the spot (in the second phase of the shootout), never dreaming they were really going to be there and five minutes later, you're in a really tough spot and they stepped up.”
“All the credit to (Granite) for playing as hard as they did,” said Redbird coach Nick Funk. “It's hard to match intensity when yours isn't there; they played hard and that's what it ended up being. A little effort goes a long way in a high school match.”
That the shootout lasted as long as it did was unusual, Funk thought. “To go 10 (rounds), I haven't seen that in a long time,” Funk said. “If the 10th shots go in, you're back to the original kick-takers – that just doesn't happen.”
Reeves had to put his leading scorer, Ymaury Escarene-Casillas, into the goal due to injury to regular goalkeeper, and Funk felt that was a good move on Reeves' part. “In my opinion, he (Escarene-Casillas) was the one who held them in the game; he made a couple of huge saves in PKs.
“We're young – hopefully, we can learn off it and build off of it.”
Both teams did have good chances to score in regular time and then in extra time, but both Escarene-Casillas and Redbird goalkeeper Hunter Dill came up big when they were needed to keep the match scoreless before the shootout began. Granite shot first and Zach Medlin scored on his attempt before Colin Lombardi countered with a score on his try. Steven Vaughn gave the Warriors the lead in the third round of the shootout; Sam Stutz was turned back on his try before Levi Davis tied the shootout on his attempt in the fourth round.
Both teams missed in the fifth round to force sudden death; Brian Velasquez-Barrera, Noah Vanbuskirk and Tyler McCauley all connected on their tries for GCHS in the next three rounds while Blake Dunse, Morrissey and Hayden Batchelor all scored to force a ninth round. Both Jose Rios of the Warriors and Michael Stark missed on their tries, bringing up Jacob Cook for the Warriors.
Cook went to his left and beat Dill to the inside of the goalpost to bring up Justin Davison, whose attempt beat Escarene-Casillas to his right but bounced off the inside of the right-side goalpost and back onto the field to move the Warriors on.
“That's tough,” Funk said of Davison's attempt. “It was a freshman taking the 10th spot and he hit a good ball; it was a great shot, it just didn't go in. We hit a lot of good PKs, they made a couple of good saves and that's all there is to it.”
