Bellmer goal lifts Tigers past Huskies in 4OT

By Curt Herron

In a match during which his squad had plenty of nice scoring chances, Drew Bellmer didn't think that his team's final opportunity was all that exciting.

That is, other than the fact that Bellmer's goal in the 119th minute of play helped Wheaton Warrenville South to stay alive in the state playoffs.

The Tiger senior collected the only score against Naperville North during his team's 1-0 victory in Wednesday's Class 3A Naperville North Sectional semifinals.

With 1:32 remaining in the fourth overtime, Bellmer took an assist from Manny Munguia and put in a shot that eluded Huskies keeper Mike Wiest.

Hear WW South's Drew Bellmer interview

It was South's second 1-0 victory over North this season. The Tigers defeated the Huskies by that same score in the teams' October 6th meeting on the same field.

As a result, South (20-4-2) advances to Saturday's noon championship against top-ranked Neuqua Valley, which beat Naperville Central 2-1 in Wednesday's other semifinal.

The Tigers, who haven't faced Neuqua (26-0-1) this season, will be making their first sectional final appearance since 2006 and they last won a sectional title in 2003.

After watching his squad pull out a narrow victory in the earlier meeting with North, Tigers coach Guy Callipari expected to see another suspenseful match.

Hear WW South coach Guy Callipari interview

After exceeding expectations with a young squad this season, it was still a difficult way for coach Jim Konrad's Huskies (16-3-4) to see their season end.

North had few good scoring chances against South keeper Derek Babb, who tied a Wheaton Central/WW South record with his 14th shutout of the season.

Its best chance of winning figured to come in a shootout, which looked to almost be a certainty after the two squads had battled for nearly two hours.

The DuPage Valley Conference champions only lost to two squads this season, the Tigers and Plainfield Central, and played Neuqua to a 2-2 draw in regulation.

They had gone 15-2-1 since starting the year at 1-0-3 and had only allowed six goals during their last 18 matches with 12 of those being shutouts.

In the teams' earlier meeting, Ricky Munguia scored a goal to end Wiest's impressive string of eight consecutive shutouts in goal.

Hear Naperville North coach Jim Konrad interview

Neither team threatened much during the first three 10-minute overtime sessions, and that was especially the case in the first two periods.

Late in the first overtime, Wiest stopped a corner kick By Alec Brazeau while the second 10-minute period featured no real chances.

Something noteworthy did happen during the second 10 minutes, though, as North lost defender Lee Grander to his second yellow card.

There was some drama in the third overtime, beginning with a short shot by Marc Deetjen to Babb following a corner kick from Dean Gastouniotis.

In the final minute of that period, Evan Trychta sent in a long liner to Babb and Alden Marton headed an attempt that Wiest stopped.

South's Andy Guerrero came up empty on a shot early in the final overtime and things looked to be headed for a shootout before Bellmer's late score.

The opening half featured few good chances, with the Tigers collecting all of those opportunities, only to be turned away by Wiest.

In an unusual scenario, North's Chris Boswell was sent off the field twice for equipment reasons, resulting in his team briefly playing a man down.

Just over 10 minutes into the match, Ricky Munguia sent in a liner that the North keeper managed to punch over the net.

Then with about 11 minutes left in the initial half, Wiest deflected a short shot attempt from the same player.

Bellmer also was denied on a shot from close range with just over six minutes remaining before the halftime break.

Hear WW South's Alden Marton interview

Not surprisingly, there was much more drama during the next 40 minutes with the hosts finally beginning to apply some pressure.

That began when Gastouniotis sent a long free kick to Babb in the opening minutes and Boswell later lined a free kick just over the net.

Just after the midpoint of the second half, Wiest came up with a save following a header from one of his own defenders.

Then with about 15 minutes remaining, George Doran had a liner bounce off of a North defender and Wiest deflected it over the net.

After stopping the subsequent corner kick from Brazeau, Wiest hauled in a line drive from Bellmer a short time later.

In the next few minutes, Bellmer sent in a free kick and Ricky Munguia fired in a long liner but the North keeper halted both attempts.

Nate Fuster was also denied on a long free kick with about eight minutes remaining but there was still some drama left in regulation play.

With just over two minutes to go, North's Jimmy Butler sent in a long shot attempt that was deflected away to result in a corner.

And then in the final minute of the second half, Colin Ringel got off a long free kick that was hauled in by the Huskie keeper.

Ringel was joined in the back by Matt Krieger and Will Huesing to help Babb post the shutout for the Tigers.

North also received a comparable effort from Ramsey Elshafei, Jake Remegi, Butler and Grander in front of Wiest.

After suffering three straight late losses while banged up, the Tigers closed out their regular schedule with a win over Wheaton Academy.

Now after collecting their third straight 1-0 postseason victory, the senior-heavy Tigers are pleased to be playing for a sectional title against the state's top team and one of the best squads in the nation.

Hear WW South's Joe Bianucci interview

Tigers starters vs. Huskies

Huskies starters vs. Tigers

Tigers 1, Huskies 0 (4 OT)

Tigers Schedule

Postseason play