Warriors Soccer Advances to Regional Final

Keep the pressure up and a goal will come.

That's what Maine West was telling themselves after dominating play for the first hour, but not having anything to show for it on the scoreboard.

Freshman Nelson Herrera ended the frustration with a goal in the 63rd minute and later added an assist in the Warriors' 2-0 Class 3A Regional semifinal win over Notre Dame at Loyola's Munz Campus in Glenview.

"We did what we expected to do," Maine West coach Mike Divincenzo said. "We expected to come out and dominate. (Notre Dame) crossed midfield three times with their own possession. We executed what we wanted to do unfortunately we've had a hard time scoring all year."

The Warriors (11-4-7) possessed the ball with vigor in the first half, but were unable to score despite nine shots on goal and a slew of corners taken by Jayson LeSeth.

LeSeth was a standout in midfield for West, but the Warriors' finishing wasn't good enough to break the deadlock.

"Jayson was all over the field making plays for everybody, Divincenzo said. "He put it on a platter for some guys and we certainly didn't help him out. Jason could have had seven assists today."

Maine West was even more dominant in the second half and Herrera signaled his intentions to score close to the hour mark, but his shot hit the crossbar after he got free in the penalty box.

"We were nervous," Herrera said. "I was really nervous because we had the ball but couldn't score. We had good opportunities, but just couldn't score."

The freshman would finish his next chance though. Senior Ryan Ybarra flicked the ball to Herrera to send him free on goal. He coolly dribbled around the charging goalkeeper and slotted the ball into the open net.

Ybarra and Herrera played together at Real Chicago FC in Mt. Prospect in the offseason. Ybarra said the duo had a connection then and it has translated to the high school season.

"We played club before this so I knew we had the connection," Ybarra said. "I told our coach about that, I said 'Hey we got this freshman at our club and he's doing alright.' We know how to play together.

"As a freshman I think he's just playing unbelievable. He's got an amazing touch, he's got a cannon for a shot, he's got the body. He's going to be an unbelievable player for the next three years."

Their connection came into play for the second goal. This time it was Herrera setting up Ybarra with about three minutes remaining.

Young Herrera hit a perfect pass between a couple defenders to lead Ybarra in stride. All the senior had to do was chip the ball over the keeper to seal the win.

"We were real fresh and we kept the pressure on them the entire game," Divincenzo said. "That's what I like and especially after the goal it wasn't like all of a sudden we were sitting back and defending. We were able to possess and continue the possession domination, which is what we like to do."

Ybarra agreed that the team possessed very well.

"We played our style of play," Ybarra said. "The only problem was we didn't finish until the end. We made it harder on ourselves, but we played beautiful soccer today."

The third-seeded Warriors will try to win a regional for the second year in a row when they face host and five seed Loyola Friday at 7 p.m.