Taking the field in the state semifinals and playing in front of a huge crowd of fans, Streamwood's Joshua Lopez I could hardly believe it.
After a tumultuous regular season, the Sabers' magical playoff run propelled them to success. Lopez was thrilled to be in a place where other members of his family could only dream.
“I feel good,” Lopez said. “A lot of my cousins and other family members played at Streamwood, so it was nice to be part of a team that represented our school here in the state.”
Lopez certainly performed well. He had a goal and an assist as Streamwood got off to a strong start Friday night, but the Sabers squandered a two-goal lead and lost to De La Salle 4-2 in overtime in the Class 2A semifinals at Hoffman Estates.
Max Galvan added a goal for Streamwood (13-11), and Alex J. Garcia made five saves. Adrian Chavez helped the defense shut down De La Salle (24-3-1) in the first half.
The Sabers will face Rock Island (14-6-1) on Saturday at 9:30 in the third-place game.
Streamwood Coach Matt Polovin praised his team's efforts Friday.
“I’m really proud of these guys,” Polovin said. “They really did everything they could and more. De La Salle were a good team. We kind of beat ourselves up a little bit, but you can't take anything away from them. They deserve it.”
In the 12th minute, Lopez sent a corner towards the goal. Galvan managed to intercept a piece of the ball and redirect it into the net.
This excited the huge crowd in Streamwood. The school brought four fan buses to the game.
Lopez then made it 2-0 with 41 seconds left in the first half with a high free kick from 30 yards out. De La Salle goalkeeper Jahir Anaya attempted a diving save after receiving the ball, but the ball went under the crossbar and Lopez scored his eighth goal of the season.
“I practiced free kicks before the game and I knew I could do it,” Lopez said. “In the playoffs, I stepped up my game and started taking free throws better.”
All of the Sabers improved their play in the postseason. Streamwood entered the playoffs with an 8-10 record and a sixth-place finish in the 10-team Geneva Section.
But the Sabers remained hopeful.
“I told the guys it's not how you start the season, it's how you finish it,” Chavez said. “Everyone thought that because we had lost 10 games we would be eliminated in the first round. But that's not true.
“We came all this way here.”
In fact, the Sabers were 5-10 before winning their final three games of the regular season. It was then that Polovin saw that everything began to improve.
“With the amount of injuries we had all season, it looked like three guys would get hurt, one guy would get better and two more would get hurt,” Polovin said. “Maybe three or four games before the playoffs, the guys started to get better and everyone started performing the way they should.”
Lopez began to gain confidence in his team – and himself – after beating Geneva 3-1 for the regional title.
“It was how we came together and how we started playing,” he said. “That’s when we realized we could go somewhere.”
And the Sabers made it to state, where they played in the program's second semifinal. Its only other state appearance came in 2014, when Streamwood suffered back-to-back losses, 4-0, to finish in fourth place.
Now the mission of Lopez and his teammates was to surpass this team.
“We want to try to finish third and be the best team the school has ever had,” Lopez said. “We don't want to finish fourth. We want to be one step ahead.”
