In a defensive showdown between the Minooka Indians varsity soccer team and rival Joliet West Tigers on Sept. 20, the Indians and Ben Wolcott got a last-second goal to claim their victory, 1-0. 

“We had opportunities in the first half, we had five good looks at it, we possessed the ball pretty well,” said head coach Nate Spriggs. “The goal for us is finding Diego (Escobedor)’s feet and letting him distribute or create.” 

Minooka in the first half had a lot of scoring opportunities off of corners and free kicks. Escobedo created other great plays for Wolcott and the other offenders. Minooka just couldn’t get a score to go. 

During the second half, freshman Ethan Koranda really stepped it up and was all over the field creating great opportunities for the offense. 

“The backline was solid,” Spriggs said. “Anthony Heald came off the bench even and gave us tons of minutes, the biggest thing is just to communicate and back each other up.

During the entire game, the defense gave the Tigers almost zero scoring opportunities. Senior Kevyn Garcia stepped it up a lot during the game and played great defense. 

The three “Man of the match” players were Eli Avalos, Wolcott, and Heald. 

Avalos had a standout game in the holding mid position and was all over the field, he created plays for all of the offensive players especially in the second half. 

Wolcott of course got one because of his amazing game-winning goal over the West keeper with 33 seconds left. 

Lastly, Heald played a great game back on defense and was a main reason our team gave up zero goals and had a great defensive performance. 

In the end, the varsity soccer team had a great performance. Goalkeeper Ethan Kimbarovsky had an amazing second-half sliding save. The defense was completely locked down and gave up almost zero opportunities to the Tiger’s offense. 

Even with the Tiger’s tough defense, the Indians managed to get a lot of opportunities, including the game-winning goal from Wolcott.