CHICAGO HEIGHTS | It was a little tough for Bloom Township's Osvaldo Sanchez to put into words just what this win meant to his team. But the smile on his face would tell you all you need to know.
Sanchez scored the lone goal of the match late in the second half to give the Blazing Trojans a hard fought 1-0 win over Southland Athletic Conference foe Crete-Monee Tuesday evening. The win lifted Bloom Township to 5-1 in conference play. The loss dropped the Warriors to 5-1 in conference play and into a tie with Bloom. Sanchez's goal came with just 11 minutes, 30 seconds left in the match and was too much for the Warriors to overcome.
"This is a great experience," Sanchez said. "When we first played them, they killed us 4-0. It was embarrasing. And now beating them today. We weren't as ready last time when we played them."
Bloom (11-3-3, 5-1) played the Warriors (12-2-2, 5-1) much tighter than in the teams' previous meeting and Blazing Trojan goalie Oscar Santana was a big reason that Bloom was able to come away with the win. Santana had five saves on the night for the home team. Not to be outdone by Santana, Luke Cogan had a strong game in goal for the Warriors and was able to keep the Warriors in a scoreless tie throughout most of the match. Cogan recorded six saves on the night.
"We knew that we didn't play up to our potential the first game," Bloom coach Kelly Gutierrez said. "We've been practicing and working and we moved a couple people around. The guys were just determined today. They made a point to tell us that they were determined to win this game."
Crete was unable to score on numerous second half chances in front of the Bloom goal and the Blazing Trojans were able to hold the always explosive Carlos Posada scoreless. Posada entered the game needing just 10 goals to break Illinois all-time scoring record He has four regular season games remaining.
"It was going to be a matter of who made the first mistake," Warrior coach Julian Lagunas said. "We made a few today. We made a critical mistake in the end and it's hard to come back when there's only so many minutes left. This is probably one of the last tests we'll have. Hopefully we have a better showing in the playoffs."
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