Not much separated St. Charles North and Waukegan on Sunday afternoon.
In the end, it came down to one last save by St. Charles North goalkeeper Piercarlo Ricossa on a penalty kick by Waukegan’s Ivan Salgado.
Ricossa’s dramatic stop propelled St. Charles North to the 5-4 edge in the shootout and a 2-1 victory in the PepsiCo Showdown’s Chicago TOPSoccer Bracket at Triton College Sunday.
The game ended 1-1 in regulation. The North Stars’ sixth shooter, sophomore Gabe D’Amico, was formally credited with the game-winning goal after he broke the 4-4 deadlock.
Ricossa also denied the Bulldogs’ second shooter.
“My coach (Eric Willson) asked me to block one and I blocked two,” Ricossa said. “I have a saying that hips never lie. In penalty kicks I also look at the shooter’s eyes. I also saw that (Salgado) was left-footed. I saw how he reacted and I made my move to the right.”
St. Charles North (9-1-3), which finished runner-up to Morton last year, won the strongest of the tournament’s four 16-team brackets to match the achievement of the North Stars girls last spring.
“We wanted to do what the girls achieved, but also win one for ourselves,” Ricossa said.
Waukegan (9-2-1), which was making its first PepsiCo championship appearance, beat Morton 3-2 in the semifinals.
“The Morton victory put us on the map, but St. Charles North was one of the best programs we have played this year,” Waukegan coach Peter Valdez said.
Under the tournament format, the game proceeded directly from the end of regulation to the shootout. Valdez inserted backup goalkeeper Javier Leon for starter Marcos Garibay, who recorded six saves.
“We practice penalty kicks twice a week and (Javier) is consistently our best goalie in that situation and we did not want to deviate from the plan,” Valdez said.
Waukegan’s David Villanueva converted a penalty kick in the 40th minute that locked the teams up.
St. Charles North’s Bernard Elegbede scored off a cross from Jake Persenico in the 14th minute. He also converted in the shootout.
His goal underlined how quickly momentum changed in the game after the Bulldogs dominated the first 10 minutes of play.
“This is the greatest feeling of my life,” Elegbede said. “It was a great team win. Our backline was great against a great treat. This victory is for the team, especially after the disappointment of what we went through last year.”
St. Edward 3, Lincoln-Way Central 0: A.J. Franklin scored two goals and Will Gaston added one as the Green Wave (18-0-0) won the LUNGevity Bracket, the tournament’s fourth bracket.
Patrick Z. McGavin is a freelance writer for The Courier-News.
