Rochelle senior Adolfo Flores lined up his free kick roughly 20 yards away from the Providence Catholic net with the Hubs leading 1-0 over the Celtics during the IHSA Class 2A Sectional Semifinals at Glenbard South on Tuesday.
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GLEN ELLYN — Rochelle senior Adolfo Flores lined up his free kick roughly 20 yards away from the Providence Catholic net with the Hubs leading 1-0 over the Celtics during the IHSA Class 2A Sectional Semifinals at Glenbard South on Tuesday.
Four defenders in green jerseys stood between Flores and the Providence Catholic keeper. After hearing the official blow his whistle, Flores slowly crept forward before launching an arcing shot over the defensive wall and into the upper left corner of the Providence Catholic net.
It was the first of two goals Flores scored on Tuesday, and it gave Rochelle a 2-0 advantage over the Celtics midway through the first half. Playing their traditional aggressive style, the Hubs cruised over Providence Catholic by a final score of 6-2 to reach the sectional championship round for the first time in school history. Rochelle (20-0-1) will play Marmion for the title on Friday at 4:30 p.m.
“Adolfo had an awesome game on Tuesday,” head coach Brad Male said. “He has good placement on the ball and he understands where the ball needs to go. The free kick he made was perfect placement on his part. He’s been a great distributor of the ball for us and that’s one of the main components he brings to our team.”
Senior Jessee Infante scored an unassisted goal early in the first half to give the Hubs the first lead of the match before Flores made it 2-0 on his free kick. The Celtics cut the Rochelle lead in half with a goal during the 32nd minute before junior Austin Brown helped the Hubs bounce back with his first goal of the match on an assist by Flores. Rochelle led 3-1 at halftime.
“We continued to play our game and Providence came out how we expected them to,” Male said. “They have a good passing game and they had a couple of fast kids on the back line that surprised us a little. We changed our tactics a few times on our attack, but for the most part, we were able to control the ball when we needed to and we capitalized on the shots we needed to.”
Flores scored in the 43rd minute to give Rochelle a 4-1 lead before back-to-back scoring strikes by freshman Josue Orozco in the 69th minute (assisted by sophomore Brayan Orozco) and Brayan Orozco in the 71st minute (assisted by Infante) made it 6-1 in favor of the Hubs.
Providence Catholic had one late goal in the 74th minute but the hole was too deep for the Celtics to climb out of. Senior Mason DeLille had four saves for Rochelle, which recorded 10 shots on goal to Providence Catholic’s six shots on goal.
“Marmion has a good short-passing game and that’s something we’ll need to make sure we can shut down,” Male said. “We need to be in there fighting for the ball instead of giving space where they can move. We need to keep our pressure up and keep our intensity up to where we’re used to playing at.”
