Moline defeats top-seeded Minooka to win the regional championship

The Moline High School boys soccer team overcame some adversity to beat top-seeded Minooka to claim a third straight regional title Saturday.

The fourth-seeded Maroons topped Minooka 3-2 to win the Class 3A Pekin Regional title on a picture-perfect day at Coalminer's Park. It is Moline's first regional three-peat since 2013-15 and a Tuesday sectional semifinal contest at home.

Leading 3-1, Moline's Andres Zavala was given a red card with 16:35 to play.

With the Maroons down a player from that point forward, the Indians (11-12-1) received a goal from Diego Escobedo with 2:56 to play. Moline, however, closed it out.

Saiheed Jah scored two goals and gave Moline (17-3-1) the early advantage with a goal less than a minute into the game.

Jah said being down a player made the game much harder than it needed to be.

"We were putting pressure on their back line, but once we had that man down we had to drop back," he said. "It was definitely a challenge, but we got through it and it feels really good.

"I think we definitely need to be smarter than that and realize instead of arguing with the ref, we have our goals in front of us and something like that can completely keep us from getting our goal and I hope it doesn't happen again."

Jah said Minooka's defense did not seem ready after the Indians were late for warmups.

"They're a good team," Jah said, "but that first goal definitely helped us get the momentum going."

Jah's second goal came in the 25th minute off an Israel Quintana assist.

Roger Valles put the Indians on the board with a penalty kick score in the 32nd minute. Moline had a 2-1 lead at halftime.

The Maroons struck early after intermission as Alhassane Sow finished a goal off a Jah cross.

Moline kept Minooka at bay until the red card. The Indians also had a goal waived off due to an offside penalty.

"We took the four seed personal," Moline keeper Owen Gault said.

Gault's goal kick helped lead into the opening goal for Moline.

He said the defense eventually adjusted to being down a player for the final few minutes.

"We really had to step up and work for it," Gault said. "We have a lot of good players."

Moline coach Rick Sanchez gave his team credit for gutting out the win.

"We played efficient enough," he said, "and we're moving on and sometimes that's what it's about."

Moline gets the luxury of hosting a sectional for the first time since 1998, according to Sanchez. retro 6 hares

"That's a little bit of extra motivation to win this game," Sanchez said. "Our opponent, Joliet West, is a very strong team, we played them last year in a regional final. They're solid and we've got our hands full."

Not having to worry about a lengthy drive for a sectional round, the Maroons get at least one more game at the Moline Soccer Bowl.  jordan 5 shawn marion

"I definitely think we'll have the advantage this time going into the game being on our own field," Jah said.