GRANITE CITY – Juan Carlos Doria scored in the first half, and T.J. Carter scored in the second half, after which Giovanni Mann was sent off with a straight red card, forcing the Kahoks to play with 10 men the rest of the way. Collinsville held on to take a 2-1 win in the IHSA Class 3A regional semifinal match Tuesday evening at Gene Baker Field, to advance to Friday’s final.
It was a very hard-fought match throughout, where both teams left it on the pitch at the end in an incredible match, and at the end, Kahok coach Rob Lugge was relieved about the result.
“Yeah, the boys played great,” Lugge said. “I appreciate their effort. Granite City played great, they played to the last minute. I feel like we shot ourselves in the foot, and we made it a lot more difficult than it needed to be.”
The Mann sending off, immediately after the Carter goal that doubled Collinsville’s lead to 2-0, almost turned the complexion of the game around, but the Kahoks were able to hold on and advance.
The Kahoks held together after the red card, and held on to take the win.
“Yeah, and good for Granite for coming,” Lugge said. “They scored a great goal, and (Armando Hernandez) is a very talented player. They kept coming, we were able to defend, get the ball out. I”m happy with that.”
The Kahoks advance to the regional final against the Maroons, a 7-0 winner over Alton in the first game, and it’s a challenge Lugge and his team will be looking ahead to.
“Yeah, it’s always fun against Belleville West,” Lugge said, “especially with the talent that they have. So hopefully, we can regroup, kind of sort some things out, and prepare for them on Friday.”
It was a tough loss for the tradition-laden Warriors, who also played well, but fell short, with Hernandez scoring a very good goal that made it 2-1, but couldn’t come up with an equalizer that would have forced extra time.
“Well, obviously, I’m disappointed,” said Granite head coach Ryan Reeves. “Not in the result, just losing 12 seniors is hard, but we competed, we fought hard all the way to the end, and things just didn’t go our way. But credit to Collinsville; they’re a great team, they’ve got a great coaching staff, a lot of good players. It just hurts for all of our seniors to come up short in a playoff game.”
It was typical of the long-standing rivalry between Granite City and Collinsville, very hard-fought and good soccer all the way around, and Reeves, a former Warrior player under Gene Baker, had many fond memories of battles past come back to him during the match.
“Yeah, it just brought back memories of way back,” Reeves said, “to the day when I was playing. But any time you get together with Collinsville, it’s a great game, a great crowd, great intensity. It kind of brings out the best in both teams. Unfortunately, we were just a little short-handed, had some injuries, and lost a couple of guys in the course of the game, some guys that really would have helped us. But that’s not an excuse, because, like I said, they beat us Thursday night (3-0 at Kahok Stadium), and they beat us again tonight. So, I guess at the end of the day, the better team won, but I was really, really proud of our guys. We really fought hard for the whole 80 minutes.”
The Warriors suffered a big loss on the stroke of halftime, when Joey Morales, who transferred from Collinsville to Granite City, suffered a hard knock to his ankle, and missed the rest of the match.
The match started out with both teams probing each other and looking for openings to the defense, which resulted in a 20th-minute goal for Doria, who made a great turn to the Warrior box, and slotted a ball past Tyler Lakin, who played very well in goal throughout the evening, to give Collinsville a 1-0 lead. Both side then had good opportunities through the rest of the half, but the defenses came up big to thwart any possible opportunities.
A major turning point happened in the 40th minute, when a collision between Morales and a Kahok player resulted in Morales suffering an ankle injury, for which he wouldn’t return. It put a huge dent in the Warrior defense, as Morales had developed into a rock-steady defender In the second half, Granite also lost Ryan Rash, another steady defensive player coming off an ankle injury, but he was able to come back later on. The half ended with the Kahoks ahead 1-0.
In the second half, Carter scored after taking a pass off a scramble in front of the Warrior goal, and tucked it home to make it 2-0 after 55 minutes, with the Kahok players celebrating in front of the Granite student section. That’s when controversy started, as right after the goal, and a discussion among the officiating staff, Mann was sent off with a straight red card, which means he’ll miss the final against the Maroons on Friday, and reduced the Kahoks to 10 men.
The Warriors took advantage almost immediately, when in the 59th minute, Hernandez took a ball near the Kahok box, went to his left, and picked the lower left corner of the net for a spectacular goal to make it 2-1. The Warriors pressed for the equalizer, but the Kahok defense held firm, ever creating some opportunities of their own, but Lakin prevailed In the end, Kahok goalie Braden Henson and the Collinsville defense came through to preserve the 2-1 win, advancing the Kahoks to the final.
The Warriors’ season ends at 11-10-1, while the Kahoks go to 9-9-1, and through to the final against the Maroons on Friday evening at 5 p.m. The winner goes to the Alton sectional against the winner of the Quincy regional on Oct. 30 at 5 p.m., with the final set for Nov. 1 at 6 p.m. at Public School Stadium.
The Alton winner faces the Naperville North sectional winner in the Normal Community super-sectional Nov. 5 at 6 p.m., and the state tournament is set for Nov. 8-9 at Hoffman Estates High School in northwest suburban Chicago. 
