LISLE -- Everyone loves a late-goal winner, unless you're on the receiving end, of course.

Tuesday afternoon at chilly Benet, Brendan Bergnach endeared himself in the minds and hearts of the Redwings faithful when his 78th-minute game-winner gave the hosts a 1-0 win over visiting St. Patrick and a piece of the East Suburban Catholic Conference title.

With this hard-fought contest seemingly headed to a shootout, Bergnach neatly finished what teammate Jack Wesley started and stunned the Shamrocks.

Bergnach’s 18th goal of the season started a mad dash to the near flag by the Benet bench to meet their goal-scoring hero and on-field teammates. It was followed by a wild celebration in the center of the Redwings soccer park after the final whistle

"I scored a really great individual goal last year in our sectional final in a massive game with Timothy, but this goal is easily the biggest goal that I've ever scored for us," said an elated Bergnach.

"What an incredible goal to end an amazing game," began Redwings manager Matt Klosterman.

"(St. Patrick) is such a great team. They played a great second half where they had most of the possession, moving the ball around quickly with 1-2 touches. We really had our hands full with them.

"Their centerback no. 13 (Christian Correa) is a great player, and no. 5 (Damian Navas) and no. 10 (Nefi Solano) did a lot of good things in the midfield that gave us some trouble as well.

"We came out a lot stronger in the second half, our work-rate was so much higher. We just played so much better (with) Jack Kuelthau doing some great things for us to help us get a win against a team that could have easily won here today."

Benet’s three-back system of Kuelthau, Jackson Mares and Danny Sterba can rotate at times during the course of a game. That depends on what look Klosterman and his assistant Brian Penn want to give the opposition.

In the second half of play, tri-captain and three-year starter Kuelthau played a crucial role in both defensive solidity and offensive creativity when stationed as the right outside back.

Kuelthau, who with St. Patrick’s Correa shared the Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match honor, provided terrific defensive cover while also contributing to the Redwings attack. That made him an essential and dangerous man to stop.

"(They) really moved the ball well on us, especially in the first half and at times in the second half," said Kuelthau. “That meant we had to defend well as a team, then try to put pressure on them when we had the ball going forward.

"Last year we fell short to Notre Dame for the ESCC title.

"(Today) it was our last chance as a team, and us seniors playing our last home game of our career, to have the chance to have a share of the conference title along with Notre Dame."

Jon Clark and his Shamrocks (8-6-1, 5-2-1) knew what was at stake in their final league and regular-season contest. The Shamrocks were the only team in the league to beat Notre Dame. The win came by a 3-1 score in the Irish Cup on Sept. 18.

"Benet is a great team with a great program. They have a big advantage playing here on a giant grass field," began the Shamrocks manager.

"We knew the challenge ahead of us coming here, but we were confident we would compete with them. If we played our best soccer, we’d have the chance of getting the result we came here for.

"We did just about everything today really well. Unfortunately, we didn't finish those couple of good chances we created, and a mental breakdown at the end cost us."

During the early stages of this contest, it was clear the visitors came to play as they made sure to get all of their field players involved especially the quartet of Navas, Solano, Christian Medina and Emiliano Garcia.
 
"We knew what we wanted to do today: use the entire field; and play quick and fast with a lot of 1-2 combination passes. And that's what we did, especially in the first half," said Medina, who wears the captain’s armband with Correa and keeper Gianlucca Estrada.

Despite having the ball at the very least 75 percent of the time, it was Benet (7-1-0 ESCC) that created the best chance during the first quarter hour.

That's when a well-placed free kick from the far touchline by Jack Wesley spilled toward Sergio Polanco, whose one-timer was saved by Estrada.

The high pressure, and courageous ball-winning efforts in the middle of the park by the visitors frustrated the attack of the home side, which on several occasions gave the ball away near the midline and in their own end of the park.

"We could have been a lot better with the ball in the first half," admitted Bergnach.

Added Klosterman: "Their guys in the middle were very good at tracking back to defend and win balls, which seemed to keep us in our end a little too much. Plus, we could have played quicker and gotten the ball off our feet a lot faster as well," 

St. Patrick’s continued pace, and creative flair were a joy to watch as the half hour approached.

Benet came to life during the last 8-10 minutes before the intermission to give their confidence a boost.

Bergnach, Polanco, Wesley, Ruslan Holubec, and Sean Boyle off the bench, were key to the Redwings resurgence.

Bergnach went over from 24 yards. Then Boyle nearly beat keeper Estrada to an early ball sent through Bergnach and Holubec.

The home side came this close to finding the opener when Mares ran on to a lovely free kick from Polanco that was redirected off a Shamrocks player, but it went for naught.

Then Uareme Edeki set Declan Crist free up the left side. He had Estrada all to himself, but was unable to get something on frame moments from the break.

"I was really encouraged by those last 10 minutes or so of the first half. We finally began to find ourselves," said Klosterman.

St. Patrick shook off itself awake and was immediately back on its front foot at the start of the second half.

A pair of free kicks and deep throws were due in part to the Shamrocks marvelous ability to move the ball quickly through the middle of the park and then out wide as they found each other with precise runs.

"We play almost all of our games on turf, but today we handled the hard ground and grass field really well, which is something that I was really proud of," said the Shamrocks manager.

"(Yes) we did a lot of good things with the ball, moving it around with speed, and finding the open man, but we just were not as good as we needed to be in their final third," said Correa.

As the second half progressed, Benet began to bring its backline a little higher and closer to the midline.

In doing so, it allowed Kuelthau to get more involved in the attack. He won plenty of 50/50 and first-ball chances.

The first of those successful challenges ended with Correa making a courageous block of a close-range effort from Wesley.

Mateo Picha went over in the 61st minute when the visitors allowed the junior to tee-up from 24 yards.

In between this sequence, St. Patrick got a free kick from Matheo Garcia that caused all sorts of trouble for the home side. Nefi Solano kept the ball alive in the area long enough for a pair of attempts that were blocked on the way in. The stretch ended with Garcia firing wide of keeper Patrick Stasch.

"It was disappointing that we couldn't be more dangerous in their end. We were able to get deep but just went wide or over with our shots," lamented Medina.

With just a quarter hour remaining the urgency and intensity increased. That brought plenty of counters and box-to-box action.

Polanco ran the counter to near perfection for the home side. He tilted the St. Patrick backline toward the senior to the left of its keeper and exposed the back post.

Polanco played an inch-perfect ball to an onrushing Teddy Nawrocki, who saw his effort saved by Estrada to keep things scoreless.

The Redwings’ Mares blocked Navas, who had a clear view from 12 yards. On the other end of the pitch, Santiago Rivera watched his attempt blocked on the way by a pair of Benet players.

"It was frustrating to have so much of the possession but not really make their keeper work very hard today," said Clark.

Bergnach's eyes must have been as wide open as possible after teammate Jack Wesley sent a shot on frame after a Shamrocks player passed the ball back to Estrada.

The keeper saved the effort, but in doing so allowed the ball to spill freely in the direction of Bergnach and Sergio Polanco.

The ever-opportunistic Bergnach seized the moment and made sure to steer in his sublime finish just two minutes from time.

"It was all Jack on that play. He made it all happen. I was fortunate to be in the right place at the right time for us," said Bergnach.

In his last seven games, Bergnach has bagged 10 goals which includ a pair of hat-tricks against Joliet Catholic and Saint Viator.

"What a thrill to be able to score the game-winner in a game that meant to much for all of us," continued Bergnach, who played at Fenwick his freshmen year before transferring to Benet.

"What a day for Benet soccer," said Kuelthau.

"We battled and worked hard today for this win against a really good team, who came here to play. It was just a great way to end our regular-season and get us ready for the postseason."

"The guys knew what they had to do today," began Klosterman.
“Even though it was a struggle at times, they found a way to get the result we wanted.

"Jack did so much for us today on both sides of the ball. Brendan scored a big goal when we needed it.

"Holubec was all over the place in the midfield, Jackson (Mares) kept things tidy and organized along the back, and Sergio (Polanco) gave our attack a lot as well.

"It truly was a team effort today."

The shared title with Notre Dame gives the Redwings an ESCC best 19 championships, 11 that are shared.

Benet (11-4-3) is now unbeaten in its last eight games (6-0-2) after gaining a 1-1 tie at Chicago Catholic League member Marmion in its season finale Thursday.

The club begins to prepare for its Class AA regional opener with St. Francis on Oct. 22.

St. Patrick will focus on the benefits of a competitive match.

"This was a tough one to drop," began Clark, whose Shamrocks will begin Class AA regional play against Pritzker on Oct. 22.

"It was a game we easily could have won, maybe we deserved a better fate.

"We played a great 78 minutes of soccer, but we've seen this on a couple of occasions this year with these same kinds of results.

"On the flipside, this was perhaps our best all-around effort of the season, and again, against a very good opponent."

"If we can come out from the get-go in the postseason, there's no reason why we cannot put together a very good run."

Starting lineups

St. Patrick (4-2-3-1)
GK- Gianlucca Estrada
D- Matheo Garcia
D- Christian Correa
D- Ryan Torres
D- Ernesto Merz
M- Nefi Solano
M- Christian Medina
M- Damian Navas
M- Devin Ocon
M- Emiliano Garcia
F- Isaiah Gomez

Benet (3-5-2)
G- Patrick Stasch
D- Jack Kuelthau
D- Jackson Mares
D- Danny Sterba
M- Jack Wesley
M- Mateo Picha
M- Ruslan Holubec
M- Will Khazen
M- Mathew Donaghey
F- Brendan Bergnach
F- Sergio Polanco

Chicagoland Soccer Men of the Match: Christian Correa, sr., D, St. Patrick; Jack Kuelthau, sr., D, Benet

Referee: Andrew Mueller

Scoring summary

First half
No scoring

Second half
Benet: Bergnach (Wesley), 78'