October 18, 2009

ELGIN -- A wet and muddy field didn't seem to bother Westminster Christian's Ishmael Yemoah on Saturday afternoon in a semifinal soccer match against North Shore Country Day at Westminster's own Class 1A Regional.

With the score tied at 2, Yemoah took the ball deep inside his own territory and dribbled down the sideline and through two defenders before scoring what proved to be the game-winner with 28:46 left in the game.

"It was beautiful to watch him run coast-to-coast," said senior Ryan Beachler.

Westminster coach Mike Richardson was also in awe of Yemoah, a senior foreign exchange student from Ghana.

"Ishmael has been a blessing to our school this year," Richardson said. "One of the reasons for that is because as much as you want to talk about tactics and how you should play in sloppy conditions or hot conditions -- sometimes he just does things and it makes the coach look like a genius.

"That was all him. No strategy behind it. He just took the ball from one end and decided 'I'm gonna score this goal' and that's how it ended. He's done that throughout the year."

The No. 2 seed Warriors set the school record for wins and advance to Tuesday's title match against No. 1 seed Harvard, which beat Northridge Prep 6-4 earlier in the day.

Westminster (14-3-1) scored first 7:29 into the game when sophomore Josh Beachler found his brother Ryan in front of the net for a 1-0 lead. However, the Warriors soon realized that a win wasn't guaranteed. North Shore (10-5-2) tied the game at 1 with 17:05 left in the half on a goal from Ivan Ramirez.

"We got that first goal and maybe some of the players thought this would be an easy game," Ryan Beachler said. "Once they scored that first goal, we knew it was gonna be a hard game."

Westminster retook the lead with 11:22 left in the half after Ryan Beachler scored his second goal of the game, this one from 20 yards out. With the wind playing tricks on the ball, North Shore goalkeeper Kevin Malpede gave up on the ball, thinking it would go wide.

"The wind is kinda changing here and the wind caught it and brought it back," Richardson said. "He thought it was gonna go wide. He signaled for the ball to miss the post."

North Shore continued to battle and scored on a rebound with 7.3 seconds left in the half to tie the game at 2.

"North Shore played really hard," Ryan Beachler said. "Gave us a heck of a game."

Scott Sutarik had nine saves in goal for Westminster.