WISCONSIN DELLS — It’s been two decades, but the Sugar River Raiders are once again sectional champions and headed to the boys soccer state tournament.

“Oh my gosh, it’s crazy. These last two games have been rollercoasters — just rollercoasters. But that’s what you get when you get to the finals,” Sugar River coach Bob Gentilli said after his team’s 2-1 overtime win over Madison Edgewood on Oct. 28 at Wisconsin Dells High School.

The journey to get to state couldn’t have been much more intense. Standing in the Raiders’ path were two very familiar foes: McFarland and Edgewood.

“It feels so good. These past four years McFarland has gotten us every time,” senior forward Aiden Hatleberg said. “This year our goal was (to beat) McFarland, then go to state — and that’s what’s happened. It feels so good.”

Sugar River last reached state in 2004. Since then, McFarland has ended the Raiders’ season nine times — including each of the past five years. Edgewood has slayed the Raiders two other times in that 20-year stretch. In fact, over the past two decades, 10 of the 19 teams that knocked Sugar River out went on to reach state — six of which reached the championship and four won it all.

Basically, Sugar River has seen a state finalist 31% of the time over the past two decades, and 21% of the time that team wins.

Also, since the only other state appearance was 20 years ago — two years before the eldest current Raider player was born — a trip to Uihlein Soccer Park in Milwaukee is a once in a lifetime opportunity for the Raiders program. As legendary rapper Eminem once said in the song Lose Yourself, “The moment, you own it, you better never let it go.  You only get one shot, do not miss your chance to blow. This opportunity comes once in a lifetime, yo.”

This year’s Raiders have had their sights set on finally seizing their moment after years of getting oh-so-close. In five of the last seven years, the Raiders reached sectionals, only to bow out, including to McFarland in the alt-fall 2020 season.

“We wanted this one bad. We worked so hard for this — all 14 seniors have been doing this since Day 1,” senior defender Jack Leonard said. “I’m glad we came out with the ‘W’. We knew it was going to be a good game. We worked hard in practice and we knew we were ready for this one.”

After parking the bus and fending off McFarland in the sectional semifinal Oct. 26, the eighth-ranked Raiders (18-2-1) faced ninth-ranked Edgewood (10-2-6) yet again. Earlier this season on Sept. 28, Sugar River tied the Crusaders 1-1 in a nonconference game in Belleville.

“We played them in the regular season, tied 1-1, but we knew this would be a different game. For one thing, it’s on turf,” Leonard said. “And they just beat Edgerton, the No. 1 seed, so we knew they were coming in with a lot of momentum. But we were, too.”

This time, the two squads squared off on the Wisconsin Dells’ new field turf pitch, with overcast skies, temperatures hovering around freezing, and occasional snowflakes floating down. Edgewood came out with a strategy of playing aggressively by bodying up Raiders players on everything from headers and counterattacks, to slide tackles in traffic.

The Crusaders were whistled nearly a dozen times for fouls in the first half, with one player, forward Declan Hurley, getting a yellow card in the 29th minute. 

Sugar River, meanwhile, played a game of possession. The Raiders routinely won 50-50 balls in the air, dropped passes back into the defense to reset, played give-and-go up the sidelines and did their best to get the ball to their leading scorer, Hatleberg. Hatleberg scored 38 of Sugar River’s 75 goals this season and made his presence felt throughout the first half despite being double- and triple-teamed by Edgewood’s defense.

On one rush into the box, two Edgewood defenders tried to tackle the ball away, but Hatleberg sent a left foot in across both players and passed the goalie, only to miss the far post wide by a foot. Later, Hatleberg used a touch off his chest, pivot and spin kick to get the ball through two more defenders, only to clank off the post. 

“I was just trying to take my chances and trying to get it going,” Hatleberg said.

With time winding down in the first half, an Edgewood foul gave Sugar River a free kick just on the far side of midfield. Jack Leonard sent the pass in, and, after some tussling, the ball deflected off a Crusader, setting up a corner kick. 

“Sometimes you have to set that up, too — you don’t go for the cross, you go for the corner,” Gentilli said.

Leonard had taken practically every free kick in the game prior, but this time Hatleberg trotted out to take the corner. Leonard, at 6-2, then lined up in the box alongside Breckyn Thompson, 6-1, and the rest of the Raiders offense. Hatleberg, from right to left, kicked the ball high and deep to the far post. Edgewood goalkeeper Wesley Donovan was positioned too far to the middle, and Leonard perfectly timed his jump, heading the ball into the wide-open net. Leonard and the Raiders sprinted to celebrate in front of their fans in the stands.

“I’ve got to thank my teammate Aiden for doing that. I’ve been working all season trying to get a corner going, and this is the one that counted,” said Leonard, who had just two goals all season prior to the game. “Big game, big moment — you dream of these things. I felt like I could do it.”

“It’s awesome to get it up for him — he’s so good on corners,” Hatleberg said of Leonard.

The goal came with less that two minutes to play in the half and gave Sugar River some momentum going into the break.

“That was nice. We knew we had the height coming in, so we put our guys in the right spots on the corner. They knew where to go,” Gentilli said. “That was huge for our momentum.”

In the second half, Edgewood made some tactical changes, including staying on the offensive as much as possible, and keeping Hatleberg in check. The whistles for fouls picked up even more — especially against Sugar River. Even still, the Raiders kept their cool for the most part.

“We were really just trying to maintain the lead,” said Clayton Streiff, Sugar River’s junior goalkeeper.

About 15 minutes into the second half, Edgewood had its best scoring opportunity to that point in the game, with a ball into the box re-routed high and on target. Streiff instinctively leaped high into the air and with his fingertips deflected the ball narrowly over the crossbar for a huge save that sent the Sugar River faithful into a tizzy.

“That one that he punched at the very top — that was spectacular,” Gentilli said. “Both keepers did a really nice job and made some really big saves.”

Moments later, Streiff ran forward into the crowd in the box and jump-punched the ball away from danger. 

“During these games, it’s just all adrenaline — it’s all instinct. There’s no time to think at all, it’s just so fast that you just act,” Streiff said.

Edgewood would not be denied all day, however. With just over two minutes to play, a Crusader pass again went into the crowded box. Streiff leapt to catch the ball, but Hurley ran into him, elbow first, jarring the ball and sending Streiff to the turf. The loose ball found its way to the foot of another Edgewood player, who kicked it into the open net from 10 yards out. The referees got together to discuss the potential foul, but deemed the contact was within the letter of the law and allowed the goal to stand. Hurley and his teammates mirrored Sugar River’s celebration by heading off the pitch to the track in front of the stands to show their joy with the equalizer.

In the WIAA playoffs, overtime is played as two extra 10-minute halves. Gentilli told his players to stay calm and trust the game plan. 

“They just wanted to make sure that we knew we were good. We were up most of the game and controlled most of it, so they wanted to make sure that we maintained the pressure and kept it going until we put another one in,” Streiff said.

With under two minutes to play in the first extra period, a through ball found Hatleberg on a counterattack, and he was tripped to the ground inside the 18-yard box, resulting in a penalty kick, much to the dismay of the Crusaders players on the pitch and the sideline. 

“They had quite a few guys in the box, quite a few feet in the box. If you can get in the box, sometimes it turns out to be better than a shot,” Gentilli said of the foul for tripping, which earned the PK opportunity.

Hatleberg then set up for the penalty kick try — a one-on-one with Donovan, who ultimately guessed Hatleberg’s plan of attack.

“They knew on Aiden’s PK that he was going to go to his left — their right,” Gentilli said. “We walked in here knowing Edgewood would be tough. We knew what they were going to do, and they knew what we were going to do. Hats off to them, but we’re going to enjoy this one.”

The kick, low and to the keeper’s right side, was initially deflected. However, Edgewood players didn’t crash the box after the open kick — which turns into a live kick, much like a free throw. Hatleberg was Johnny-on-the-spot and booted the deflection into the back of the net, giving Sugar River the lead once again.

“When I drew that (penalty kick), I knew I had to make it. I said to myself, ‘this is the goal that takes us to state.’ After he saved it, I knew I had to go right back after it and — bam — it went in,” Hatleberg said.

Over the final 11 1/2 minutes, Sugar River rose to the challenge once again, parking the bus in their defensive half. 

“All we told them to do at half was just to go straight ahead,” Gentilli said.

“We tried to keep our heads up going into OT. It all worked out in the end,” Hatleberg said.

 “The moment, you own it, you better never let it go.  You only get one shot, do not miss your chance to blow. This opportunity comes once in a lifetime, yo.”

Edgewood twice had opportunities to put shots on goal in the final seconds, but both times failed to get a shot off. They did not, per Eminem, own the moment — instead letting it go by missing their shot.

“We’re going to celebrate this one while we can, but we’ve got more games left. There’s more work to be done,” Leonard said, smiling.