In cold, wet weather that was less than ideal for soccer, the Illinois men’s club soccer captured their second-consecutive regional title last weekend in Bloomington, Ind.

In past years, the Illini had already secured their spot to the national tournament by winning the regular season power rankings, but this season they won their bid by battling the best teams in the midwest.

In their first game, Illinois played long-time rival Purdue.

“We’ve played Purdue a lot in the past and we know them pretty well,” senior captain Rickie Partyka said.

Illinois fell behind 1-0 but responded in the second half by moving sweeper TJ King up to the midfield in order to create more scoring opportunities.

With two minutes left, an opportunity presented itself and senior Joe Rokop took advantage by scoring a goal that would end the game in a 1-1 tie.

Illinois then faced Dayton, a team they needed to beat by two or more goals to advance.

The Illini came out fast and Rokop beat the Dayton defense for his second goal of the tournament. King then added another goal to put Illinois up 2-0.

The Dayton offense then went on the attack and scored a goal with less than 10 minutes left in the game.

With the score at 2-1, Illinois knew that they needed one more goal in order to advance to the semifinals.

“With the game basically over, we had one last chance to score on a corner kick,” Partyka said. “We all knew this would be the last play of the game so we moved every player we had into the box.”

With all the players on both teams – including the Illini goalkeeper – in the box, the play now known as “The Scrum of ’06” touched almost every Illini player and hit the post three times before it was put in by Tope Adesiea to push Illinois past Dayton 3-1 and into the next round.

“That play really summarized the whole weekend for us and it was a great example of our team effort to never give up,” junior defensive back Adam Biernacki said.

With the thrilling victory, Illinois won their pool, earning a match against Western Michigan on Sunday.

In their semifinal match, senior Dave Brown was fouled in the box and connected on the penalty kick to put Illinois up 1-0.

The Illini held onto their lead by relying on the crucial play of their substitutes, who came into the game and helped the team to a 2-0 victory.

“A lot of our starters played all Saturday and they never came out for rest, so they were pretty tired,” Partyka said. “We had some guys come in off the bench and step up big for us.”

In the championship game, Illinois faced rival Indiana for a trip to the national tournament.

“All season it seemed like we didn’t have a killer instinct, but that game was a big gut-check for us,” Biernacki said. “We went in refusing to lose.”

Both teams came out with intensity but early in the first half, Brown went down with an injury that would keep him out of the game.

Senior midfielder Allen Barton stepped up and played well, helping fill the void left by Brown.

Biernacki finally broke the game open when the ball rolled to him just outside the box. He took a shot, placing the ball perfectly inside the far upper post.

“In my head I was like ‘I got to make something happen with this or everyone is going to be mad at me,'” Biernacki said.

“I hit that shot a dozen times in practice but never in a game,” he added.

“It was one of the most incredible shots I’ve ever seen in my soccer career,” Partyka said.

From that point on, the rest of the game belonged to the Illini. Illinois added another goal and punched its ticket to the national tournament with a 2-0 victory.

“We played extremely well in all our games and we looked like an elite team,” Partyka said. “We definitely became a team that weekend.”

Illinois will travel to Tempe, Ariz. to compete for the national championship on Nov. 16-18.