Time seemed to stand still for the Collegiate’s boys soccer team at the most inopportune time Wednesday night.
The Titans, the No. 2 team in the state soccer coaches’ poll, withstood four quality chances from top-ranked Trinity in the final four minutes to pull out a 2-1 victory in a Seventh Region semifinal game at St. Xavier.
Collegiate advances to face No. 5 St. Xavier, which beat No. 21 Christian Academy 2-1 in the nightcap. The Titans and Tigers split their two previous matches this season, with Collegiate winning the 26th District final last week.
The matchup of the state’s top two programs definitely lived up to expectations as both teams made big plays in a highly entertaining affair. Abshir Abdi’s goal with 27:18 left proved to be the difference. The junior timed his break perfectly as Ezra Sanford sent a long pass into the box. Abdi stayed onside in getting past the Shamrocks back line and beat keeper Thomas Kolb for the score.
That set the stage for Titans keeper Evan Konermann to preserve the Titans first victory over Trinity since 2011, when the Titans last won the regional title.
In the 67th minute, he had to quickly deflect a Cameron Smith header and then made the save on the ensuing corner kick. He stopped 
another corner with 1:35 left. Then, with 25.8 seconds left, Trinity sent everyone, including Kolb, into the box on a final corner kick. It would eventually go out of bounds for a Collegiate goal kick, allowing Konermann and his teammates to finally exhale.
Konermann joked afterward that those final moments seemed to take up the entire 80 minutes, but that didn’t seem to matter for a team with state title aspirations.
“That was our motivation for those four minutes,” he said.
Trinity possessed the ball for the majority of the first half,as the Titans (22-1-1) patiently waited for their opportunity and struck first in the 35th minute. Midfielder Cam Wheeler dribbled around a couple Rocks defenders just outside the Trinity box. That created space on the right side of the field for the senior, who unleashed a shot that found the upper right corner of the goal.
“I just shot it,” Wheeler said about his 19th goal. “I wasn’t thinking. I just shot it, and it went in.”
Trinity would get an equalizer in the 47th minute as Tanner Stevens was alone from 35 yards out. That enabled him to put so much power on his shot that it got past Konermann even though he got a hand on it.
Still, even after beating the state’s top team, Chad Wozniak’s team knows there’s a lot more left to do.
“We knew going into this region, it’s murderers row,” Wozniak said. “No matter what, you’re up against two to three unbelievable teams.”
For Trinity (17-1-3), its first loss of the season came in the team’s final game. Still, coach Dale Helfrich was proud of the effort his team gave.
“The game was certainly worthy of a state final, but you know only one team gets to represent this area,” Helfrich said.
St. Xavier-Christian Academy
Lucas Mudd’s header off a Trent Ennenbach direct kick with 7:16 left in the game provided the difference for the Tigers (15-4-5).
Mudd also provided an assist on Sam Graber’s goal in the 17th minute that staked the Tigers to the lead. The No. 21 Centurions (15-6-1) tied the match on a counterattack 13 minutes into the second half that culminated with a Matthew Andres goal.
Christian Academy had a chance for a late equalizer as the Tigers committed a foul inches outside of the penalty box with just more than a minute remaining. That chance was blocked by the Tigers wall.
St. X coach Andy Schulten said the Centurions played with a disciplined approach that allowed his team, which knocked off No. 6 Manual Monday, to be the aggressors.
“Great effort for CAL,” Schulten said. “I’m very proud of my team, though, to come back off of such an emotional win the other night. I think our boys thought they could duplicate that, and experience tells me and experience tells our coaches, it’s hard to do that.”