In the end, a 52nd-minute goal by No. 10 seed Stevenson merely awakened a sleeping giant.

And when Barrington’s boys soccer team had finished wiping the sleep from its eyes following a 50-minute snooze, it was all Broncos as Barrington defeated the Patriots 3-1 in OT to lift the Class 3A regional trophy at Barrington Community Stadium.

Next up for the Broncos (19-3-1) will be Mundelein (14-6-2) in a Tuesday evening sectional semifinal at Buffalo Grove.

“If we lost today, I would have told you that we deserved that result” said Barrington coach Scott Steib. “But after we took control of this game, it was clear it was a result we earned. That doesn’t mean it was easy up until then.

“We weren’t very good against Buffalo Grove on Tuesday, and although we played a little better in the first half today, Stevenson outplayed us in every facet of the game. It wasn’t until they scored first that we came out of our funk and began to play like the team we were going into the MSL Soccer Cup.”

While most of the first half was played in the Broncos’ end, the Patriots (11-7-3) had nothing to show for their first 40 minutes.

Truth be told, all the Patriots lacked on this sunny afternoon was a bit of good luck.

Coach Mark Schartner’s club rattled the bar twice, both times with the powerful left foot of David Brandt. His 35-yard cracker in the 21st minute nearly lifted the net out of the ground. Later, just after the break, he somehow found the underside of the bar with a well-paced free kick.

“I guess it could have been 2- or 3-0 at some point, but this not only is a game of inches sometimes, it also can be a very cruel sport also,” said Schartner. “But when you’ve been in the sport as long as I have, you just have to accept the way things go and just move on from there.”

When Barrington allowed a Hunter Tam freekick to fall freely into the Broncos’ box, an opportunistic Jake Nunez made them pay for it.

The equalizer came from Barrington’s Caleb Orr.

“I don’t know why we came out so flat today, maybe overconfident, or a carry over from the Buffalo Grove game,” said Orr. “But I guess the goal really helped us get going, and we didn’t stop until the game was over.”

Barrington missed on opportunities to win in regulation. But the Broncos opened up the first extra session by taking the lead for good on Klaus Pallan’s 26th goal of the season, with a diving header off an Enrico Ruffolo serve at 85 minutes.

Sophomore Michael Blanke provided insurance when he unloaded a 22-yard bomb in the 93rd minute.

Conant 1, Wheaton Academy 0: Sophomore Harris Dibek scored on a flick from Kevin Sindewald to propel the Cougars to a Class 3A regional championship at Elk Grove.

Goalkeeper Piotr Pyz earned the shutout for Conant (13-7), which advances to a 4:30 p.m. Tuesday sectional semifinal at Glenbard East.

Glenbrook North 4, Maine West 1: The host Warriors came up short against the Spartans in regional final action. Glenbrook North advances to a 5 p.m. Wednesday sectional semifinal against Lane.

Libertyville 5, Palatine 3: Scoring goals in bunches is pretty good postseason sign for Libertyville’s boys soccer team. Even so, the Wildcats needed more than expected to get past Palatine.

Ryan Wittenbrink netted a hat trick and also had an assist in leading fourth-seeded Libertyville over No. 12 Palatine 5-3 in the Class 3A Warren regional final on Saturday afternoon in Gurnee.

The defending state champion Wildcats (14-3) will next meet up with top-seeded Hersey (14-1-3) in the Buffalo Grove sectional semifinal at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday.

On Saturday, Libertyville scored three times in the first 17 minutes and then had to hold off Palatine the rest of the way.

“We had a great start but were making mental mistakes in the back,” Libertyville coach Andy Bitta said. “We’re not marking, we’re not staying with our marks, we’re lacksidasical — we’re not into the game as much as we are at the beginning of the games. Sooner or later it’s going to cost us. We’ve got to clean that up for the sectionals. You can’t do that and give up too many easy goals.”

Libertyville put together some nice combination plays in the final third of the field for their early goals. Wittenbrink opened the scoring with a soft touch goal in front; the sequence was started by Austin Becker’s corner kick, which went to Evan Rasmussen for a flick touch that found Wittenbrink in the seventh minute.

Rasmussen set up the second Wildcats goal four minutes later on a low cross, as Becker found the back of the net for a 2-0 lead.

Wittenbrink set up the third goal in the 17th minute with a corner kick on which Grant Herbek used his finishing touch for a 3-0 advantage.

Palatine (11-7-1) got a goal back off the leg of George Soipan, set up by an end-line pass from Javier Garcia to the Libertyville lead to 3-1 in the 20th minute.

Libertyville got back to a 3-goal advantage in the 35th minute when Wittenbrink was taken down in the penalty area and awarded a penalty kick. He stepped up and converted it easily.

The Pirates responded a minute later. Sebastian Fraczek sent a free kick that went off the head of Garcia into the goal to make it 4-2 going into the break.

Palatine got within 2 goals again in the 72nd minute, when Jonathan Inez-Rodriguez lofted a long-range kick under the crossbar.

“It was something unexpected that we started out real slow,” Inez-Rodriguez said. “I think these types of games are decided in the first 20 minutes. Libertyville is a great team. We can’t deny that. (Wittenbrink) up top is something, and we weren’t able to stop him.”

The Pirates’ problems were in the back part of their defense early on.

“We pride ourselves in playing pretty well defensively,” Palatine coach Willie Filian said. “This game, our marking and set pieces weren’t adequate or anywhere near adequate against a dangerous team like Libertyville. They have big, athletic guys that can finish and you have to mark tight. That’s where I think the game is won or lost. Just winning balls in the air from the beginning of the year has been a sore spot for us. At the end of the season we were doing things better and starting to show it.

“Libertyville is still the defending champs until somebody says something different.”

— Rusty Silber

Mundelein 2, Wheeling 1 (PKs): After a test of endurance, will and patience, Mundelein’s boys soccer team can call itself regional champions for the first time since 2006.

The sixth-seeded Mustangs were shootout kings Saturday in Lake Forest, converting 7 spot kicks — one more than No. 2 seed Wheeling (16-3-1) — to defeat the Mid-Suburban League champs in a sudden death kicks session.

Mundelein (14-6-2) advances to a Tuesday sectional semifinal against Barrington at Buffalo Grove.

“Everyone that played for us was a hero tonight,” said Mundelein coach Ernie Billittier after this nearly three-hour contest came to an end with Nick Ramirez driving in the game-winner past a diving Jose Castillo, after Eric Muniz had stopped the Wildcats in the eighth round of kicks to set up the Ramirez heroics.

The high-energy, fast-paced match found both sides finding success early. The Mustangs succeeded in targeting and finding front-runners Kenny Adiyiah and Bryan Alba, while the Wildcats leaned on all-state candidate Jonathan Sanchez. He started at forward for coach Kevin Lennon before eventually dropping to the midfield when the club’s first-class playmaker Vincente Castro left with a shoulder injury in the 51st minute.

“Jonathan was all over the park for us tonight,” said Lennon. “He’s the guy that made us go throughout the 100 minutes he played — his play was absolutely brilliant.”

The Wildcats co-captain had the composure and sublime finishing touch to put his club on the scoreboard in the 22nd minute, taking a lovely helper from David Soto to go past Muniz.

After a superbly athletic save on a PK from Castillo, Mundelein got even in the 49th minute when Ethan Butler was brought down from behind in the box.

Kenny Adiyiah, who scored the game-winner against St. Viator in its regional opener earlier in the week, was at it again as he steered in a close-range shot following a Jony Lucio free kick.

“It’s always a tough way to lose, and knowing that for some of my guys that their high school career is over, is particularly hard to see,” said Lennon. “But these guys accomplished a lot of great things this season, and they went out by putting it all out there the entire night.”

— Mike Garofola