Most coaches aren't real pleased when their squads don't play up to expectations during a key conference road match.

But that scenario changes when such a performance still results in a win, as it did for Plainfield Central on Wednesday.

The Wildcats in the middle of a key stretch of three matches in the Southwest Prairie Conference this week, met Minooka.

With both sides already owning a league loss, getting another one now could seriously hurt their hopes for the SPC title.

The Wildcats benefited from two early penalties to take a 2-0 lead and then withstood a late comeback by the Indians.

After each side scored in the run of play during the late stages, the Wildcats emerged with a 3-1 victory in Minooka.

PHS (8-7-1, 2-1) won for the fifth time in its last six tries, which included a 5-0 win over Plainfield North on Monday.

Coach Kevin Fitzgerald's squad hosts Romeoville on Saturday in another clash of contenders in the competitive league.

Oswego leads the SPC with a 3-1 mark while PHS and Romeoville are both 2-1, Minooka is 3-2 and Plainfield South is 2-2.

MCHS (9-7-1, 3-2) closed to within 2-1 in the 74th minute before the visitors added a goal with 11 seconds remaining.

Mo Rashid scored both penalties while Miguel Sanchez connected following an assist from John Hurley for the Wildcats.

Matt Blackmore got a goal off of a pass from Giacomo Raimondi for Minooka, who beat Joliet Catholic Academy on Monday.

"Without the two penalty kicks, you wonder about what the outcome might have been," Fitzgerald said. "I think we escaped with a win today. This is the best year our conference has had since anybody can win.

"I thought we created the first PK since Miguel made a good move but I feel bad about the second one, a hand ball in the box. That's a tough call to take, especially after you've already given up a penalty.

"We had the attack in the first half but stalled in the offensive third. It looked like we didn't have our legs under us and were a little slow and part of that no doubt is due to Minooka being a good team."

Fitzgerald moved things around in the back so that Nick Castellucci marked Mo Esquivel, who didn't get many chances.

Nick Belom, Billy Ballentine, Dan Rosenbaum and Mike Giocolo limited the shots that went to keeper Tyler Badertscher.

"The old saying is that you don't let one guy beat you," Fitzgerald said. "Mo is a talented player and has scored a lot of goals this year. Nick did a great job on him and everyone else defended pretty well.

"You don't like to give one up at the end like that since it gives them life, and I didn't like how we gave it up since we need to head balls like that out of the box, but for the most part, we defended well.

"We've improved tremendously in two weeks. Monday was where I'd like to see us at every day, but that's probably not going to happen. We know that Romeoville will be tough so we have our work cut out for us."

The Wildcats moved in front for good in the seventh when Sanchez was fouled and Rashid made the subsequent penalty.

Shortly after the half's midpoint, Hurley sent a pass inside to Rosenbaum, whose header went a bit wide of the mark.

Another penalty was called in the 24th minute, this time on a hand ball in the box, and Rashid once again connected.

PHS kept the pressure up a bit later as Sanchez got free in front but keeper Ayhan Ozgen was able to make the stop.

Ozgen also hauled in shots from Rashid, Sam Espinal and Sanchez and deflected a Rashid try over the next few minutes.

In the half's late stages, a Ballentine throw-in led to a Rosenbaum header that was stopped, as was a Hurley corner.

"Even though we got the early lead, who knew that we had to keep playing hard until the last minute," Hurley said. "Everybody played hard and we all give 100 percent in every game.

"We're working together more and playing off of each other. We're starting to get everyone back and are healthy again so we're seeing starting to see what our team is all about."

While the opportunities definitely favored the Wildcats in the initial 40 minutes, the tide shifted after the break.

Early in the second half, Alec Polaine cleared a try by Giocolo and then a header before Ozgen stopped a Belom effort.

A bit later, MCHS started testing Badertscher as Blackmore sent in a long attempt and then Sergio Reyes was denied.

Following a Rosenbaum free kick that led to a Sanchez header to Ozgen, Juan Rojas sent a header to the Wildcat keeper.

Then a Blackmore throw-in resulted in a thwarted header by Reyes, who headed away an Eddie Rios free kick a bit later.

Not long after the half's midway mark, Raimondi had a liner deflected and then Blackmore was denied on a long attempt.

MCHS nearly scored with 10 minutes left but a Raimondi to Blackmore to Adam Wilke sequence was disallowed by an offside.

The hosts finally found the net about three minutes later when Raimondi sent a pass to Blackmore to make it a 2-1 score.

Reyes and Sanchez were denied on tries a bit later and PHS scored late when Hurley found Sanchez for an open-net goal.

One Indian who didn't get many shots was Esquivel, who has 15 goals, and Castellucci made sure that he didn't add to it.

"Even though I had to watch Mo and we had some people playing in different positions, we still played pretty good," Castellucci said. "We cut it a little close at the end, though.

"We lost our first one in conference so now we have to win the rest and things are going our way right now. We're a close team and we hang out and that helps us to flow together."

The Wildcats host Waubonsie Valley in a nonleague match today while the Indians play at Providence Catholic on Monday.