Having seldom trailed in 25 games this season, the Strake Jesuit boys soccer team never lost its composure or sight of its goal in Tuesday’s 5A regional quarterfinal against Elsik.

Indeed, the Crusaders had little reason to be flustered. Even though they trailed for nearly half the game, most of it was played in front of the Elsik goal. By the middle of the second half, Strake Jesuit appeared to have worn down the Rams.

And so it was that the dam finally broke with 24 minutes left.

Beau Grenier sent in a header off a corner kick to tie it, and Andrew Armour scored the winner on a second-chance shot with 7:52 left to send the Crusaders to a 2-1 victory at their home stadium.

Carlo De Franco, the team’s leading scorer, assisted on the winner. Armour’s first shot hit the right post, but it rebounded directly back to him and he poked it in to the right corner of the goal.

Strake Jesuit (21-0-5) will play Kingwood in a regional semifinal Friday at Deer Park’s Abshier Stadium. The game time will be either 5:30 or 7:30 p.m.

Clear Lake and Cinco Ranch will meet in the other semifinal. The winners will play at 1:30 p.m. Saturday.

The Crusaders never have reached a regional final. They were upended by Houston Lee – whom they beat in an area game Friday – in their last regional tournament appearance.

Seemingly only a sliver of the game was played on Strake Jesuit’s half of the field.

Elsik (14-4-3) took the lead with 19:13 left in the first half, when junior midfielder Ivan Gamboa scored a goal that bounced in off the crossbar.

It was a physical first half from there – several yellow cards were handed out – but Rams goalie Emmanuel Frias made the lead with several fantastic saves. He lived dangerously the entire night by playing well in front of the net.

“The first 10 or 15 minutes we came out and possessed the ball and got the better of the chances but we didn’t score,” Crusaders coach Bill McDonald said. “After they scored a lot of emotion came into the game. I told the guys at halftime we just needed to remain composed and rely on the leadership that got us here all year … and have confidence in our abilities. I told them we couldn’t let that disappear in one game.

“We had to have confidence, even if we didn’t get that goal until the last couple minutes. We had to have the confidence we were going to get it and we did.”

Grenier scored the equalizer off a corner kick, poking his shot above and to the right of Frias.

Until DiFranco – who scored 15 goals in as many district games – assisted Armour’s goal, he was virtually kept out of the game.

“Our goal was to get in behind them, get wide and we did,” McDonald said. “That’s what created the goal. Andrew took a swipe at it at first and he didn’t get it, but he was fortunate enough that it came back a second time and he got it.”

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