By Sean Duncan

JOLIET – In the eyes of many, the second Class 2A state semifinal game between No. 1 Harrisburg and No. 8 Illinois Valley Central was essentially for the state championship. Three state titles and four runner-up finishes between the two head coaches, both programs had the history and the current talent to make this game a classic.

Hyped up for Friday night’s game? You best believe it.

But much like your New Year’s Eve plans every year, the event didn’t live up to the hype and, unfortunately, was ultimately anticlimactic.

Illinois Valley Central committed seven errors, and Harrisburg standout Reid Roper struck out 12 as the top-ranked Bulldogs remained undefeated with a 7-1 victory to advance to Saturday’s championship game at Silver Cross Stadium.

Harrisburg (40-0) will look to make history Saturday by completing the most successful state championship squad against Teutopolis (30-4) in Saturday’s title game at 6 p.m., eclipsing Edwardsville’s perfect 40-0 championship team in 1998.

“This is every kid’s dream and every coach’s dream,” said venerable Harrisburg coach Jay Thompson, who has a career coaching mark of 587-164.

“Overall,” Thompson continued, “it was a Herculean effort by this man right here.” Thompson put his left hand on his Reid Roper’s shoulder. As he’s done all season, Roper rose to the occasion for the Bulldogs. Pitching on three days’ rest, the right-hander threw a three-hitter with 12 strikeouts and five walks in his 123-pitch complete game to improve to 12-0 on the season. Roper, who is heading to the University of Illinois as a shortstop, used an upper-80s fastball that climbed as high as 90 to completely shut down an IVC (32-6) offense that had scored double-digit runs 18 times this season.

“I just had a bunch of adrenaline out there,” Roper said. “Tonight was an awesome experience for me.”

While Roper was mowing down Grey Ghosts, the high-scoring Harrisburg offense kept tacking on runs thanks to several IVC errors. The Bulldogs took a 1-0 lead in the first when Keelin Rasch (2-for-4, RBI) reached on an error and scored on Dawson Montfort’s single. And so it went. IVC error, Harrisburg run.

Senior second baseman Cain Sheldon finally put the game out of reach in the sixth with a two-run triple, making it 7-1. Sheldon, who’s an unsung hero in the Bulldogs’ ballyhooed offense, finished 3-for-4 with three RBI. The Bulldogs had more than enough opportunities to make the margin larger, but they stranded eight base runners.

IVC senior left-hander Cody Kentzel (9-2) had a lot to do with Harrisburg’s squandered scoring opportunities. The 5-foot-9 Kentzel allowed only one earned run, eight hits, struck out six and walked two in his 6 1/3 innings. Between the third and fifth innings, IVC committed five errors. Not coincidentally, Harrisburg scored four runs in that span.

“Any time you play like we did defensively, it’s going to be a tough one,” said IVC coach Jerry Rashid, whose team will take on Immaculate Conception in the third-place game Saturday. “You can’t give a team that many outs no matter what level you play. … We have a great team, but unfortunately people didn’t see that tonight.”

The lone run IVC came on a Travis Thacker home run to right field to lead off the fifth inning. Before the Grey Ghosts could spin around their rally caps, Roper struck out three of the next four batters he faced.

Harrisburg will have a tough test in the title game, as it will face Teutopolis junior left-handed standout Derek Thompson. The 6-foot-3, 170-pound Thompson, who’s one of the top prospects in the Class of 2011, is 8-1 with a 0.47 ERA. In 59 innings, Thompson has 93 strikeouts.