Brother Rice’s Cristian Morales is an expert in the art of what experts call “soccer speed.”

The senior forward has that elusive next gear — the capability to rarely slow down or falter with the ball at his feet. In the blink of an eye, he makes it look smooth and effortless.

“I’ve always had that ability to get by people and get at my top speed pretty quickly,” Morales said. “I like to take people on one-on-one and make that deep run into the box.”

That run kept going Saturday for Morales, who scored two goals for the Crusaders in a 4-2 win over Bremen in the Class 2A St. Rita Regional championship game in Chicago.

Morales scored his team-best 15th and 16th goals of the season for top-seeded Brother Rice (17-3-2), which won its 11th consecutive game. It also was par for his course.

“Scoring is something I have always been able to do,” Morales said. “It comes out of the nonstop practice we go through. I train all of the time for moments like this.

“Now, it has become almost routine.”

The Crusaders could get used to this again as routine, winning their first regional title since 2009. They play at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday in the Lemont Sectional semifinals against Public League program Washington (12-6-1), which is seeded fourth.

Bremen (8-9-2) stormed back Saturday from a 2-0 halftime deficit with goals by senior defender Alex Esparza and senior midfielder Sinuhe Meza.

Morales, however, smashed home the winner in the 57th minute off a pass from junior defender Julian Zambrano.

“I had a pretty good look, but then I saw Cristian up top,” Zambrano said. “He is our main target. If I see him, I am always going to play the ball to him because he’s a much better finisher.

“I trust him more than I trust myself.”

Zambrano then put the game away with a goal in the 72nd minute.

Morales, who lives in Mount Greenwood, has been a soccer aficionado since age 3. His father Ed, who grew up in Mexico, played at Illinois-Chicago.

“Everybody always falls in love with the game at a specific moment in their life,” Morales said. “For me, it was scoring a game-winning goal when I was in middle school.

“I just kept going from there, and it has been fun ever since.”

Morales also scored in the third minute on a header. Junior midfielder Salvador Perez made it 2-0, converting on a service off a corner kick by senior midfielder Bruce Harris.

“We let off the gas a little bit,” Morales said. “We had to get back, retrace our steps and figure out what we were doing right.”

If Harris is the conductor of the attack, Morales is the constant threat, with his speed and athleticism putting opposing defenses under duress.

“We have a really good friendship, on and off the field,” Harris said. “A lot of times in practice, we play on the same team.

“We came in together, and now this is the moment where we just get it out there.”

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The Crusaders are 12-0-1 since a Sept. 14 loss to St. Laurence.

“We got tired of losing games we should have won,” Harris said. “Brother Rice used to be really good at soccer, and then we fell off for a while.

“We didn’t want to be at the bottom of the category or the laughingstock of the Catholic League.”

Morales, who has aspirations of playing in college, wants to get Brother Rice back to state. The Crusaders are seeking their first sectional title since finishing fourth in 2003.

“We started winning big Catholic League games this year, and the momentum just built from there,” he said. “What I’m going to remember most is playing with these guys and building chemistry.

“I am having so much fun.”

Patrick Z. McGavin is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.