Tomcats hold off Saints

St. Charles East has chances, but East Aurora goaltender stands tall

By no means does the East Aurora boys soccer team like ties -- but it is something that has happened to the Tomcats quite a bit this year.

On Tuesday, for the second consecutive game against an Upstate Eight Conference team from St. Charles, the Tomcats posted a 1-1 tie -- this time against St. Charles East. They did it at East Aurora on Senior Night, where sox seniors were honored.

"We can't discredit our efforts," East Aurora coach Jason Rollins said. "We fought hard each and every minute out there."

East Aurora is now 10-6-5 overall, 4-2-3 in the conference. St. Charles East is now 9-7-2, 2-3-2.

"We are pretty disappointed," St. Charles East coach Paul Jennison said. "I thought we controlled the majority of the game."

In the 19th minute of the first half, East Aurora scored first, thanks to super freshman forward Abraham Kanneh. It was his 15th goal of the season.

"Very nice goal," Rollins said. "(Kanneh) just sort of flicked the ball, far post. He's an athlete, big, fast and strong. He finds his way around the goal nicely."

St. Charles East tied the game with 9:11 left in the first half on junior forward Jesse Nagelberg's score.

The Saints had more scoring opportunities than the Tomcats in the second half, but East Aurora goalie Norberto Sanchez prevented that from happening.

"We made some good saves at the end there," Rollins said.

"Unfortunately, we didn't put it away, but that's been the story of our season," Jennison said. "We've had chances, but we just didn't finish."