Second-half flurry lifts Saints past Storm
ST. CHARLES -- Early in the second half it looked like visiting South Elgin was poised to pull off the upset over St. Charles East on Saturday in an Upstate Eight Conference soccer match.
The Storm took a 2-1 lead with 31:40 left when junior Bartosz Mazurek broke free for a goal.
The Saints, however, responded with four unanswered goals to secure a 5-2 win.
"We haven't really had a game when we've had more than three (goals)," said Saints coach Paul Jennison. "Once we settled down and we picked up the momentum it started to turn, and I told the guys at halftime 'It's 1-1 and we haven't even started.' "
East tied the game at 2 less than a minute after the Storm had scored to take the lead when Jeff Jones found the back of the net. Shortly after, Josh Atwell headed one in off a throw-in from Chris Tomek to give East its first lead of the match at 3-2.
"We addressed some things at halftime -- making some runs and doing that prior to the ball being served and we did that and it equated to a goal. But then little details started to elude us," said South Elgin coach Mark Neville. "They smelled blood in the water and they attacked where we just sat back and let that happen."
The Saints' Ben Fowler scored off a rebound to make it 4-2 before Robert Soutar scored his second goal of the match on a header off a corner kick.
The Storm scored its initial goal when junior Mathew Shipon connected from 20 yards out. South Elgin is now 5-10-1 and 1-7-1 in the UEC, while East moved to 9-5-6 and 3-1-3 in conference play.
"The last three games we tied Neuqua, beat Waubonsie and won today so it's been a great comeback from our loss to (St. Charles) North a week ago," Jennison said.
Larkin 2, Bartlett 1 -- The Royals moved a step closer to capturing their first Upstate Eight Conference title in program history with a win over the Hawks in league play.
Larkin (17-1, 7-1) has two conference matches remaining next week against St. Charles North (Tuesday) and St. Charles East (Thursday). Neuqua Valley (6-1-1) is second in the standings.
"We won and we are another step closer to the conference championship," Royals coach Ken Hall said.
Against Bartlett, Danny Hinterlong and Francisco Bueno scored second-half goals for the Maroons. Carson McFadden had an assist and goalie Raziel Somarriba had five saves.
Elgin 2, Lake Park 2 -- The Maroons scored a tie against the Lancers in Upstate Eight Conference play. Omar Jasso and Erwin Hernandez both tallied goals for the Maroons (3-13-1, 1-7-1).
Huntley 1, Crystal Lake South 0 -- The Red Raiders picked up a victory in a non-conference match on a goal by Nico Carbonara in the second half. Huntley (8-5-2) goalkeeper Kevin Montelongo had 11 saves.
Streamwood 2, Schaumburg 1 -- The Sabres bounced back from a loss to Larkin earlier in the week with a win over the Saxons in non-conference play. Streamwood (14-4-3) counted goals from Oscar Campos and Alex Aranda. Goalie Alex Perez had four saves.
Sycamore 4, Burlington Central 0 -- The Rockets were blanked in a non-conference match. Goalie Kyle DeRaedt had 11 saves for Central (8-10-2).
G-K 3, Westminster Christian 0 -- Genoa-Kingston counted goals from Luis Mendoza, Eric Buffington and Zach Dean in this non-conference match. G-K improved to 11-5 overall.
