Burlington Central downs Hampshire

HAMPSHIRE -- Already coming off a third place finish over the weekend at the highly competitive St. Charles East Invitational, Burlington Central continued to build momentum towards the playoffs on Monday with a 2-1 win against conference rival Hampshire.

"We've always had the makings of a good team," said Central coach Michael Gecan. "Now we're finally getting on a roll and starting to show it."

Central (7-4-2, 2-1-1 Big Northern Conference East Division) struck early against Hampshire as Ryan Reopelle put in a header after an assist by Michael McCurdy less than five minutes into the game.

The Rockets used the wind advantage to add another goal with just under ten minutes before the break. Jordan Werrbach scored on an assist from Ryan Warner.

However, despite outplaying Hampshire (9-3-2, 3-3) most of the match, the Rockets failed to score the rest of the way leaving the Whips with a fighting chance.

"We seem to play to keep every game interesting," said Gecan. "We've had a lot of games like tonight where we've pretty much controlled the ball most of the way, but we let teams stay in it. I'd like to see us start finishing games off but give Hampshire credit for staying right in there in the second half."

Junior Makinde scored Hampshire's only goal a little more than 15 minutes into the second half.

"The first half we came out real lethargic," said Hampshire coach Patrick O'Brien. "I think the second half we showed a little more heart, but we really need to do that the entire 40 minutes." High School Soccer