Maroons move to regional final
ROSELLE -- The Elgin Maroons have a chance at their first-ever postseason title after defeating Hoffman Estates 3-2 in the semifinals of the Lark Park Class 2A Regional on Wednesday night.
The fifth-seeded Maroons (11-9) will face the host Lancers at 6 p.m. Saturday in the regional title game.
(Tyler Stoffel/Special to The Courier News)
Fourth-seeded Lake Park defeated Rolling Meadows 3-0 on Wednesday.
"It's already been a good season for us and we'd sure like to keep it going," said Elgin coach Dave Borg. "It's nice to get the win tonight, but we won the first game last year, too.
"It doesn't really mean much until you get that next one. We are not going to be happy until we can bring home a plaque."
Joel Perez scored a pair of goals for the Maroons, his 11th and 12th of the season, while Omar Dina scored the decisive third goal.
Elgin led 3-1 after Dina's breakaway goal with 22:48 left to play. However, the Maroons had to hold on for dear life the rest of the way.
Hoffman Estates pulled to within 3-2 with 16:35 left in the game on a goal by Kyle Patterson.
The Hawks continued to step up the pressure and had six scoring chances in the final 15 minutes of play. But each time the play broke down.
"It's a good thing we got that insurance goal," said Borg. "Because (Hoffman) stepped it up there at the end and played like they wanted it more than us.
"We were just trying to hang on. We've already lost some games like this where we couldn't hold on the lead and we didn't want to lose another one."
Perez opened the scoring with an unassisted goal in the seventh minute of the game.
He later broke a 1-1 tie with 3:04 left in the first half on a header off a crossing pass from Dina.
"We got some good offensive production from Joel and Omar," said Borg. "They were really working well together.
"We had some moments of greatness tonight, but we also had our share of breakdowns. Hopefully we can correct those by the time we play again on Saturday." High School Soccer: Elgin 3, Hoffman Estates 2
