Jacobs races past Hampshire
Losing 13 seniors from last season’s team, not much was expected from the Jacobs boys soccer team in 2011.
The Golden Eagles are proving the skeptics wrong early in the campaign.
Led by 2 first-half goals from Mario Rako, the Golden Eagles cruised to a 3-1 win over District 300 rival Hampshire in Fox Valley Conference crossover action in Algonquin Thursday night.
With the win, Jacobs moved to 7-3 overall.
“Everybody thought we wouldn’t be very good because we lost so many good players from last year,” said Rako. “We are proving people wrong. We are a good team and we are getting better. ”
Rako ensured the Golden Eagles got off to a good start Thursday night.
Racing through the Hampshire defense, the speedy junior midfielder scored with only 2 minutes, 39 seconds elapsed to give the Golden Eagles an early cushion.
Missing some chances midway through the first half, Rako gave Jacobs a 2-0 lead with his second unassisted goal of the half with 4:29 remaining before intermission.
Erik Nava gave the Golden Eagles a 3-0 lead with 1:40 left before half. That was the last goal Jacobs would score on the night.
“I like the way we started the game,” said Jacobs coach AJ Cappello. “We were very sharp and had some very good shots on goal in the first half. We had good touches and good movement on offense. We did have some chances in the second
half, but sometimes the ball just doesn’t go in the net. The effort by our guys was very good.”
Hampshire (2-8), which was outshot by Jacobs 13-6, finally scored with only 5.3 seconds remaining in the contest when Jared Butler scored to break the shutout.
“We have played some very good teams like Cary-Grove, Huntley and Crystal Lake South and we have always got plenty of shots on goal,” said Hampshire coach Jon Gosling. “Just like tonight against Jacobs; we just can’t finish. But we are very young and that happens with an inexperienced team. We like the challenge of playing good teams. We won’t back down from anybody. We should be all right when we play teams in our division.”