St. Charles E. hands Burlington 1st loss
The St. Charles East boys soccer team had its share of opportunities in the first half of Monday’s St. Charles East Tournament match against Burlington Central at Norris Stadium.
The problem was that the Saints weren’t able to convert on any of its chances and found themselves deadlocked in a scoreless match with the Rockets.
St. Charles East (4-4) came out with a big flourish to open the second half though, scoring four times in less than 12 minutes, and cruised the rest of the way to a 4-0 victory.
In the process, the Saints handed Burlington Central (7-1-4) its first loss of the season.
“Our big problem this year has been capitalizing,” St. Charles East coach Paul Jennison said. “At halftime, before I said even one word, they said ‘We know we didn’t finish coach,’ and it was as simple as that. It was good to find the back of the net and a good opener for our home tournament.”
Zach Cramer got things going for the Saints when he punched in the go-ahead goal off a corner kick in the 45th minute.
“We had been creating opportunities all game so it was huge to finally put one in,” Cramer said. “We’ve had some rough games lately so it was good to come out and get a win. We got it done with a total team effort and I couldn’t ask for more from my team.”
The Saints seemingly received a shot of confidence while the Rockets encountered a bit of a letdown after the first goal.
“They got the first goal and my boys got a little deflated and gave up three really quick ones,” Burlington Central coach Michael Gecan said. “They started fighting again, but it was too late.”
St. Charles East’s junior midfielder Brian Gielow scored his first of two goals on the night to put the Saints ahead 2-0 in the 50th minute. He dribbled from near the corner and blasted a shot into the opposite corner of the net.
“We seemed to be spreading the ball to the outsides and crossing it and then getting to the end of it and putting it in,” Gielow said. “I thought we played extremely well today.”
Burlington Central had a great chance of breaking the shutout with 16:21 remaining, but Moter Deng’s penalty kick was rejected by Saints’ goalkeeper Mike Novotny.
“Realistically, they’re club kids and we’re farm kids, so it was good learning experience,” Gecan said. “They did a great job and our guys had a little blunder there where they got down on themselves a bit and finally regrouped, but it was too late.”
The Saints hope the victory provides momentum for the remainder of the tournament.
“Tonight we got a lot of things right that we didn’t get right in previous occasions,” Jennison said. “”I think it would be very good for the team to do well here.”