Elgin edges Crystal Lake South

The way this game began, it seemed like the goals would never end for the Crystal Lake South Gators’ boys soccer team.

The Gators (11-7) fell to the Elgin Maroons by a score of 4-3 at Memorial Field at Elgin High School in nonconferencr actio on Thursday evening. Despite opening up the game with 2 goals within 2 minutes, both by Charlie Oliver, Maroons head coach Dave Borg saw that his team took control after that.

“I don’t think (the Maroons) realized how fast that kid was, we’ve talked about it over the last couple of days,” Borg said of Oliver. “Once we settled down, we were fine. I think for the most part, we controlled the tempo of the game at midfield. We were happy.”

The Maroons (8-5-6) answered Oliver’s 2 goals with one of their own, scored by Jonathan Sandoval with 36:52 left in the half. Crystal Lake South’s Devon Ross extended his team’s lead with a goal about a minute later to put the Gators up 3-1 but the Maroons would eventually tie the game at 3 with goals by Julian Villasenor and Samuel Escobar, putting an end to a wild first half of play.

“I can’t say that we’ve been habitually falling behind (at the start of games),” said Borg. “That was an anomaly what happened out there today, we didn’t expect that.”

After the fantastic first half comeback by the Maroons, it was another Escobar goal with 17:16 left to play that would seal the 4-3 victory. Borg was happy to get the win at such a crucial time in the season.

“We’re glad to get out of here with a win before tournament time, and it’s nice to see the kids come back from being two goals down,” he said.

Crystal Lake South head coach Brian Allen knew that his team lost focus after having such a comfortable lead to start the game, but the focus just might not have been there at all for the Gators.

“Things broke down before we even got to the game, to be perfectly honest,” said Allen. “We weren’t focused on the bus ride, we had four of our key players messing around. If they decide to play when they want to, it’s going to show. We got complacent. It was the second time we lost 4-3 in the last week, and that’s not going to get it done if we want a 3-peat of conference and advance in the regionals.”

Both teams continue their schedule on Tuesday against their division rivals as Elgin will take on Larkin at Memorial Field and Crystal Lake South will host Jacobs.