Neuqua Valley comes back to beat South Elgin
The Neuqua Valley boys soccer team had plenty of scoring chances but found itself trailing 1-0 early in the second half against host South Elgin.
However, the Wildcats wouldn’t be denied their fourth straight win by scoring 3 unanswered goals to defeat the Storm 3-1 in Upstate Eight Conference Valley Division play on Tuesday.
“I thought we had a lot of nice chances throughout the game,” said Neuqua’s Jake Loncar, who scored the game-winner. “At halftime, we just said we had to start finishing those chances. We went down a goal, but we still felt we were in control of the game.”
Neuqua Valley (7-3-0, 3-1-0) had a 4-1 advantage in shots on goal in the first half and an 18-10 advantage in total shots for the game, but the Storm (3-4-1, 1-3-1) took the 1-0 lead with 34:30 on the clock in the first half when JC Lujan put the ball through the leaping hands of Wildcats’ goalkeeper Andrew Fadanelli (4 saves). Nathan Fisher assisted that goal.
After a couple missed chances by Neuqua Valley, Xavi Ortiz netted the equalizer off a Ryan Ross assist with 23:58 left on the clock.
With 12:39 on the clock, Loncar scored his fifth goal of the season off a beautiful attempt as he got a shot off a free ball in the top left corner of the box placing the ball in the left side of the net. Loncar’s shot came with him on the ground on what he called a “half-bicycle volley” shot.
“We had the ball up there in the final third, and I saw an opening,” Loncar said. “I just kept my eyes on it and went for it.”
About 6 minutes later, Austin Flatt raced in to finish a Manushe Nyamunduro shot that was going to go wide for the final goal of the game.
Adam Smith had the bulk of the Storm’s scoring chances, but 4 of the team’s 10 shots were on target.
“Overall, it was as usual,” Storm coach Nathaniel Bowman said. “We played excellent soccer through most of the game, but we just struggled on finishing our shots.”
Storm keeper Richard Groenewegen (5 saves) played a big role in keeping the game scoreless through the first half as he made 2 great diving stops in the game’s first 24 minutes.