Cary-Grove edges Grant for tourney title

Cary-Grove made it a three-game winning streak to net itself a Grant Invitational championship on Saturday morning as the Trojans topped host Grant 3-1 for the championship in Fox Lake on Saturday morning.

The Trojans lost its season opener to highly regarded Rockford Boylan, but they have since been able to get past Grayslake North, Harvard and now Grant in the tournament this past week.

"We use this for a barometer and to sort out where people will play," Cary-Grove coach Mark Olson said. "It's competition for us, and it allows us to work on some things. It gives us, more importantly, a game on turf where everyone seems to play in the postseason."

Cary-Grove, which plays its home games on natural grass, took some time to score. Grant came out with a good defensive effort and stayed right with the Trojans for most of the game.

"We're getting better, but I thought we struggled a bit in this one," Olson said. "You have to give Grant credit with the way they played. We finally figured it out and adjusted to what they were doing. We had some nice finishes and possessed the ball pretty well."

The Trojans' Luis Lemus scored the first goal off a service from Josh Gratz in the 10th minute for a 1-0 lead.

Cary-Grove got a second goal in the 42nd minute when John O'Brien took advantage of a Grant mistake in the back for his first goal of the season.

"It was nice to get it," O'Brien said. "I wouldn't have gotten it if it wasn't for my teammates, who set things up for me."

Grant (1-3, 1-2) recovered for a goal that cut the lead to 2-1 three minutes later as Felipe Nolasco took a ball away from a defender near the top of the box and chipped it over Trojans keeper Ethan Csoka.

Cary-Grove got an insurance goal in the 72nd minute when Maxwell Green scored on a header off a cross from Casey Charbonneau.

Grant gave up the final goal while pushing forward in hopes of tying the match.

"It was a good game until the end, when (Cary-Grove) got the dagger," Grant coach Bryan Mark said. "We made some high pressure to create our goal. I thought we played pretty well. We'll take the positives and learn from it.

"This one, we had to play more to the feet and our 50/50 balls need to be better. We need to get stronger and possess the ball more."

• In the other match, Grayslake North was right in it for a full 80 minutes and played to a scoreless tie through regulation. But Harvard (5-4, 1-2) won on penalty kicks 5-3 for a 1-0 victory on Saturday morning.

The Knights (4-2, 1-2) had most of the possession and dominated with the better of the play during regulation.

"I still think we're a really good team," Grayslake North coach Adame DeCaluwe said.

Grayslake North had a several chances but couldn't quite finish them, as shots found both the crossbar and the post.

"Here (against Harvard), we had quality," DeCaluwe said. "It was a matter in the final third . . . who wants to score, who wants to take shots? I think they were a bit too concerned in missing a shot, then passing it - and no one takes a shot. We had a lot of ball possession, but not enough going to goal. I was pleased with our performance up to this point of the tournament."

Marian Central 2, Wauconda 0: Playing on the new turf has added some quickness to the game for the Wauconda's boys soccer team. The Bulldogs were able to start practicing and playing on it this past week and they'd won their first two matches but came up short 2-0 to Marian Central in Bulldogs Invitational play Saturday afternoon.

The Hurricanes won the tournament, going 3-0 and improving to 4-1 overall. The Bulldogs are now 3-4.

"It was a step up from last week with a couple of good wins," said Wauconda coach Patrick Heckmann after a disappointing start of the season at the Rockford Auburn Invitational. "Their keeper (Jake Higgins) gobbled everything up. We kind of got away from our game, playing possess and going more with kickball. (Marian Central) had good pressure on us.

"You get true rolls out here. There's a little bit of a bigger bounce on the first one. Obviously, we do like the turf and we'll get used to it with the speed of the play."

The Hurricanes got their first goal from Connor Hull off a Josh Smith assist in the 19th minute. Patrick Majzner got the other goal in the 54th minute off a pass from Gavin Sell.

Marian Central keeper Higgins earned a clean sheet with 7 stops against Wauconda.

"We got two goals and kept (Wauconda) off the scoreboard," Marian Central coach Jim Colvin said. "This turf speeds things up a bit. There's no room for error out here. (Wauconda) does push forward fast. For us to control the tempo was important. We wanted to earn the ball back quickly."