Kruse, Crystal Lake South upend Dundee-Crown

Crystal Lake South goalkeeper Dalton Kruse realized playing against defending Fox Valley Conference Valley Division champion Dundee-Crown in Carpentersville Thursday afternoon wouldn't be easy.

But in the end Kruse collected 3 crucial saves in the final 8 minutes as the visiting Gators staved off a late comeback attempt by the Chargers to post a 2-1 win.

"I knew D-C would be tough," said Kruse. "They come at you hard the whole game. The last 10 minutes, they came up with some great shots. You have to stay focused and communicate."

South coach Brian Allen lauded Kruse's effort.

"I wish we could have scored a few more goals to take the pressure off Dalton," said Allen. "Dalton was outstanding. He showed a lot of composure."

The Gators (10-4, 2-0) got off to a great start with 2 first-half goals.

Ryan Russman's header off a perfect pass from Andrew Grabowski gave the Gators a 1-0 advantage with 24:03 left in the first half.

South took a 2-0 lead into the halftime locker room on a goal by Grabowski with 4:30 remaining in the first half.

The Chargers, who had only 3 shots on goal in the first half, pelted Kruse with tough shots during the final 40 minutes of the game. D-C got on the scoreboard with 9:27 remaining when Ivan Sanchez scored off a nice feed from Jason Horcher to make the score 2-1.

Less than a minute later, the Chargers (9-5-1, 0-1) threatened to tie the score but Kruse's diving save of a 10-yard shot from Andrew Janikowski with 8:40 left preserved the lead for the Gators.

"D-C is an outstanding team," said Allen. "They are the defending conference champion and we knew they would be tough. It was a very physical game with a good ebb and flow. Getting two early goals in the first half was crucial. It was good to play with the lead. Our defense bent but didn't break, It was a very good team win."

D-C senior goalie Jose Gonzalez, like his counter part Kruse, was outstanding in the net with 9 saves.

Charger coach Rey Vargas liked his team's effort in the second half.

'We certainly dug ourselves a huge hole in the first half," said Vargas. "We talked at halftime about creating more scoring chances in the second half. We played much better in the second half."