Larkin has enough to blank Elgin
If you had received a game's assessment from Larkin's Hector Mendoza without him telling you his Royals took down Elgin 1-0 at a slick, damp Memorial Field Thursday, you would have never thought Larkin won its big crosstown soccer showdown.
"We played awful," said Mendoza, who had cousins and friends from his club team on the Elgin bench voicing his name throughout. "I'm not even happy for this win. We played awful."
Mendoza didn't sugarcoat matters, even if it was he who scored the game-winner in the first half against his rival he may never play again. His deciding goal wasn't even something he was intentionally trying to do, as it masked the Royals' (5-9-4, 1-3-2) problems on defense, offense, passing, among other things.
After being tripped up on a breakaway down the right sideline with 16 seconds left in the first half, Mendoza launched a free kick from nearly 30 yards out that hit just near the right corner of the crossbar, which had enough to sneak in with 10.3 left.
"I was just looking for a cross, honestly. I was looking for back post and it just went in I guess," Mendoza said.
But to Royals coach Ken Hall and the season Larkin's had, a win's a win.
"We've had so many games this year where we played really well and lost, I'll take a game where we play really bad and won. We haven't had many of those this year so I'll take it," said Hall.
Larkin did win advantages on shots 14-11, free kicks 6-2 and corners 5-1, but the second half seemed to be all Elgin's as the Maroons put more defenders back which allowed 7 shots on goal, goals that could have been if Elgin (6-9, 0-5) had connected on a few point-blank chances as well as some crosses.
"I think the second half we outplayed them," Maroons' coach Dave Borg said. "We're happy and tonight's lineup was completely new. We didn't play any seniors until the second half, we only played three of them. This was predominantly freshman and sophomores so you got a little glimpse of the future. Hopefully we'll get (Larkin) again (in the postseason)."
Without midfielder Joel Chavez due to injury, juniors Anthony Rodriguez, Jonathan Morales, Herman Arce and Carlos Ayala and freshman Jesus Lopez put forth shots on Larkin goaltender Leo Perez (2 saves) until Juan Flores, Richard Sosa and Zach Erickson stepped things up in the second half along the sidelines.
"I feel we started off kind of nervous, with all the underclassmen starting," Flores said. "With Sosa coming in and myself, felt like we gave a little bit more confidence to the team, I think that helped out a little more."
Erickson had a chance to tie on a shot from the far left corner of the box in the 51st minute that went to no avail and no one was there for his great cross 7 minutes later. Rodriguez also had shot deflected by Perez and Flores shot off the subsequent rebound was stuffed again by Perez.
"They widened the field out and we got a couple of crosses, very easily this could have been our game," said Borg. "The fact that it was wet, they couldn't really get their footing. (We) saw a lot of weak kicks. Take my hat off (to Larkin), they got the one play and that's that."