Elgin blanks South Elgin to move on in soccer regional

Entering halftime of the Class 3A Streamwood regional play-in game in a scoreless tie, Elgin boys soccer coach David Borg told his team it just takes one goal to move on to play top-seeded Streamwood on Wednesday.

The No. 4 Maroons got that one goal from Joel Chavez and added some insurance from Ulisses Dominguez to earn a 2-0 victory at Memorial Field on Saturday ending the season of No. 5 South Elgin. The Storm (7-7-2) ended Elgin's (8-10-2) season last year in the same regional quarterfinal.

"We wanted that one pretty bad," Dominguez said. "We came into the locker room and talked, and we knew we needed to change a few things. That was a pretty close game."

With Elgin's defense, led by Anthony Rodriguez, helping preserve the tie, its offense found its groove in the second half outshooting South Elgin 14-7 in the final 40 minutes.

Zachary Erickson, who hit the crossbar early in the second half, had a shot on goal stopped by Storm goalie Colton Wenig (9 saves) in the 61st minute, but on the rebound Chavez raced in to put Elgin up 1-0.

"That was a big boost," Chavez said. "The game could have gone either way, and they're a good team. I felt like this game would come down to who scored first."

The insurance came in the 65th minute as Dominguez netted a Juan Flores corner kick.

South Elgin dominated the shot count in the first half 11-2 and had the game's first solid opportunity in the third minute as Isaac Perez set up a Luke Bohlin shot that was stopped by Elgin keeper Edgar Rodriguez (7 saves). Brandon Hoeg nearly put the Storm ahead with a shot off the right post in the 36th minute.

"These guys fought really hard till the end," said Storm coach Nathaniel Bowman, who will lose all but 4 players to graduation. "I'm proud of their effort all year. We just couldn't get it done today."

Elgin moves on to play Streamwood (12-5-2), which the Maroons lost 3-1 to last week. The Sabres were upset by South Elgin last year in the regional semifinals.

"We need to play with the same intensity that we played with today," Borg said. "You can throw the records out. It's like us playing Larkin or South Elgin, both teams will be playing their best."

Willowbrook 3, Bartlett 1: Tony Estanislao scored Bartlett's only goal as Willowbrook eliminated the Hawks from the postseason in this Class 3A Schaumburg regional play-in game. Marcus Singleton had the assist and Jake Hasenstein made 4 saves in goal for Bartlett.