Kaneland blanks Hampshire for regional title

Carl Thorejornson said he has been playing soccer since second grade, which makes the sophomore like most of the players on Kaneland's newly crowned Class 2A Burlington Central regional championship team.

Only Thorejornson played that soccer in Norway - which makes him quite unique.

Thorejornson's soccer skills also stood out Friday in the regional championship game with Hampshire. He assisted on the Knights' first goal and scored the second for a 2-0 victory that netted the Knights their third regional title in the past five years.

Kaneland (13-8-2), now 12-4 in its last 16 games after starting the year 1-4-1, will play Wheaton Academy (20-1-1) - an 8-3 winner over Fenton Friday - in the Class 2A Hampshire sectional semifinals at 7 p.m. Tuesday.

"This is huge for everybody," Thorejornson said. "This is nothing like Norway. I like it (America). Very good."

Thorejornson moved in a month and a half ago. He had to sit out the first 30 days of the season because of IHSA rules.

He's only played in five games for the Knights but has made a huge impact. He's now up to 4 goals and 4 assists in the 5 games, and that doesn't count a second goal Friday called back on an offsides call.

Thorejornson assisted on the first goal with 25 minutes left. After some fancy footwork to dribble through at least four defenders near the end line, Thorejornson crossed the ball to Andres Tovar who gave the Knights a 1-0 lead.

"It was amazing," Kaneland coach Scott Parillo said of Thorejornson's assist. "We had a lot of chances in the first half. We said we have to keep pressing and it will eventually go in. And it did."

Fifteen minutes later Ivan Bohorquez, who controlled much of the play in the middle of the field, stole a ball and dribbled in, drawing the defense and then passing to Thorejornson who made it a 2-0 game.

Hampshire (9-14-2) played Kaneland to a 0-0 draw in the first half. Michael Boutin gave the Whip-Purs a couple of their best chances on corner kicks, and late in the half Boutin blasted two shots toward the top left corner that Kaneland keeper Andrew Mathys punched away.

"We went into halftime and said we have to play better and we didn't," Hampshire coach John Gosling said. "We're normally a second-half team. We just didn't get it done."

Hampshire didn't have many chances at all in the second half, and when it did the Knights' back line of Mark Dhom, Jack Wolf, Jason Carlquist and Matthew Gombar cleared the ball.

"I'm proud of the boys for fighting especially against some of the bigger schools we played," Gosling said. "We're getting there. We still have to do better against some of the schools maybe we should beat. We're going to graduate a good group and we've got some work to do going forward."