Late score lifts West Aurora to tie with Elgin

West Aurora boys soccer coach Joe Sustersic admittedly felt his team was "frazzled" after Elgin's Jonathan Ramirez converted a penalty kick to give the Maroons a 3-2 lead midway through the second half.

After turning away several decent Elgin scoring opportunities over the next few minutes, the Blackhawks (1-4-3) finally made the most of their best second-half chance with the clock winding down Tuesday night in Aurora.

Senior defender Riley Roos scored his first goal of the season off a crossing pass from Josue Rodriguez with 8.7 seconds remaining as the Blackhawks salvaged a 3-3 tie in Upstate Eight Conference crossover action.

"The last minute or so, I told my other center-back to pinch in because I'm stepping up (to help offensively)," said Roos. "I got lucky."

"It was nice to get a tie out of this," said Sustersic, whose team dropped three 1-goal games at last weekend's Morton Invitational.

Elgin (7-2-2), which trailed 2-0 after the first 11-plus minutes, tallied 3 unanswered goals and appeared to have seized control of the match throughout the second half until the final seconds.

"We can't let that happen," said Maroons coach Dave Borg. "To get to the next level, we've got to really batten down the hatches at that point. I think our guys thought that the flag was going to go up. They thought it was going to be offsides. It was very close but that's on us.

"I respect them (the Blackhawks) for coming back," added Borg. "We came back, too. It was a good match."

West Aurora struck first as sophomore Emanuel Acosta chipped a shot over the outstretched arms of Elgin freshman goalkeeper Martin Jimenez Estrada (5 saves) just 7 minutes into the match.

Nearly 4 minutes later, the Blackhawks extended their lead to 2-0 on sophomore Pablo Gaytan's first goal of the season before the Maroons quickly retaliated.

Sophomore Jesus Lopez set up junior midfielder Cesar Gomez, who lofted a shot over the head of Blackhawks keeper Robert Marquez (13 saves) as the Maroons sliced the deficit to 2-1.

"We let them right back into the game with that goal a minute after we scored," said Sustersic. "Then they brought it at us in the second half."

Junior forward Jonathan Ramirez served as the centerpiece during the Maroons' rally, assisting on Pedro Hernandez' tying goal with 32:13 left in the second half before beating Marquez on a low penalty kick with 21:33 remaining.

"They pushed up so many guys compared to the other teams we've played," Roos said of the Maroons. "It was a rude awakening for us defensive-wise."

Elgin outshot West Aurora 16-6 over the final 40 minutes.

"They're a very good team," said Sustersic. "They're very offensive-minded and they put a lot of pressure on you. We were fortunate."

"We wanted to come out with a victory but we didn't get a loss," said Borg. "That's the key."