St. Charles North ekes out win over St. Charles East
One of the biggest dangers of playing in an excessively physical soccer game is that sometimes it can actually become too physical.
That's certainly what happened to St. Charles East as it traveled across town on Tuesday to face rival St. Charles North in a key Upstate Eight River Division game Tuesday night.
The Saints took down sophomore Peter Willis with 3:54 remaining in a 1-1 game and junior Alex Amro converted the subsequent penalty kick to lift the North Stars to a 2-1 victory.
It broke the North Stars' four-game losing streak against their favorite local foe, giving them their first victory against the Saints since a 2-0 win in October 2011.
"It's all about winning and we strive to win every game we play. We want to work our butts off to win these games," Amro said. "It was really important as a River Division game, because this essentially puts us in the lead in the division and we think we have to keep working the rest of season, playing like we are, and we think we have a good shot of winning the division."
Amro's goal was the seventh he's already scored this season. While he may have been one of the smallest players on the pitch, he delivered the biggest play of the night.
"I was the smallest guy out there and was having trouble winning some of those balls," he said. "It's all about the second ball though and placing yourself somewhere to get those deflections. We knew (the Saints) were a very good team so it was just stepping up to the occasion."
St. Charles North (8-2-3, 2-0-0) struck first on a cross from Jonathan Acevedo to fellow junior Dylan Mientus with 34:01 left in the second half. As soon as he connected, Mientus knew he was on target.
"It's a lot of practice of the balls from the outside," Mientus said. "And we were beating them down the line all day. I just had to get in the box and we did and I put one in."
St. Charles East (4-4-1, 2-1-0) drew even with 27:51 remaining on a Mitch Dorsey goal off a throw-in.
"I just got a touch and luckily it went in," he said. "I was proud of our team. (Our goal) came only five or six minutes after their goal and we just needed to try to score more than they did, but I was happy with how we reacted."
Saints coach Paul Jennison wasn't going to blame officials for the loss, although he had good reason to question them. The linesman seemingly flagged for offsides on the goal from Mientus, and generally whenever there is a PK situation, differing outlooks of what transpired usually reign.
"The bottom line is unfortunately if you don't take your own chances, and don't make the most of what you're given, sometimes decisions like that can have a bigger outcome than really they should," he said. "But I'm not going to blame the officials. At the end of the day we have to take care of our job and not put those guys in the middle in that position."