Boys soccer: St. Charles East knocks off South Elgin

Having lost just once in the last eight games, South Elgin was hoping to fuel its momentum for the postseason by surprising No. 9-rated St. Charles East.

Unfortunately for the Storm, the Saints continued their eight-match unbeaten march with a 4-1 victory in Saturday's Upstate Eight crossover meeting.

East, which improved to 11-4-2, endured one-goal losses earlier to No. 2 Schaumburg and No. 3 St. Charles North as a .500 ballclub before developing the type of chemistry that has produced a 7-0-1 ledger for the last three weeks. The defeat dipped South Elgin to 6-5-1 after starting the year 0-3.

"Now that we've gotten used to each other, we're really playing well," said Evan DiLeonardi, who accounted for the Saints' first and fourth goals.

DiLeonardi got on the end of a Chris Edgerton free kick to blast a 12-yarder past Storm starting goalie Fernando Rivera just 1:24 prior to halftime. The second half was missing only 5:19 when Brandon DiOrio's throw-in bounced past players from both sides before Zack Nelson sent it into the back of the net with a 4-yarder near the left post.

However, that 2-0 Saints lead lasted only 34 seconds as South Elgin's Jimmy Kelleher dribbled past one defender and faked out another in order to drive home a 21-yard rocket past East's Kevin Cook, who took over from Pierce Jones.

East responded by turning up the intensity on offense which led to a collision in the penalty box and a penalty kick which Mitch Dorsey converted with 28:12 remaining. South Elgin's Alex Kirby had to be helped off the field on that play.

Less than two minutes later, the Storm was whistled for a handling the ball violation and DiLeonardi parked that penalty kick opportunity for the 3-goal advantage. South Elgin goalie Brian Dykstra made some noteworthy tips or catches to keep the Saints from adding to the lead.

I'm most proud of how we never gave up," Storm coach Nathaniel Bowman said. "We got down two goals, answered right away; we had players get hurt in both halves, we kept battling; they got a couple PKs, yet we didn't throw in the towel which would have been easy to do."

East notched 21 of its 28 overall attempts, including 9 of 12 shots on goal, during the second half. Making the offensive dominance more noticeable was the fact 7 of South Elgin's 9 tries, including 3 of 4 on goal, occurred in the first half.

"Even though we graduated so many players, I thought the talent has always been there this season, we just needed to figure out the right chemistry," Dorsey said "This run (of success) is satisfying in terms of proving the doubters wrong about us."