Boys soccer: Jacobs downs Dundee-Crown

With a lot at stake, a fast start was critical for Jacobs' boys soccer team Tuesday.

Noah Melick scored 2 of the Golden Eagles' 3 first-half goals and they held on to defeat Dundee-Crown, 3-1, in Fox Valley Conference Valley Division action in Carpentersville.

The Golden Eagles stayed in the race for the Valley Division title in a battle of one-loss teams on D-C's senior day.

Melick put the Eagles on top to stay less than 3 minutes into the game, off an assist from Dan Buirge. After the Chargers got some chances, the Eagles surged again, scoring twice in less than 4 minutes.

Nick Voss scored on a rebound in the 23rd minute, and shortly thereafter Melick added his second goal. He took a nice feed from Colin Walsh and put it in from point-blank range.

The early goal helped the Eagles seize the momentum early.

"It turned us around," Voss said. "They got a lot of corners over there, then once we put one away, we got more chances and we finished them."

"We knew we'd get our chances ultimately over 80 minutes," said Jacobs coach Anthony Cappello. "We took our chances early and it worked out good."

Jacobs had a chance to add to the lead early in the second half, but couldn't finish. Ean Wilson missed just high after taking a pass from Melick, Chris Rigby hit the crossbar from 40 yards away, and it took a great save to stop a missile by Daniel Kim.

D-C's defense tightened up in the second half, holding the Eagles off the scoreboard. Freddy Martinez finally got the Chargers on the board with 9 minutes left, beating Jacobs' keeper Ethan Pickering from deep on the right side.

D-C coach Rey Vargas was shocked by his team's slow start in the rivalry game.

"We came out flat, plain and simple," he said. "I thought we had a little more energy in the second half, I thought we were connecting better and getting better opportunities, but you can't give up 3 goals in the first half and expect a different result. This is not my team, and I know they can come out and do better."

Until Martinez's goal, the Chargers' best chance came early in the first half when Julian Ajroja stole the ball deep in Jacobs' end and fired a quick shot at Pickering, who made the save.