Boys soccer: Keith Country Day eliminates Elgin Academy
At halftime of a basketball game or an upcoming school assembly, Elgin Academy's boys soccer team will once again celebrate the season just ended.
But any such joy Tuesday night was overshadowed by having run into the offensive juggernaut that Rockford's Keith Country Day resembled in a 9-1 loss in the Class 1A Aurora Central Catholic boys soccer sectional semifinal.
Led by Mitar Petrovic, a foreign exchange student from Montenegro, the Cougars (19-4) got two quick goals in each half, initially taking a commanding 4-0 halftime lead and ultimately shaving four minutes off the game clock under the IHSA 7-goal mercy rule.
The main achievement for Elgin Academy (8-7-1) - fresh off winning the school's first regional plaque in boys soccer and only the third such postseason hardware in school history - was avoiding a shutout as Karl Rauschenberger finished a stellar Drew Wilmington cross to make it a 6-1 deficit with 29:15 left in regulation.
"It was nice to not have to remember our last game as a shutout loss," admitted Rauschenberger, who scored the Hilltoppers' last 3 goals giving him 11 for the year. "They're a good team, one of if not the best we've played. I'm still proud of the way we ended the season. It's been kind of an unreal run. We lost several early, strengthened our defense and started putting things together late."
Winning six games within a nine-match stretch is what helped Elgin Academy have a winning record and included two playoff victories. That's where the No. 7-seed Hilltoppers avenged a 6-goal regular-season loss to No. 3 Harvest Christian with a 5-2 victory followed by a 3-0 regional title game shutout of Genoa-Kingston, the regional host and No. 2 seed out of 10 in the upper half of the ACC sectional.
"It doesn't feel very good right now, but it still feels good to win a regional title," EA coach Kevin Talbot said. "Especially when there hasn't been a lot of that at our school. We began the year with a game plan and stuck to it even when we didn't see many rewards. I'm proud of what they did overall."
Petrovic scored 2 goals in the opening 12:43 and Keith got two more in a 3 minute, 22 second span for a 4-0 lead at intermission. Just 23 seconds into the second half, Petrovic scored again and then made it 6-0 after 7:50.
"Not being shut out is definitely a small positive, but unfortunately we came out too slow to start the game and seemed to be on defense too much," Wilmington said. "We just didn't get off to as strong a start as we've had in the last half of the season. Going further than any (previous EA soccer) group is an accomplishment and this good run is something to celebrate."
"We came into the season with few expectations," senior Patrick Westerhoff added. "As seniors knowing this was our last chance, we started to seize the opportunity and finished the year well. I believe we've left the young guys and future Hilltoppers something to shoot for."