Boys soccer: Jacobs tops Elgin in regional final

Konrad Wasilewski watched the Elgin boys soccer team take an early lead 6 minutes into Saturday's Class 3A regional final in Algonquin and the senior forward knew that soon it was gut check time.

But when Wasilewski answered the bell and began a Jacobs scoring binge that resulted in a 6-2 victory over the Maroons for its first regional championship since 2011, he'd have his say when it was all done.

Wasilewski knotted things up in the 15th minute on a feed from Noah Melick, and he capped Jacobs' scoring in the 51st minute, a series of 6-straight goals. Daniel Kim, Krutis Pries, Chris Rigby and Gabriel Swarthout were on that party that would lift Jacobs (17-5) to Wednesday's 7 p.m. Class 3A Huntley sectional semifinal against McHenry, which cost Jacobs an outright Fox Valley Conference Valley Division title last week.

"It was a gut check," Wasilewski said. "It wasn't over. This was our game, our last game on our home field, and we had to just take advantage of it."

Jacobs seized momentum as goals 2 and 3 came within a span of 4 minutes. Kim, who was positioned near the far left post, headed a Melick cross to the far upper right corner of the goal in the 34th minute while 4 minutes later, Kurtis Preis tucked one past the right post thanks to a rebound from a Nick Voss post shot to make it 3-1.

"I know every single time Noah has it on the sideline I know he's going to be the guy," Kim said. "I was hoping the ball would get to me and it did and I had to make something great happen. After that, it was a game-changer because it was goal after goal and we knew we were the better team at that point and we just needed reassurance of that."

Elgin (14-8-2) ended the run with 25 minutes left on a Cesar Gomez goal but didn't get anything from forward Jonathan Ramirez, who was doubled throughout. And despite a 20-15 shot advantage for Elgin, Jacobs tallied 9 corner kicks and when things got testy in the second half, the Eagles stayed composed unlike years past.

"We spent so much time talking about dealing with the roller coaster of games," Jacobs coach Anthony Cappello said. "You just have to be able to play through that and understand the game's 80 minutes. On Wednesday we learned it's 100 minutes long in penalty kicks. You've got to play through everything ... you've got to be mentally prepared."

Which became Elgin's demise in the end, a stark contrast to all the momentum it seized after Omar Gonzalez darted one past the left post in the 6th minute.

"We had momentum, we thought we were going to set it off and start early," said Gonzalez. "(Their scoring) killed us, it was just short period of time, we didn't know how to react or adjust properly."

"We're young and I think maybe that goal got us a little bit overconfident," Maroons coach Dave Borg said. "I think we underestimated what Jacobs was after watching them Wednesday night and it wasn't our night. I think it's tough for a young team to come into an enclosed, hostile environment like this."