Boys soccer: St. Charles North holds off St. Charles East
St. Charles North junior Bernard Elegbede wasn't trying to be fancy in a pivotal Upstate Eight River boys soccer matchup Tuesday against rival St. Charles East.
Elegbede was just thankful to be in the right place at the right time - twice.
The speedy forward literally finished what he started, and bookended the game's first and last goals, the latter a game-winner during the 74th minute to decide a 3-2 win over the Saints at Norris Stadium.
Almost carbon copies of each other, Elegbede used a little flick through thanks to some pressure by forward Dylan Mientus that forced a defensive miscue in the Saints' backfield for a 1-0 lead in the 11th minute. Then Elegbede's deke over the East goaltender in open space gave North the win, this coming on the heels of a 2-1 loss to Morton in the PepsiCo Showdown Aquafina bracket final in which the North Stars (9-2-3, 1-1-1) let a 1-goal lead slip away.
"This was a huge win and not just because it was our rivals but we just wanted to get back on track after our loss on Sunday," Elegbede said. "It taught us to be disciplined and not give up the lead when we have one, play smart, high IQ, things like that."
North certainly learned from the PepsiCo loss, as it stymied East (11-2-2, 3-2) in the end, after the Saints had rallied back from a 2-0 hole after Luke Denson's goal in the 25th minute.
"I'm disappointed in the way we gave up two goals to go equal at half," North Stars coach Eric Willson said. "A lot of it is how you respond to that kind of adversity. We talked at halftime about a couple different directions we could have gone, after they took all the momentum at the end of the first half, I'm proud of them. I thought we worked a lot harder."
It's a result that isn't pleasing for East, which was unbeaten in its 7 previous outings (6-0-1). The Saints outshot North 10-4 and scored twice in the final 9 minutes of the first half to break even. Mitchell Lucatorto made it 2-1 in the 31st minute on a ball that fell right to his feet after pinballing off a Saint and a North Star. Colin Coine then sunk a penalty kick with 17.6 seconds remaining but the Saints adapted to the North game plan of stopping their attack out of the back a little late and thus took too long to get going.
"Once we did we proved with the two goals in quick succession that the lads were in a good spot," Saints coach Paul Jennison said. "I really thought the momentum we took into halftime we could have brought out in the second half unfortunately halftime came for us in the wrong time in this game."
East put 3 shots on goal in the second half and its best opportunity came on a header from Nicholas Cayton in the 69th minute but a diving save by North keeper Piercarlo Ricossa kept it a stalemate for much of the second half, which ultimately cost the Saints a shot at the UEC River title with its second division loss.
"It's never fun learning you're not going to win conference and a little more bitter when your number one rival is taking it from you," defender Zachary Nelson said. "It's not the end of the world. We're looking ahead to the postseason and we're hoping we can go far."
"Sometimes the best thing for a team is a loss," Jennison added. "And if they don't feel like this again this season, it's going to end up just like they want it to."