Boys soccer: Elgin's second-half eruption stuns Larkin
Once again, Elgin turned it on in the second half.
The Maroons scored 4 times after intermission to down their crosstown rivals from Larkin, 4-0, in Upstate Eight River boys soccer action at Memorial Field.
Omar Lopez had a goal and 2 assists, and Pablo Perez, Jesus Lopez and Jean Padilla-Gomez also scored for Elgin (9-1-2, 3-0).
"Like I told them at the half, every time we've talked to you guys at the half, you've responded," said Elgin coach Dave Borg. "I had nothing but confidence that the same thing's going to happen tonight. Once we got the one, they seemed to come and our energy picked up."
"He talks to us all the time about coming back and working hard, and that's what we do," said Omar Lopez.
Borg didn't know if Elgin has ever started 3-0 in the conference before.
Elgin had the better of play in the first half, but couldn't find the net. Early in the second half, Perez pounced on an errant clear out attempt and fired it home from about 20 yards out.
That seemed to open the floodgates. Two minutes later, Omar Lopez scored from 15 yards away, the ball deflected by a Larkin defender, his 20th goal of the season.
"He has the skills of a midfielder," said Borg of Omar Lopez. "He's a striker, he keeps his composure out there, for the most part. He's usually got two guys on him, and he knows how to make it happen. It's nothing that we taught him."
Jesus Lopez and Padilla-Gomez scored in the late going, with Omar Lopez assisting both times.
Larkin was done in by its failure to take care of the ball.
"We really didn't pass the ball well," said Larkin coach Ken Hall. "We turned the ball over way too easily. We wanted to put pressure on them and make them turn it over, and it turned out we turned the ball over. We just didn't take care of the ball the second half."
Elgin goalkeeper Martin Jimenez Estrada and the defense did the rest. The Royals had just 3 shots after the break, with Alex Kunicki making a couple of spectacular stops on breakaways.