Boys soccer: St. Edward nails down regional crown
St. Edward boys soccer coach Tim Brieger cautioned his squad about getting complacent after breaking out to a quick 2-0 lead over Johnsburg in Monday's Class 1A Genoa-Kingston regional final.
While the Green Wave didn't initially heed his warning, they eventually delivered the proper response.
Johnsburg followed up a strong first half finish by slicing St. Edward's lead in half just two minutes into the second half, but Carson Scarnegie and AJ Franklin promptly restored order with two Green Wave goals in a 21-second span.
Franklin completed the hat trick with four minutes left in the contest behind Josh Johansen's third assist to seal a 5-1 victory.
The top-seeded Green Wave (23-1) advanced to face host and No. 2 seed Rockford Christian in Wednesday's sectional semifinal - a rematch of St. Edward's 2-0 win on Sept. 23.
St. Edward, which won the fourth regional title in program history and second straight, is aiming for its second sectional title in a row.
"It was nice to get off to the early start, but I kind of read them the riot act at halftime because after that we settled in and took our tempo away. We weren't moving the ball as fast and we were making bad decisions," Brieger said.
"They scored and to be honest, I was kind of nervous." Franklin said. "I was up there with Josh and we're like let's get one. And right off the bat, Josh created space and passed off to Carson and he finished it. Then I was able to get in behind and scored."
It appeared that an early rout was on as freshman Jackson Godfrey drilled a perfect placed strike from 25 yards out into the right corner in the 9th minute and Franklin scored off a failed clearance four minutes later.
"It felt incredible to come out and put one in early. It definitely fired us up," Godfrey said. "I took a touch, came across the middle and there was tons of space. I was like OK, I guess I'll shoot it. One thing led to another and it was a goal."
Johnsburg (9-11) settled down and had the better of play over the final 15 minutes of the half. The Skyhawks were finally rewarded after the intermission when Michael Grunder corralled the rebound off a hard shot from Dean Wiersum and chipped it over keeper Evan Sajtar.
"When we watched Johnsburg the other day, all we talked about was that they are fast and they are strong," Brieger said. "After they scored, I thought we finally settled down and got back to what we were doing right."
The Green Wave know they will have to continue doing things right Wednesday to knock off a hungry 16-8-1 Royal Lions' squad playing on their home field.
"Basically we look at last game and say it doesn't matter," Godfrey said. "We have to come out guns blazing just like today, but we have to keep going and going."
"They know how we play so they'll have a good strategy coming into the game. We'll have to be more creative," Franklin added.