Boys soccer: Crystal Lake South upsets Dundee-Crown for regional title
ROCKFORD - Dundee-Crown's unbeaten boys soccer season came to end Saturday as the Chargers were denied winning a second straight regional plaque.
Instead, Crystal Lake South's 1-0 triumph in the Class 3A Rockford Auburn boys soccer regional served as a combination underdog and revenge story.
The Gators - now assured of a winning record at 12-10-2 - were seeded eighth among 19 schools assigned to the Streamwood sectional. A 2-1 overtime home loss for South back on Sept. 19 was one of the eight victories that gave Dundee-Crown the Fox Valley Conference crown. Those were among the 20 straight matches without a loss that helped the Chargers earn the No. 1 seed. But D-C's season is now over at 18-1-2.
South advances to Wednesday's 4:30 p.m. sectional semifinal to face another FVC brethren, however, it'll be Jacobs' chance for revenge.
Despite friendly banter before the game among coaches, familiarity in this case increased intensity and some hostility on the field. Three minutes in, Dundee's Ivan Aviles had a direct kick that South keeper Brandon Gorka handled with ease. But every goalie's nightmare came for the Chargers' Damien Smiech on a whistle after 8:28 led to a penalty kick.
Nick Getzinger converted for his team-best 16th goal of the season.
"I know a couple of their guys from club ball and they know how I usually shoot, so I had to take a chance going the opposite of what I figured they thought I'd do," Getzinger semi-explained. "PKs are PKs, it's 50-50, you never know what will happen so my main approach was to make good contact.
"Being one up, you still never know what can happen, maybe they tie it, maybe we get up two. But once we made it to halftime, the lead was more motivation for us to finish on top," Getzinger added. "Once they started just putting balls toward a post from distance or passing it around, it was clear they were losing their edge."
One uncontrollable element that was lost 11:59 into the match was the three-man officiating crew. Veteran state finals referee Steve Sarto pulled a hamstring so severely that he could not continue in any capacity. Assistant referees Gary Kordell and Dave Myers had to handle the remaining 68:01 as two-man crew.
There was 12:21 left in the opening half when Dundee-Crown standout Julian Ajroja was able to beat Gorka to a ball but had to race to the right wing for a 19-yard blast only to have Colton Weidner save the ball off the line. Ironically Weidner was already essentially man-marking Michigan State-bound Ajroja.
"That may not have been my best (defensive) clear, but it got the job done," Weidner said. "With Gorka out I instinctively knew to get back there and when the shot came to me, my focus was just clear it."
"Colton was special," South coach Brian Allen insisted. "He frustrated Julian who can never really be deterred, so you have to have a second and third guy helping. Colton stepped up but that was the case across the board."
Neither side was happy as whistles plus injury stoppages mounted. The second half included a pair of yellow cards for both sides. For the last 27 minutes, South had virtually nine players within 25 yards of their goal in a bunker defense.
"It was a little hectic and chaotic at times, obviously more bodies around than I prefer," South's Gorka admitted. "They brought everyone up on attack so we had everyone back and the pressure definitely kept building. We always strive to keep opponents at zero or one at most, so there's extra pride in doing that in the postseason."
Coach Rey Vargas and the Dundee-Crown players were understandably emotional and upset by the game and the outcome. While repeatedly using the word terrible as he paced, Vargas offered only, "I have no comment about this game."