Cary-Grove 2, Jacobs 0

Cary-Grove girls soccer coach Ray Krystal realized that last week's 7-0 whitewashing of Jacobs was certainly a fluke.

Krystal had a good idea that Wednesday's Fox Valley Conference Valley Division rematch with the Golden Eagles Wednesday afternoon would be a much more competitive encounter.

He was right on.

Embroiled in a scoreless tie for almost 60 minutes, Cary-Grove scored 2 unanswered goals in the final 20 minutes to earn a hard-fought 2-0 victory over upset-minded Jacobs in Algonquin.

"Jacobs has too much pride in their program to get beat badly again," said Krystal.

"We knew this wouldn't be an easy win and that Jacobs would have a strong pulse. We were ready to play. We didn't take them for granted. Give Jacobs credit. They played organized and hard. We talked at halftime and came out and played with more energy in the second half. We were able to finish our shots."

The Trojans' first goal came with 20:49 remaining when Ashley Gustafson punched in a loose ball in front of the net to give the visitors a 1-0 advantage.

"I hit the post and wasn't sure if the ball went in the net," said Gustafson. "We had missed so many chances during the game. It was frustrating. I was just relieved to finish and score a goal. The last time we played them it was a pretty easy win. Jacobs played much better.

This was a hard earned win."

Cary-Grove (12-1, 6-0), which outshot Jacobs (6-13, 4-3) 15-3, got an insurance tally from freshman Taylor Mahoney with 18:28 remaining.

Jacobs' best opportunity to score came with 33:23 remaining when Markie Rahn broke loose from The Cary-Grove defense and had a breakaway shot on Cary-Grove goalie Alex Holland. Rahn pushed the shot left and Holland was able to make the save.

"We had our chances so the loss is disappointing," said Jacobs coach Jim Dzialo. "This is a game we could have won. Cary-Grove is a solid, solid team. We played much better this time around. We are getting better and making progress as a team."