Cary-Grove hands CL South 1st loss of season
They may be a bit green overall, but the Cary-Grove boys soccer players are worldly enough to recognize the value of a title defense.
Though only two starters return from last year's Fox Valley Conference Valley Division championship team, the young Trojans (five sophomores and five juniors on the 18-man roster) bounced back from a 5-1 loss to Boylan on Saturday and got a leg up in the division race by handing visiting rival Crystal Lake South its first loss of the season on Tuesday.
Junior forward Evan Baker scored midway though the first half, and sophomore forward Aidan McCarthy made it 2-0 with 15 minutes to play. Goalkeeper Will Higgins made 5 saves, while midfielder C.J. Arenberg and an improving defense fended off second-half pressure from the previously undefeated Gators (9-1-1, 2-1) to make the 2-goal lead stand up.
Cary-Grove improved to 5-1-1 overall and took sole possession of first place in the Valley Division at 3-0 with 7 games to play.
"This is our biggest rivalry," said Baker, who scored his second varsity goal. "They were undefeated so far and we knew it was going to be a good game. We just game out hard and put it to them."
Crystal Lake South didn't find scoring as easy as in Saturday's 5-1 victory over Belvidere.
"We played flat the first 20 (minutes) and they got their goal," CL South coach Brian Allen said. "A lot of it came from them being ready to go and us being just a little bit flat. Once the wake-up call hit, we pressed a little bit to get the equalizer and, when it didn't come, we pressed a little bit harder. They got a good counter on us and that second goal took a bit of the wind out of the sails for us."
Baker's first-half marker was "a pretty goal," Cary-Grove coach Mark Olson said.
Baker was facing Arenberg for a throw-in deep in CL South territory when McCarthy flooded the same area. "I turned and ran because I saw Aidan coming in," Baker said. "I told him to leave and he let it go by. I took a touch, looked behind me and there was nobody there, so I just shot it and it went in."
Baker set up McCarthy's second-half goal by heading a 50-50 ball to him near the 18-yard line. McCarthy struck the volley past the CL South keeper.
"It was great," McCarthy said of the win. "It was a hard game. We knew it was a big game coming in. It was a whole team effort. We just played hard. We just had to play as a whole team and not individuals."
The Trojans showed no ill-effects of the 5-1 loss to Boylan, only lessons learned.
"The biggest thing is you have to have short-term memory," Olson said. "If you don't learn from it, then what's the point behind it? But they were able to learn from it and come out and play.
"There was no letdown from South. In the second half they put a tremendous amount of pressure on us and we were able to weather the storm and score a second goal to go up 2-0. Our defense did an outstanding job and (Higgins) really stepped up."
The District 155 rivals meet again in Crystal Lake on Oct. 8.