McHenry's effort sinks Round Lake

As soon as his McHenry boys soccer team completed a hang-on-for-dear-life, 1-0 win over Round Lake, coach Tony Caruso sprinted onto the Warriors' West Campus field to congratulate his players.

Then, as the happy hosts huddled and jumped up and down in unison at midfield, players tumbled and so did the spirited Caruso, who was all smiles.

The Warriors' intensity in Wednesday's Class 3A regional semifinal had matched that of their coach.

"They won this game simply on pure heart and hustle," said Round Lake coach Mike Hruska, whose North Suburban Conference Prairie Division champions finished 10-5-3. "It just goes to show you that will overcomes skill. I commend McHenry. They outplayed us from an intensity point of view."

Second-seeded McHenry (8-11-3) earned a berth in Saturday's 11 a.m. regional final against top-seeded Crystal Lake South (18-3), which shut out the Warriors by 3-0 and 1-0 finals during the regular season.

Against No. 3 Round Lake, McHenry got an early goal from midfielder Josh McNaughton and made it stand up behind a physical defense led by seniors Justin Diedrich and Jake Bukiri and an unflappable goalkeeper in sophomore Carlos Wence.

"I just told the guys to give me hard, physical, clean, McHenry-style play," Caruso said. "We don't have the skill and speed to keep up with teams like (Round Lake). We just got to make sure we play hard and with heart, and we did."

McNaugton scored in the seventh minute on a well-executed give-and-go with Scott Dabrowski. McNaughton made a move around Panthers keeper Jose Landa and slipped the ball into an empty net.

After that, while McHenry enjoyed the better of the play the rest of the half, the Warriors were careful not to allow Round Lake many, if any, quality scoring chances.

"When they got that goal, I knew they'd pack it back," Hruska said. "Which was smart, really."

Round Lake controlled the midfield in the second half, but once the Panthers reached the penalty area, they found it clogged up.

"They shut us down," Round Lake senior midfielder Alex Murua said. "They knew who to (defend). They knew who to mark right away. Balls just didn't land (in the net). We had a few chances this game, too."

Murua might have had his team's best scoring opportunity. Wence made his only mistake when he let a cross slip through his legs on the goal line. Just as Murua was about to kick the ball into an unattended net, he was thwarted.

"It was muddy and I slipped," Murua said. "I almost had it, but (a defender) came from behind and he got a good tackle out of it."

Wence later charged off the line to challenge Jimmy Ramirez and deflect his chip over the end line. With less than five minutes left, Miguel Miranda found Carlos Salgado in the box, but McHenry's swarming defense didn't allow a good shot on goal.

In the final minute, Wence stopped Eduardo Sanchez.

"We played much better after half," Hruska said. "But the first half it looked like we were running in mud."

"We knew they were going to bring it to us in the second half," Caruso said. "We stacked it up in the back with our skilled and better players and we were able to hold in the back defensively. We organized fairly well. We made a few mistakes back there that Carlos was able to bail us out on."