Hampshire nets share of Fox Division title

Hampshire’s boys soccer team had a long ride out to Grayslake on Tuesday afternoon, but their return trip sure was fun.

That’s because the Whip-Purs had, for the first time, won a Fox Valley Fox Division championship in boys soccer after a come-from-behind 4-3 victory over Grayslake Central.

Jason Bishop notched a hat trick for the Whip-Purs, including the game’s final 2 goals, one of them the game-winner with 19 seconds left.

Hampshire (11-10) ended up sharing the title with Johnsburg (16-6) as each team had 5-1 records in divisional play. Johnsburg got past Woodstock North 2-0 on Tuesday.

“I’m not displeased to have to share it,” Hampshire coach John Gosling said. “Johnsburg is a good program. We took this game down to the wire, and how much life can you give to a team? Still, we came out with it.”

The Whip-Purs had to adjust down the stretch and managed to pull things together in the final minutes.

“We needed to change some players to make things work,” Gosling added. “We changed our philosophy coming out in the second half. We didn’t want to see (Grayslake Central) serve the ball from the outside.

“We have come from behind five or six times, so we’re not new to that. We’ve got a good group of seniors that can do enough sometimes. This shows me that we can’t play with a lack of intensity — we will struggle.”

Bishop scored the tying goal in the 69th minute with an assist from Ismael Morales. Then Bishop found the back of the net in the waning seconds off an Andrew Obmalay through ball.

“I think we made a good statement with all this,” said Bishop, who now has 11 goals and recently has moved from the midfield to forward. “Lately, I have been playing up top. it seems to be helping things out for the team.”

Bishop had his other goal in the 46th minute with another Morales assist.

“We just have some good plays to give passes to the forwards,” said Morales, who has 20 goals and 9 assists. “You make the better passes, it’s easier to score.”

Hampshire first goal came in the 38th minute as Jose Hernandez scored off a feed from Bishop.

Grayslake Central (7-10-1, 3-3) received a couple of goals from Jonny Madrid.

Madrid scored the first one off a short touch from Asa Goldsmith in the 51st minute.

In the 63rd minute, Madrid was pulled down by a Hamphire defender in the box and scored on a penalty kick. At that point, the Rams held a 3-2 lead.

Ryan Fontana scored Grayslake Central’s first goal in the first half.