Crystal Lake South wins boys soccer regional title

When Crystal Lake South defender Jacob Canfield came away from the pack scoring the Gators' first goal on a header en route to a 3-0 Class 3A Jacobs regional boys soccer championship win over rival Cary-Grove Friday, the junior made a beeline for the fans along the sideline in Algonquin doing none other than the well-known CL South custom Gator Chomp.

"It was just kind of in the moment," Canfield said of the chomp, which occurred after he knocked in an Andrew Perrine ball with 16:30 left in the second half of a scoreless tie. "It just felt right, it just seemed like the right idea, get the fans going, get the boost the guys needed."

But the chomp symbolized plenty more as his nibble led to a Gator-like bite out of the second-seeded Trojans (16-3), as top-seeded CL South (17-5-1), winner of its first regional title since 2010, snagged 2 more goals in the next 5:10 to pack its bags for DeKalb on Wednesday for a 5 p.m. showdown between the winner of the Rockford Boylan regional slated for today at 3 p.m. between Boylan and Rockford Guilford.

"It's a testament to the guys. We knew it wasn't going to be pretty. You've got to grind and stick with it," said Gators' coach Brian Allen, who's won 3 regionals in his 8 seasons at the helm." We told them at halftime, 'go play to win, go have fun, if you make mistakes they're going to happen, but make them in the terms of being aggressive and going for goal' and I think it paid dividends later."

Canfield's was a product off a Jefferey Kirshenbaum left corner kick that Kennan Grissom bounced which C-G keeper Ethan Csoka (4 saves) whisked away. The rebound found Andrew Perrine, who found Canfield in the box and that seemed to open the gates for Nate Columbia's first goal of the season on a ball fed by Andrew Grabowski along the right sideline and Ryan Russman's (from Michael Woeste), which looked wide at first but bent inside the right post.

"I think both teams were feeling each other out, knowing it was going to be a tough game," Allen said. "When the opportunities presented themselves the kids stepped up when they needed to the most."

South put forth 6 shots in the second half while Cary-Grove won the advantage 13-10. The Trojans did a nice job locking up midfielder Orlando Tapia and Grabowski but lost track of players at the end as South turned to different culprits to take care of business to beat C-G for a second time this season.

"It all came down to whoever could grind it out the longest," Columbia said. "We've played like that all season. Once we get the first goal we get the momentum and they just start coming and coming."

"We just didn't execute. You've got to give South credit," Trojans' coach Mark Olson said. "Both teams battled and everything but you can't make mistakes against a good team like that, letting players get in behind you."