Hecht leads Huntley to tournament title

Huntley won its own girls soccer tournament Saturday, but it wasn't easy.

Deanna Hecht scored twice and the Red Raiders survived a late rally to beat Rockford Boylan 2-1 in the title game on a windswept Huntley football field.

"It's actually been a few years (since Huntley won its own tournament)," said Raiders' coach Kris Grabner. "And this one was well-earned. This was a good game."

Hecht broke a scoreless tie with 30 seconds to go in the first half, then added an insurance goal midway through the second half. That proved to be huge when Boylan's Leah Crowder scored with 4:28 to play.

The Titans came back with renewed energy after the goal, but the Raiders' defense held as Boylan never got a solid scoring chance the rest of the game.

Boylan took control early. Haley Parnelli had the game's first shot on a breakaway just a couple of minutes into the game. The Titans had a couple more solid chances early on, but the Red Raiders slowly swung the momentum to their side.

"We were able to possess the ball," said Grabner. "That was through the midfield. We didn't move the ball forward a lot, but we just settled things down and got them chasing us a little bit."

The Red Raiders (4-0 overall) finally began to move the ball ahead near the end of the first half. Then with time running out, Hecht took a feed from Tayah Owens and beat Boylan keeper Amanda Black from about 10 yards out.

Ten minutes after intermission, Hecht found herself all alone 20 yards from the net and rifled one that knuckled past Black at the last moment. It was Hecht's ninth goal of the young season.

Paige Renkosik made 4 saves in goal for Huntley.