Boys soccer: McHenry knocks off Cary-Grove

For the second time in three nights, McHenry's boys soccer sectional fate came down to penalty kicks, and for the second time, McHenry won, defeating Cary-Grove 1-0 Friday in the Class 3A Hampshire sectional championship match to advance to the Barrington supersectional Tuesday.

Warriors head coach Tony Caruso and team went through this same scenario Wednesday night versus Jacobs and won 1-0 on penalty kicks to advance, so his team has been through type of game before.

"We got it down to PKs, and with Jake (King) in the goal, we feel pretty confident with him there and it worked out again," Caruso said. "We went with the same five as we did against Jacobs and it worked out for us."

Facing a 3-3 tie in penalty kicks, midfielder Justin Rutherford set up as the last player to kick and promptly sank his kick into the back left side of the Trojans' goal for the game winner.

"We really have to give all the credit to Jake," Rutherford said. "He's the one who made those great saves. I'm just the one who gets to make the last kick. We've been practicing a lot, so I just picked my spot. I saw him leaning one way, so I just went the other (way)."

"We really feel confident when it gets down to PKs," King said. "Cary-Grove is a good team, but we really practice the PKs, so we feel pretty good in those situations."

McHenry (19-2-2) controlled the game for the first and second half of regulation, but wasn't able to find the back of the net thanks to Trojan goal keeper Trenton Onopa.

Onopa made a diving save of Markus Koffler's kick with 14 minutes left in the first half, and then added another 4 saves in the second half as the Warriors had 10 shots at the goal, but weren't able to get one past Onopa.

Cary-Grove head coach Mark Olson thought Onopa kept the Trojans in the game with his efforts.

"Without him in goal we don't even get to here (penalty kicks)," Olson said. "He made some game-saving stops for us tonight."

Cary-Grove's (10-9-1) best chance to break the scoreless game came with just 6 minutes left in the first overtime. Senior forward Esteban Angeles intercepted a pass at midfield and slipped past a defender down the left sideline. Angeles appeared to lose the ball in the corner, but was able to get it back and broke toward the goal and took his shot. Angeles' shot bounced off the left goal post to keep the game scoreless.

"I thought he (King) might go with the fake that I was going to pass it off toward the middle, but he went ahead and cut off the angle," Angeles said. "We had some opportunities, but we just didn't make them."

Olson thought Angeles play was won that could have helped his team advance if it was just a bit more to the right.

"That was a 60-yard run and then to go and take out four defenders and almost put it in the net was a fantastic effort," Olson said. "He clanked it off the post, which if that's a bit to the right of that, it goes in and that's it."

After defeating the Trojans 1-0 in September, Caruso was aware that his team was in for a battle if they wanted to advance to the supersectional, where the Warriors will play the winner of today's game between Bartlett and Wheaton Academy.

"Cary-Grove is a very solid team," Caruso said. "They had eight losses, but they lost to all really good teams, so we knew we were going to be in for a battle down to the wire. We tried to be a little aggressive at first, but then we just said, 'hey guys, no mistakes because if we go into PKs we'll have a chance.' It was just a great effort by our guys."

Olson thought his team gave it everything they had and when it comes down to penalty kicks, the game can go either way.

"They gave it all and left it out on the field tonight," Olson said. "It came down to two teams and this time it was McHenry. They're a great team and we wish them the best. We had a great playoff run and these kids did a lot better than a lot of people expected us to do. It's obviously tough tonight. There has to be a winner and a loser, and unfortunately it wasn't in the cards for us tonight in a PK situation."