Dundee-Crown surprises Jacobs
It only took Dundee-Crown a minute to pull the upset.
The Chargers scored 2 goals 50 seconds apart and held off a late push by Jacobs to win the Fox Valley Conference boys soccer matchup, 2-1, in Carpentersville Tuesday.
The week after clinching the conference title, the Golden Eagles started slowly on the road and the Chargers took advantage to come away with a victory on their senior night.
Julian Ajroja made a run up the middle, took a nice feed from Jeremy Jareckyj and lasered a shot in the air from left to right that found the back of the net. Less than a minute later, Edgar Castillo headed one in from right in front of the net. Jareckyj again had the assist.
"We know we can play this way," said D-C coach Rey Vargas. "Getting ahead early brings the other team down and puts the pressure on them."
Vargas noted that his team's intensity has not always been consistent. But the win gives the Chargers (11-8-0, 6-2) some much-needed momentum heading into regionals.
"We need to play with energy, and we did that today," he said.
The Eagles got on the board on an own goal seconds before halftime. They controlled much of the play in the second half, but couldn't find the back of the net.
Charger goalkeeper Luis Cruz turned away several Jacobs attempts in the closing minutes. Colin Walsh had a couple of shots from the left corner, and Cruz stopped Noah Melick as well.
Jacobs seemed to perk up after the 2 quick goals.
"I thought we responded," said Eagles' coach Anthony Cappella. I thought that woke us up a bit, as odd as it sounds. I thought we were pretty poor prior to that and that was a nice little shot to get us going. Against McHenry we struggled in the first half. Today we came out a little bit flat. D-C came out flying. They were ready to go. They were moving the ball real well in the first 15-20 minutes, and they made it tough on us. They punished us on two bad mistakes."
The Chargers had their chances to extend the lead. A long shot by Mario Solano clanged off the crossbar. Ethan Pickering then made a nice leaping save on Arjoja's rebound attempt. Moments later, Pickering made a nice save on Solano's shot.