Boys soccer: Elgin tops St. Charles North in STC title game
Disappointed not to be included in the Daily Herald's Top 20 preseason Rankings, Elgin made a statement Saturday by shutting out St. Charles North 3-1 in Saturday's championship of the inaugural St. Charles Soccer Tournament.
St. Charles East and rival North co-hosted the new eight-school event, and the Saints and North Stars were hoping one would keep the initial trophy.
However the Maroons topped the Orange Group and then blanked Blue Group victor North in the cross-over title match.
East's Saints did take third place with a 4-0 victory over Maine South.
Olaoluwa Ajayi used an Omar Lopez assist for a 16-yard blast from left wing 21:52 into the first half and the Maroons (4-1) made that lead stand up through halftime and beyond despite the North Stars (4-1) pushing for an equalizer.
"Seeing the goalie cheating toward one side, I looked to touch it opposite and it felt good leaving my foot," Ajayi said.
A mere 2:21 into the second half, Lopez set up teammate Jesus Milan for a goal and only 47 seconds later, it became 3-0 when Lopez himself scored courtesy of a Manuel Ramirez assist.
"We didn't have a (in-season) tourney on last year's schedule, so this was special and is pretty great," Ramirez said.
Elgin opened the tourney with a 7-3 win over pre-season No. 4-ranked Metea Valley, then won a shootout to beat group host St. Charles East 3-2 to lock up the top spot even though the Maroons came up short 3-2 based on a shootout versus Downers Grove North. The North Stars were No. 3 in the DH poll.
Third-place game: St. Charles East defeated Maine South 4-0 on Saturday to take third place at the St. Charles tournament.
The Saints led 1-0 at halftime on a goal by Truitt Battin.
Luke Schnitker scored the next goal assisted by Battin. Battin found the net on an assist from Renato Avendano, and George Maridis capped the scoring on Schnitker's assist.
Zachary Doerr made 7 saves for his first shutout. The Saints improved to 3-2.
Wauconda tournament: Crystal Lake South defeated Wauconda 4-1 to win the tourney title.
Alex Canfield scored a pair of second-half goals for the Gators (5-0-1) while Tom Coughlin and Ty Getzinger scored in the first half.
Matt McCaleb made 1 save in goal. Wauconda drops to 2-2-1.