Harper men's soccer downs Elgin CC to win division title

The Harper College men's soccer team will participate in the district championship phase of the NJCAA Division III tournament for the third consecutive year after defeating fourth-seeded Elgin Community College 1-0 Saturday in Palatine.

Harper's, Yusif Sahin called it a, "good win."

The Spartans reached the final by beating Rock Valley College, then upsetting No. 8 ranked Trition College.

"We knew Elgin was going to be a good team," freshman Chris Munoz of Palatine said.

Harper first-year coach Andre Watson called the fourth seed "a good attacking team."

That beared itself out over 90 minutes Saturday. ECC had the run of play in its offensive half of the field for a vast majority of the game until Harper freshman Matt Austin scored the game's only goal in the first half to give the second-seeded Hawks the Region IV tournament title.

Despite rarely being asked to make a difficult save sophomore goalie Kevin Sieb could be heard directing a stingy Harper defense that was led by Munoz and Sihin. Watson called his team's defense "well organized," and noted that another factor playing in Harper's favor was the weather conditions - the ice, rain, snow and high wind gusts.

"That was tough on Elgin" Watson said.

The month of October had it's ups and downs for ECC (13-9-1). The Spartans went 2-2-1 to finish the regular season and then proved to be a formidable squad in the playoffs, reaching the Division III championship game for the first time in program history.

Harper now advances to the district championship tournament next weekend in Minnesota.