Boys soccer: Weather gets the best of Larkin, Dundee-Crown

Larkin may have looked ahead to its game against Elgin on Wednesday and right past Dundee-Crown on Monday afternoon but no one will ever know.

The game never started and was postponed after a brief lightning delay although a freshman/sophomore football game between the Chargers and McHenry was being played on the field next door at the same time.

Despite being nonconference opponents, the rivalry between Larkin and Dundee-Crown is a good, healthy and competitive one.

The Chargers won last year's meeting, but the teams tied in 2017 and the Royals won in 2016. The Royals ended Dundee-Crown's season in the state series in 2013 and 2014, but the Chargers got some revenge with a 3-2 win in a 2015 regular season game.

Dundee-Crown senior Roland Dearborn (5 goals, 2 assists) certainly wanted to play, especially after scoring a hat trick in his team's last game to lead the Chargers to a 3-1 Fox Valley Conference victory over Prairie Ridge on Sept. 5.

"We were really excited for this game tonight," he said. "But it just didn't happen."

After an 18-year win season last fall, there were a lot of questions coming into the new year for Dundee-Crown, but so far, it's been business as usual as the Chargers now sit at 4-1 overall and 1-0 in conference. They've also won four straight after opening the season with a 4-0 drubbing to Round Lake.

"The first game kind of gave us a wake-up call, but since then we've worked at practice and picked it up on defense," Dearborn said. "We're now doing what we needed to do and against Prairie Ridge we were doing what the offense was supposed to do."

The Chargers have a 25-man roster and a busier schedule than ever before in coach Rey Vargas' 16 years at the school. They also have a lot of seniors, but little experience.

"It's early but we're starting to gauge things out a little bit more," Vargas said. "This is the biggest team I've ever carried, but with so many seniors without varsity experience we're kind of in that gray area sometimes. They are starting to come around and we're trying to figure out what pieces make us work best."

A new piece is Julian Saldana, a junior with a club background who joined the squad this year and already has a pair of goals and 5 assists.

"I'm happy with the decision so far," he said. "The training everyday and going on the bus for games is different, but I've figured things out. I was used to playing club defensively, but here they've put me at striker and attacking mid."

Dearborn and Saldana are working extremely well with each other already.

"It's worked really well and we switch positions a lot," Dearborn said. "Last year we were more of a defensive team, but losing Jabari (Washington) and Peyton (Story), we've had to rebuild our defense and while we're working on that we've already got a better attack to go with it."

Senior Kevin Martinez has been a calming presence in the midfield and helping out in back for the Chargers.

"He's done a great job of being more of an in-the-background guy," Vargas said. "He's doing all the hard work in the back distributing balls forward and that type of thing. He's so calm with the ball and kind of keeps the guys calm in the back."

Hopefully the weather will be as calm on Thursday. That's when Dundee-Crown returns to action and will try to host Huntley.