South Elgin sets new school record for wins

First it was St. Charles East. Then it was Streamwood. On Tuesday night, the South Elgin boys soccer team added two more firsts.

The Storm's 2-1 Upstate Eight Conference victory at Millennium Field was the first over Bartlett in the program's history. The win also was No. 7 on the season, setting a school record.

"It wasn't something that we set a target for," Storm coach Mark Neville said about the school record. "It was kind of game by game. I don't think the kids knew it until I said it (after the game)."

South Elgin, which hadn't beaten St. Charles East or Streamwood before this season, had to find some scoring punch without leading scorer Bart Mazurek, who was suspended after getting a red card Monday against the Sabres.

Senior Dan Bohlin made sure the Storm (7-1-1, 3-0 UEC) would get enough goals. Kevin McElwain found Bohlin on a free kick at the top of the Hawks' penalty area. Bohlin turned left and fired a shot past Bartlett goalkeeper Jeff Gal just 6:37 into the match. He added a second goal less than 8 minutes later after playing the ball to himself over the top of a couple Hawks defenders.

"Everyone stepped up their game today," Bohlin said.

The Hawks (7-4, 2-2) had some chances to cut into the deficit, but Storm goalkeeper Ryan Hicks made several nice saves to keep Bartlett off the scoreboard. The Hawks finally got within one with 11:34 left as Joe McCullough converted a penalty kick past Hicks, who finished with 5 saves.

Bartlett continued to pressure, but the Storm defense and Hicks were too much.

"We couldn't bounce back early enough," McCullough said. "It always takes us to the last 15 minutes to get our heads back in it and click."