Tough ending for Hampshire
A quick beginning turned into a big benefit for the Lakes boys soccer team.
The Eagles scored a couple of early goals on Wednesday afternoon and soared to a 7-0 victory over Hampshire in the Class 2A Grayslake Central sectional semifinal in Grayslake.
Lakes (16-7-1) will play Marian Central (16-4-4) in the sectional final Saturday at 11 a.m. The Hurricanes beat Antioch 2-1 in the other semifinal Wednesday night.
Tom O'Brien scored a hat trick for Lakes. Steven Korosis had a goal and a couple of assists. Mark Polanin added a goal and an assist, Ryan Rudynski and Matt Beadle also scored and Dan Walsh picked up assists.
O'Brien put the Eagles on the board in the third minute. Korosis sent a corner kick to the middle, it went off the back of Walsh, and O'Brien finished it.
"When I scored the first goal, (Hampshire's) confidence went down and the momentum was on our side from there," said O'Brien, who now has 18 goals.
Polanin added another goal two minutes later taking a pass from Korosis for a 2-0 Eagles advantage. Korosis made it 3-0 at the 18-minute mark, when he worked through five Hampshire (9-10-1) defenders and beat the keeper. Beadle knocked in another in the 25th minute, Rudynski added another early in the second half and O'Brien had the other 2 goals. Lakes keeper Ben Goforth made 4 saves and earned the shutout.
Hampshire had a great ride reaching the sectional, but trying to get ready for a turf match was a tougher challenge.
"I think it finally caught up to us where we're at," Hampshire coach John Gosling said. "We just didn't play here today. "We did have one day of preparation for the turf in our field house trying to simulate as much as we could. It was a similar, hard surface and the ball rolls. Things were just amplified with bad touches and bad passes."
Girls volleyball
Mooseheart d. Fox Valley Lutheran: The Falcons (8-11) saw their season come to an end with a 25-15, 24-26, 25-21 loss to Mooseheart at the Class 1A Westminster Christian regional. Sarah Mounger had 6 kills, 4 aces, 3 digs and 2 blocks for FVLA while Samantha Pfortmiller had 12 assists and Katie Mazur added 4 kills.