Lancers down Elgin

It's always nice to know your goalkeeper has your back.

In Saturday's Class AA boys soccer regional final at Lake Park, the host Lancers struck first against Elgin on a penalty kick, but then the offense seemed to let up a little bit the remainder of the first half. Still, the Lancers never did relinquish their lead thanks to goalie Matt Durbin, who kept the Maroons (11-10-1) off the board with a pair of sparkling saves until the offense sealed the 3-0 win with a pair of second-half goals.

"Durbin kept us in the game when we needed him most," said Lake Park senior Kevin Hughes, whose PK gave the Lancers a 1-0 lead with 23:57 left in the first half. "We got the lead and he took care of things for us."

The Maroons, who tied Lake Park 1-1 two weeks ago, came close to tying the score only to have Durbin make a diving stop to rob Hugo Aranda with 14:09 left in the first half. Durbin, who had 8 saves in the game, then made an acrobatic save on a rocket off the foot of Elgin's Joel Perez late in the half.

The Lancers (14-5-5), who will take on Schaumburg at the Streamwood sectional on Tuesday, were able to breathe easier after Chris Gajda made it a 2-0 contest with 15:30 left to play. A header by Edwin Castro with just more than three minutes remaining ended the scoring and gave the Lancers a 3-0 win and their fifth regional crown in seven years.

"It's for everyone's sake when it's a 1-0 game," Durbin said of his critical stops. "I try to back up my team and keep it clean back there."

Lake Park coach Norm Hillner liked the way his team started, even if a strong first 15 minutes still left the game scoreless. The penalty kick, awarded after Gajda was tripped in the box, got things going for the hosts.

"The first 10-15 minutes we had a lot of opportunities," Hillner said. "The goal helped immensely. After our goal they (Maroons) played well, but we got a couple real nice saves."

Elgin coach Dave Borg felt his kids gave their all but the breaks didn't come their way. He wasn't thrilled with the call on Lake Park's PK and also felt his team could have been awarded a PK in the second half.

"They're a good team, but not three goals better than us," Borg said of the Lancers. "Teams like us never get a break. I take my hat off to Lake Park and I wish them the best of luck, but we feel empty."