Men's soccer: Harper eliminates Rock Valley

The combatants were the same, and the venue was the same.

But crucially, there was a big difference between last year's playoff meeting between the men's soccer teams from Rock Valley and Harper College, and this year's.

The Hawks fell 2-1 to end their 2014 season, but this year's edition cruised past Rock Valley with a 5-0 victory Wednesday. The result puts Harper into the NJCAA Region IV, Division III championship game on Saturday in Palatine.

"It means a lot to us," freshman forward Niko Mihalopoulos said. "During the season, our one (conference) loss was to (Rock Valley)."

Mihalopoulos got the hosts on the board with the first of his 2 goals. Hawks coach Dan Klaus called scoring first "helpful, and we built on it."

Tafara Musiwa, who was active on the offensive end despite not getting a goal, collected the assist on the first Mihalopoulos goal. The second made it 2-0 in favor of Harper halfway though the first 45 minutes as Mihalopoulos finished a breakaway.

Rock Valley was not able to get a shot on frame until the 27th minute of the first half, and Harper led 2-0 at intermission.

Angel Sarti scored twice in the second half before Fabian Tovar capped the scoring.

Harper's opponent Saturday will be Joliet Junior College, which defeated Madison College 3-0 in the other semifinal.

Klaus likes the take-charge efforts he's seeing from his players.

"They've taken ownership of the team," Klaus said.