Boys soccer: Sarmiento's goal lifts Dundee-Crown over Burlington Central

For nearly 70 minutes Tuesday, the nets at the Dundee-Crown soccer field seemed to be about the size of postage stamps.

Both teams struggled to put balls on frame, much less in the net.

The Chargers finally found the back of the net when Thomas Sarmiento banged home the rebound of a shot by Roland Dearborn with just over 10 minutes to play.

That goal held up, giving the Chargers the 1-0 win against Burlington Central in the Fox Valley Conference matchup.

Making the net seem a little smaller was Rocket goalkeeper Tristan Samuelian. The junior netminder made some great saves and choked off some other chances before they got that far.

"It was a focus of ours to just stay compact and be hard to beat," said Burlington Central coach Michael Galeski. "I'm proud of my guys. I thought they did a really good job there. And obviously I've got probably one of if not the best goalkeeper around. He's exceptional."

For much of the game, the Chargers didn't do much to make Samuelian's job tougher.

"I thought (Central) worked really hard," said Chargers coach Rey Vargas. "I thought my team was a little bit ... not quite with it.

"It was just nice to finally put one in the net. This was a rough game for us. This was not our best outing."

Venancio Mejia and Nathan Becker shared the shutout in goal for the Chargers (8-3).

Dundee-Crown had some earlier chances but couldn't connect. Calvin Carlos appeared to bang in a rebound early in the second half, but was ruled offsides.

Minutes later, Jason Miller appeared to have the angle on Samuelian, but missed wide right. And Dearborn had a golden opportunity but the ball sailed just to the left of the frame.

The squads managed just 1 shot on goal apiece in the first half, with the ball largely residing in the midfield.

After intermission, the Chargers came out somewhat more aggressive, but couldn't convert until Dearborn's shot came out right to Sarmiento to the right of the wide-open goal and he knocked it home.

Dundee-Crown returns to Fox Valley Conference play Thursday when the Chargers travel to Cary-Grove.

Burlington Central is back in action Thursday at home against Jacobs and also plays at home Saturday in a nonconference game against St. Charles North.