Bartlett rallies from 2 down for 1st victory

Trailing South Elgin 2-0 early in the second half, Bartlett's soccer team needed some sort of spark.

Senior forward Rudy Reyes turned out to be the right guy for the job.

Reyes rocketed a 30-yard shot into the back of the net to get the Hawks (1-3-1, 1-1) on the board and a little more than 5 minutes later notched the equalizer off a corner kick from Amine Medmoun.

With 14:29 remaining, senior defender Matt Tobin's penalty kick gave the Hawks their first lead of the match as the home team escaped with a 3-2 victory over the Upstate Eight Conference rival Storm (1-5-1, 0-3) Tuesday afternoon in Bartlett.

"As soon as Rudy put his laces on that ball, everyone looked around and knew that was in," said Hawks assistant coach Vince Revak. "You could tell on the field that the energy level increased exponentially at that point."

"I felt like it was a spark for the whole team to wake up and push forward," said Reyes, whose header a few moments later tied the game at 2-2 and continued the monumental momentum shift.

"Again, the shortest guy on the field with the beautiful far post header (off the corner kick)," said Revak. "He just wanted it."

After Hawks senior forward Omar Chavez got taken down in the box, Tobin's name was called upon to take the go-ahead penalty kick.

"Initially, I wasn't going to take the PK - it was going to be Kevin Nava I think," said Tobin. "I've been playing at a defensive position for most of my high school career so I haven't had many opportunities to score.

"When my team called me to take the PK, it meant so much to me that my teammates had that much trust in me."

Tobin sent a low blast just to the right of Storm goalkeeper Christian Andrew (5 saves), whose partial deflection couldn't quite thwart the attempt.

"When I was up there, I was like, 'I've done this a million times in practice - I just have to hit it and I'll be fine.' When I got up there, my legs were shaking but I couldn't let nerves take over."

Tobin's second career goal helped provide the Hawks with exactly what they needed most - their first victory.

"It's huge," said Revak. "That first win can really prove to these kids that we are a better team than we've shown. I think this win will give us momentum going into the rest of our season."

Junior Lucas Reutimann and sophomore Victor Chagoya scored goals for South Elgin, which led 1-0 at halftime.

"It was a very poor second half," said Storm coach Simon Brinklow. "Up 2-0, you would expect us to seal up the win but we didn't manage the game very well in the second half.

"We've been conceding goals on corners all season long. If we keep conceding soft goals from corners, we're going to be in the same situation. I can't fault the effort but when you're winning 2-0, you need to manage the game properly and see it out."