Boys soccer: Canfield rallies Crystal Lake South past Lakes; Boylan blanks Vernon Hills

As prolific as Alex Canfield was last season for Crystal Lake South's boys soccer team, his encore has been equally impressive.

The senior forward scored a hat trick Tuesday night, leading the defending Class 2A state champions to a come-from-behind, 4-3 win over Lakes in semifinal action of the Belvidere sectional.

Canfield hiked his goal total to 31, after he tallied 33 last season.

"Every goal counts," Canfield said after Crystal Lake South (17-4-4) earned a berth in Friday's 6 p.m. final against Boylan Catholic. "If you don't score, then you don't win, and then you're out of the playoffs."

Lakes (12-7-1) gave Canfield little space to operate in the offensive end, but it didn't matter.

"They were making it very tough for me," Canfield said of the Eagles. "They were a super physical team and they were shutting me down at the beginning. I just had to find ways to (score)."

Rallying is nothing new to the Gators.

"We've had a couple of games where we've fell behind early," Crystal Lake South coach Brian Allen said. "We had to persevere early on. We had some injuries. We had different people step up, and we needed more of that in this one. Sometimes you just have to have a player to say, 'Enough is enough.' That's what Alex did, and what Alex does. He put us on his back and he gave us a chance."

Lakes' Timothy Pollak opened the scoring in the 21st minute, but Canfield tied the score in the 32nd minute, and the teams went into halftime tied 1-1.

Anthony Kaspar's 30-yard strike into the side netting gave Lakes a 2-1 advantage in the 56th minute, but Canfield answered two minutes later. He beat a defender and powered a shot into the back of net, tying the match at 2-2.

In the 60th minute, Canfield fired another shot. Lakes keeper Camden Steinert turned it away for one of his 12 saves, but the Gators' Colton Weidner knocked in the rebound for the go-ahead goal.

Canfield added another goal in the 74th minute for his third of the match.

Lakes got within one again in the 79th minute after a foul in the penalty area. Brady Lucas scored on a rebound after his penalty kick was stopped by Gators keeper Carson Hills (6 stops).

"We left ourselves vulnerable trying to get a goal," Lakes coach Kevin Kullby said. "They found (Canfield) and he's a very impressive player. He was the real deal. His first two steps that are the fastest I've seen by a player since this past summer, and he has great skill. I can't fault our team. We kept fighting back all the way to the end."

Boylan Catholic 3, Vernon Hills 0: Vernon Hills couldn't keep its late-season magic going in the Class 2A sectional semifinal.

Vernon Hills played its best soccer down the stretch, winning 9 of 10 games to advance to the sectional for the third time in four years.

But the Cougars (11-9-2) couldn't sustain that type of play against Boylan Catholic, which did all of its scoring in the opening half.

Boylan (14-5-4) will play Crystal Lake South (17-4-4) in the Belvidere sectional final at 6 p.m. Friday.

"(Boylan) was a good, quality team," Vernon Hills coach Mike McCaulou said. "They were super shifty, very technical, and they had some special players. We had a totally different second half from the first. We have been a super strong team all year long, especially in the last four to five weeks. We just came out a little flat, and they took it to us a little. I thought we had the better chances in the second half. That's the game of soccer. You get the chances and you don't finish. This group was pretty special."

The Titans' Collin Mendoza started the scoring in the 15th minute. Michael Koutsopanagos scored on a header in the 17th minute for a 2-0 advantage.

Jack Bonavia added a third goal for Boylan in the 32nd minute.

"That's what we strive to do. We try to get after (the opponent) in the first half and put pressure on them," Boylan coach Chris Mera said. "I think in the game of soccer a lot of times it's the team that scores first (that's successful). We have a young team. Scoring hasn't been our strength this year, but lately we've been scoring some goals.