Defending champ Boylan ousts Jacobs
Rockford Boylan looked every bit the part of a championship team Wednesday night.
The reigning Class 3A state champs proved too much for upset-minded Jacobs, soaring to a 5-0 victory to end the Golden Eagles' season in a sectional semifinal match at Barrington.
The nationally ranked Titans (26-0) will face Warren (20-3-3) Friday at 6 p.m. in the final in a rematch of the tournament opener in Barrington in late August which saw Boylan earn a 4-1 victory. Jacobs finished the season 11-12.
“Boylan is a terrific soccer team, no doubt, but I wish we could have come out and given a better effort in that first 20 minutes — instead of what that uneasy, nervous, unsettled soccer that we played,” said Eagles' head coach AJ Cappello, who helped guide his team to a regional championship last week against Fox Valley Conference rival Dundee-Crown.
“We didn't look ourselves, and before we knew it, (Boylan) put a couple into the back of our net, and we never really recovered from that opening until the second-half, when we were more relaxed, and looked more like the team that we've been in the last couple of games,” Cappello said.
“Our plan was to get out on the front foot, and put a lot of pressure up high on (Jacobs) and in the early stages, we did just that, and because of that we were able to get the lead, and keep it thereafter,” offered Boylan head coach Chris Mera, who with this victory is now 5-0 on the Barrington pitch, after going 4-0 at the Barrington Classic in the second week of the season.
The Titans' opening strike was engineering when Tyler Robinson's cross field serve to the left side was met by Ken Tryggestad, who with a one-timer thumped an 8-yarder into the net to give the NIC-10 champs the lead at 3 minutes.
Brian Didier would double the Boylan lead 5 minutes later when Mitchell Lotko put him through with a nifty ball over the top and before too long, Kevin Hastings made it 3-0.
In between, Jacobs keeper Nick Matysek was more active than he would have wanted to be, turning around a handful of well-paced serves off corners from all-state candidate Ryan Howe, and his MF partner Tryggestad from the middle of the park, with the junior's best save coming on a marvelous serve from Drew Gaurke to the spot.
Matysek would manage to parry away the dangerous ball but when it fell in close to the 6-yard box teammate Kenny Finn cleared a would-be goal off the line from Howe.
“It was such a bad start from all of us, but I really felt during warm-ups we were ready to go. But when the game started, I think a lot of us froze up and it was that case of nerves which really did us in,” offered senior Mario Rako, who wore the captains armbands along with Matt Taflinger.
After the break, the Eagles would find their pace, and with some spirited play of their own began to possess with a little more confidence, while spending far more time in the Titans' end than any other in the first hour or so.
Brad Cleveland, Erik Soto, Erik Nava and Rako were dangerous as a group, and alone when they went forward, and it was a long-range cracker from Soto which forced Boylan keeper Tim Dobrowski to save the 30-yard strike. That gave the Eagles some life, in which grew from then on, and right until the final whistle.
Playing with plenty of energy and desire, despite their 3-goal disadvantage, the Eagles defended bravely during the final quarter hour, but were unable to keep the Titans from getting into the net twice more to finish things off.
“I am very proud of the way we played hard for 80 minutes, and especially in the second half when we could have just laid down and given up,” Cappello said, “but these guys are not like that, and with so many guys coming back next season, there's even more reason for 2012 to be even better than this year.”