South Elgin dominates Driscoll
Driscoll started out Wednesday's soccer game a player down.
It didn't take very long for South Elgin to put them in a grand-canyon sized crater. Javier Rojo scored less than 2 minutes into play and James Hollander notched the first hat trick in school history as the Storm rolled past Driscoll 11-0 in a nonconference matchup at Millennium Field.
"If the opportunities are there to finish, we finish," South Elgin coach Mark Neville said. "They were out-manned numbered wise from the beginning. We worked on touches on the ball, spreading the play of field and switching the field."
Numerous touches led to 8 different players scoring goals in the game, including 7 in taking a 8-0 first-half lead.
Hollander's second and third goals came during a 58-second stretch early in the first half to extend South Elgin's lead to 4-0. Hollander first scored on a cross pass from Mike Alfini with 29:56 reaming in the first half. It only took the sophomore less than a minute later to score on a near identical shot, this time the pass coming from Kevin McElwain.
"That was a big confidence boost," Rojo said.
The 11 goals also marks a school record, which was previously set with an 8-0 win earlier in the season. The victory, which moves South Elgin to 3-2, does a lot to erase some of the frustrations the Storm felt during their 0-13 inaugural season.
Raul Zavala (assisted by Fermin Bibriescas) scored with 22:23 left, followed by goals from Alfini (Bartosz Mazurek) with 15:37 left and a score from Mazurek with 15:02 remaining.
Oscar Ibarra (Mazurek) and Ben Kantor (Zavala) each scored before the end of the first half.
Kevin Gilbert, who notched an assist in the first half, scored a pair of unassisted goals in the second half to extend the lead to 11-0.
Rojo hopes that the feeling the wins and goals carry over when South Elgin plays some of the Upstate Eight's top teams.
"This gives us more confidence for teams like Elgin and Larkin," the senior midfielder said. "Especially at Millennium, we play great at Millennium."