Huntley captures first regional title

Huntley's boys soccer team solved DeKalb's style of play Saturday, and with it the Red Raiders won the first regional championship in program history.

Niko Mihalopolous scored off an assist from Lucas Baker in the 23rd minute and the two hooked up again in the first minute of the second half as Huntley went on to a 3-1 win over the host Barbs at the Class 3A DeKalb regional.

The Raiders (17-6-1) move on to the Rockford Auburn sectional and will take on Barrington (18-3-3) at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday. Warren plays Rockford Boylan in the second semifinal.

“We dominated the play but part of that was (DeKalb's) style,” said Huntley coach Kris Grabner. “It was a bend-but-don't break defense on their part. They tried to do the same thing to us they did to Jacobs (in a 1-0 sectional semifinal win). We ended up scoring the first goal on a dead ball and for the majority of the game we possessed and we played well. The ending wasn't pretty soccer but we got the win and that's what we wanted.”

DeKalb did close to within 2-1 in the 26th minute but it only took Huntley 12 minutes to net the insurance score as Matt Kitsis scored unassisted.

Auston Emery made 6 saves in goal for the Red Raiders.

“It's been a long time coming,” said Grabner of the regional title. “It was a solid regional and the win today is a huge step forward for our program.”