Dundee-Crown blanks Bartlett, stays unbeaten

Defending their home field and an undefeated record, the Dundee-Crown Chargers boys soccer team came out on the attack against visiting nonconference foe Bartlett.

Although they didn’t match their scoring output of their previous two games this week, the Chargers came away with a 2-0 victory behind 2 Eduardo Arellano goals on Saturday.

“We knew this was going to be a good challenge for us, and Bartlett was a good test,” said Dundee-Crown coach Rey Vargas, whose team improved to 8-0 overall.

The Chargers outshot Bartlett (0-6-1) 12-5 in the first half, and Arellano found the net for the first time with 17:58 left to play in the half after teammate Ben Stone stole the ball from the Bartlett defense and played the ball up for the assist.

The second goal came with 6:03 left in the first half as Arellano set up near the left post and headed in a Francisco Nava free kick. Arellano, a senior, now has four goals on the season.

“Amazing, just amazing,” Arellano said of the Chargers’ undefeated record. “I’ve been playing varsity soccer since my freshman year, and this is probably the best team we’ve had.”

Dundee-Crown had plenty of chances to add to the score, especially in the first half. Alex Ramirez and William Campos both had a shot hit the side post in the game.

Although the Chargers’ offense has been on a hot streak with 6-1 and 5-0 wins earlier this week, Vargas said the play of his defense has been strong. Nava, Jason Horcher, Carlos Ramos and Ivan Sanchez started in the back.

“We have been putting a lot of goals in the back of the net, but more importantly is what we’ve been doing on the other side,” said Vargas. “We’ve given up just two goals this season, and both of them were just off a breakdown in the back.”

The Hawks’ best scoring chance came in the final minute of the first half when a Juan Garcia corner kick led to an Andrew Gott shot on goal. Igor Zwada was also a constant threat on many attacks from the Hawks.

Although the Hawks are still winless, Bartlett coach Ben Beary was happy with the adjustments made in the second half especially from the defense led by captain Joe Butler.

“We played 40 minutes of shutout soccer in the second half, which I was pleased with,” Beary said. “Now, we have to find a way to play 80 minutes of shutout soccer.”

Bartlett goalie Andrew Nowak had 6 saves, and Jose Gonzalez made 5 for the Chargers.