Larkin takes out South Elgin in PKs again

Say it’s not South Elgin — again.

If there was a way to describe cruel and usual punishment in the realm of high school soccer, look no further at what transpired at the Class 3A Streamwood regional final Saturday afternoon.

For the second consecutive postseason, Larkin and South Elgin needed penalty kicks to solve which Elgin Area School District U-46 school would advance further into the playoffs.

And for the second consecutive postseason, it was the Royals coming out on top, ironically by the same score as last year’s York sectional semifinal — 2-1.

This year, Larkin (10-10-4) moves on to play Hononegah Wednesday at 5 p.m. in a Class 3A Huntley sectional semifinal as South Elgin’s season ends at 9-10-2.

“I know they’re going to start hating us big-time for that. I think I’m getting too old for this; my heart is beating a little bit too much,” said Royals coach Ken Hall, whose team has won 8 regionals in 10 years. “They dominated us in the first half, I thought we did a little better in the second half and in the overtime and (South Elgin) came out hard, they’re physical, they’re athletic so we knew we had to play well to beat them.”

How about more irony? Larkin needed penalty kicks to get past undefeated Dundee-Crown Wednesday in the semifinals as goalkeeper Aldair Dominguez, the star of Wednesday’s show and last year’s PKs, stole the show again with a key stop on Owen Bott on South Elgin’s last kick, which set up Hector Mendoza’s winner.

“It feels great, especially against this team,” said Dominguez, who stopped 2 Storm penalty kicks and managed 1 save on the day. “Everybody’s nervous, but you have to let go of it. You can’t be nervous.”

Juan Carlos Lujan and Moises Raya each had goals for their respective teams in regulation, as Lujan’s goal came on a 45-yard boot in the 25th minute for a 1-0 Storm lead. Raya tied things up on a Pancho Garcia cross from the left side of the box that Raya poked inside the right post in the 57th minute.

“I was hoping for a ball to come in from the back post and I was just waiting for it, “ said Raya. “And when I saw the ball coming I had to score it.”

Larkin outshot the Storm 15-11 (13-5 in the second half) and South Elgin will think of its two chances in the final 30 seconds on chip shots that went wide and high.

“We kind of got away from our possession game a little, we didn’t get back until the last 10 minutes where were possessing again but the effort was always there and the guys didn’t give up on the game and that’s the important part,” South Elgin coach Nate Bowman said. “We beat some really tough teams on our way to this game. Nothing to be ashamed of. They should be proud of themselves.”