Boys soccer: Crystal Lake South, St. Charles North battle to draw
Crystal Lake South's boys soccer team kept its hopes alive of a place in Saturday night's final of the 27th annual Barrington Classic with a hard-fought 1-1 draw with St. Charles North Wednesday on the turf at Barrington Community Field.
Sophomore Nikolas Getzinger would bag the equalizer at 49 minutes to give the Gators (1-0-3) 4 points in pool play, two less than group-leading Warren. The Gators meet the Blue Devils at 5 p.m. Thursday.
"It wasn't a very good start for us today, but we didn't hang our heads and go into a shell after conceding that early goal and that allowed us to stay in the match and have a chance to get back level," said South head coach Brian Allen.
The North Stars' Eric Willson got the start he would have hoped for when Alex Amro drove in his free kick from just outside the box, and went close on two more afterward to force the Gators to chase the lead just two minutes after the opening whistle.
"You've got to like the way we began today, and (really) for most of the first half, we did just about everything very well, except (add) to our lead," said Willson.
With Amro, and his running mate Ryan Olson refusing to slow the pace in the middle of the park, the Stars (2-1-1) would have little problem with their possession with some quick movement, while using width as well, most of the time on the outside to Johnny Acevedo, who nearly doubled the Stars' advantage in the 31st minute, after put through by Amro.
"We spent most the time in their end in that first half, but we didn't execute as well after the break, then found ourselves in a dogfight after they drew even," said Willson.
Getzinger finished from an outrageous angle, with keeper Zack Norton challenging hard off his line from the near post in an attempt to stop his 49th minute strike that was set up by Ryan Coughlin.
"We were wary of No. 10 (Getzinger) and told the guys to be so (also) but we gave him a little too much time and space, and he made us pay for that," Willson said.
"That was just a great goal from Nikolas, and for us, and it really gave us some much-needed life," offered Allen.
Matt McCullough, who went close twice during the early stages of the second period, was lost for the rest of the way after suffering an ankle injury, and his absence could be felt up top in the Stars' attack.
Amro would force South keeper Brandon Gorka to turn away his strike around the post and later, his counterpart between the sticks, Norton, did well to catch a long free kick in a crowd from Gators' senior Brian Kirshenbaum.
"These our the type of games we're going to have most of the season, so it was a great test for the guys today, and their effort showed they can play hard for 80 minutes against quality sides," said Allen.
"We played a little frantic after giving up that goal, so we'll need to practice more patience when those things happen again to us," admitted Willson, whose club finishes pool play Thursday against Wheaton-Warrenville South.