Boys soccer: Elgin blanks South Elgin

After suffering a 4-game losing streak and the playoffs quickly approaching something had to change for the Elgin boys soccer team.

Coach Dave Borg decided to shake up the formation and the result has been back-to-back wins. The latest was a dominating 3-0 victory at South Elgin on Thursday in nonconference action.

"We were struggling, so we had to change some things," Borg said. "We decided to put two defensive mids in front of our back line. Eric Whiteman, Danny Zavala, and Jesus Barraza have really done a nice job at those spots these last couple games. It has helped with our spacing and all those guys are good distributors."

Another change that has worked out quite well on the offensive side for Elgin (9-5) has been moving Jesus Lopez from center to the outside. Lopez found himself right in the thick of the scoring with a goal and an assist.

Lopez got the Maroons on the board with a goal at the 24:41 mark of the first half on an assist from Alejandro Valentin Serna Rodriguez.

"Getting that first goal is critical for us," Borg said. "We just settle down and play so much better the rest of the game."

Later in the half Lopez had a penalty kick stopped on a great save by South Elgin goalkeeper Brian Dykstra. However, Lopez had the assist on the Maroons' second goal scored by Cesar Gomez with 1:11 left in the first half.

"Coach has us playing further up in the front," Lopez said. "So it puts us in scoring position and we have to be ready for anything in the box. We started playing this new formation last game and the organization of the whole team on the field seems better. We are playing the way we want to be playing. This win is a huge confidence boost."

Rodriguez added a goal in the second half for the Maroons.

"I am pleased that we are gelling again at the right time with just two weeks to go," Borg said. "This was a big win for us."

Elgin goalkeeper Edgar Rodriguez had 4 saves in recording the shutout. The Maroons had a 17-7 shot advantage. South Elgin fell to 9-8.

"First half we were playing a little too deep and made some costly mistakes," South Elgin coach Simon Brinklow. "I thought we played better the second half. We had some opportunities but just didn't pull the trigger fast enough."