Boys soccer: Jacobs closing in on first FVC title
One could argue that one of the toughest nonconference boys soccer schedules in the Fox Valley area belonged to Jacobs this season.
Early tests against St. Charles North, Streamwood, Barrington, Wheeling and Evanston helped the Golden Eagles play at a high tempo and pace let alone see bigger programs and different styles. Learning to adapt and winning in different manners certainly paid its dividends in Fox Valley Conference play, where Jacobs (12-3-4) is 6-0 and seeking its first outright conference title since 2000.
But to get that elusive title the Eagles are going to have to show what they're made of against Dundee-Crown next week while Thursday night's opponent, McHenry, is the team that ousted the Golden Eagles last year in penalty kicks at the Huntley sectional.
"I know they felt sour after dropping two games to McHenry last year and it's something that's been in the forefront of their brain," coach AJ Cappello said of his team. "They've used that as motivation and learned how to win in a couple different ways this years as opposed to playing the game the way we want to play it."
Junior Noah Melick has seen his share of double teams but has overwhelmed teams with 24 goals and 5 assists, second in the area in goals as of Wednesday. But others are stepping up around last year's all-area co-captain like Dan Buirge, Gabe Swarthout, keeper Ethan Pickering and Colin Walsh. A team effort is needed against a defensive Warriors team, which is 13-2-2 and has a stout goalkeeper in senior Jake King (10 shutouts) as well as defender Zach Ruppenthal and offensive stars Connor Uhl (13 goals, 3 assists), Ian Tapia (5 goals, 6 assists), James Mulhall and Justin Rutherford (4 goals, 6 assists).
"When you play a team like McHenry that can do what they do so well and defend as well as they do and have Jake King in net and bring the work rate they do every time they step on the field, you have to score goals in different ways and be creative and other guys have to step up and we've been doing that of late," Cappello said.
UEC/FVC races: Conference standings took some shape after Tuesday's slate. Trailing undefeated Jacobs (6-0) in second in the Fox Valley was Dundee-Crown (10-8, 5-2), but its loss to CL Central gave Huntley (12-4-1, 4-1), which downed McHenry (3-2) in overtime, a chance to earn a tie or an outright title if the Golden Eagles can't sweep their last 2 conference games against McHenry and Dundee-Crown. Huntley would have to sweep its last 3 FVC games against District 155 teams - CL Central, CL South (11-6-1, 3-2) and Prairie Ridge. Last year a five-way tie for the FVC Valley Division occurred but a repeat won't happen this year since McHenry and South (both 3-2) meet for their final conference game. A four-way tie can occur if: Jacobs, Huntley, Dundee-Crown and either McHenry or CL South finish at 6-2. D-C and McHenry would have to beat Jacobs, Huntley would have to go 2-1 and McHenry or South would have to sweep its final 3.
In the Upstate Eight, Glenbard East clinched the Valley Division thanks to a win over West Aurora on Tuesday whereas St. Charles North is the front-runner in the River, but just barely. Streamwood's 2-1 win over the North Stars Tuesday gave North a 3-1-1 record, while Streamwood (3-1-2) and St. Charles East (3-2-0) round out the top three. A North win over Batavia clinches the River on Tri-Cities Night next Tuesday. A tie or a Batavia win in that game coupled with an East win over Geneva would give East the title. A tie between Batavia and North and an East loss or tie to host Geneva at Tri-Cities Night would mean a two-way tie between Streamwood and North for the title. A loss by North and a loss or tie by East would give Streamwood the division.
Fathers and sons: Two area programs have father-son connections that are rather interesting. St. Edward coach Tim Brieger is coaching his son, Chase, a freshman on the Green Wave's varsity team while Streamwood coach Matt Polovin's situation is more complex. You might wonder why Polovin has a St. Charles North T-shirt in his dresser but it's for good reason. His son, Matt, is a freshman on the St. Charles North JV squad. Polovin opted not to wear his North Stars T-shirt during a 1-0 JV win over Streamwood Tuesday at Millennium Field, but he does regret going to his car with 2 minutes left in the game to grab some forgotten soccer equipment. "I watched the whole game and I'm not even kidding, maybe 2 minutes left I go to my car to get the game balls and pennies in the trunk and I hear "goal, scored by St. Charles North,' " Polovin said. "I go back up to Millennium and everyone's saying, 'hey, you just missed it, your son just scored a goal.' And they won 1-0 on my son's goal and I missed it. I couldn't believe it." When young Matt does make it up to varsity, that's when things will get very interesting. "That's been in an interesting little wrinkle and a fun one to be apart of," North Stars coach Eric Willson said. "You cross those lines and it's game on and it's all in good sportsmanship and it's all in good fun. (Matt's) dad is a competitor just like his son so I think they'll really enjoy it when the opportunity finally presents itself. I keep telling (Matt Sr.,) 'you look great in North Star blue. (Matt) said he'll wear it anytime he gets a chance to support his boy and then switches over." It is worth noting that Streamwood's varsity did get a 2-1 win thereafter as bragging rights still belong to dad for now.
Tim and Chase Brieger don't have to worry about competing against each other - they're focused on breaking down games on car rides home and that presents a cool dynamic at the Brieger household. Tim claims he's treating his son as equal as everyone else on the Wave roster and Chase is treated just like one of the guys. "I told him that nothing was going to be handed to him," Breiger said. "I'm harder on him - maybe not on the field. But we get into the car and break down games and he's like a little coach. He can break down games and we can talk and I kind of said you're going to have to earn everything you get at St. Ed's. Once you step in you're not my son anymore, you're number 14." Number 14 did garner his first goal in an 8-2 win over Guerin on September 20 and it gave the Wave a 3-0 lead and proud moment for Tim. "I was talking to someone and I saw it and it was tough because yeah, that's my kid and I could hear his grandma and his mom in the stands yelling," Tim said. "It's nice but Chase has grown up wanting to play for St. Ed's. You date back to the '05 team and we were laughing in the car about all his heroes in the car. These kids used to carry him around and give him piggy-back-rides. It is kind of surreal to see him wearing a St. Edward uniform, playing. It was cool, though, I will remember the shot and know where it was for years to come."
The joy of Pepsi: When Huntley beat Lincoln-Way West 1-0 to win the PepsiCo Showdown's Buddy's Helpers bracket on the campus of IIT on September 25, the Red Raiders made some significant tournament history. They became the first school to have both their boys and girls programs win their respective tournament brackets in the same calendar year. "I take a lot of pride in that," Red Raiders coach Kris Grabner said. "That's to me a pretty big deal. The girls score two goals in the first game and they don't score again but win the tournament on 3 shootouts. It was really some great defending and some clutch shooting on the PKs. And the boys, we had three 1-goal games against three very good teams. Teams that threatened offensively and scored on us. To get timely goals and to play the way the boys did that was a big deal."