Several players in early running for area scoring title

With several area boys soccer teams putting up some big offensive numbers already this season, dominant forwards are starting to make their presence known.

Hampshire's Junior Makinde currently leads the way with 16 goals and 5 assists. Makinde has notched two hat tricks to date, one which came against Rockford Christian on August 21 and another versus Woodstock in a 3-0 win. Makinde has four additional multi-goal games to add to that tally.

Shay Hauck has been another offensive threat for the Whip-Purs with 6 goals and 6 assists. According to Hampshire coach Patrick O'Brien, Hauck is just getting started. In a recent 4-1 win over Marengo his contributions well surpassed offensive production.

"Shay played well for us against Marengo," said O'Brien. "He is really starting to find his groove."

Crystal Lake South is currently led by Jordan Innis with 12 goals and 2 assists. Innis has 4 multi-goal games to date, including a hat trick of his own, which he earned in a 3-1 win over Glenbrook South.

"Jordan has been carrying our scoring load," noted first-year South coach Brian Allen. "We needed that from him, and I think he knew we might early on. He has done an excellent job."

According to Allen, the Glenbrook South game was a real turning point for the Gators who now sit at 7-2-1 overall so a big-game from Innis has been a catalyst for the entire roster.

"Somebody is going to have to step up around Jordan now for us to really get to the next level of our season," Allen added.

Tyler Beachler has found the back of the net 8 times for Westminster Christian, and teammate J.J. Marshall has scored 5 times for the Warriors.

Last year's leader Christian Meza of Dundee-Crown continues to add to his high school career tally with 6 goals to date despite being a marked man. Meza scored a hat trick versus St. Patrick in the North Shore Shootout earlier this season, and most recently scored a game-winning goal versus Cary-Grove in overtime delivering the Trojans their first loss of the year.

"Christian is looking good," said D-C coach Rey Vargas. "He has been frustrated at times, but he will be successful.

"He is a marked man so he is working around double and sometimes triple coverage. We are trying to work on that with him."

Lucas Valencia continues to do work for Elgin. As last year's leading scorer for the Maroons with 19 goals, Valencia is nearly one-third of the way to that total with 6 goals in 2007. Valencia had two knocks against St. Edward and has undoubtedly helped the Maroons to a 7-2 start.

South Elgin is having a record-setting season having scored 27 goals in six games. Currently, James Hollander leads the offense with 6 goals and 2 assists which includes a recent 3-goal showing against Driscoll.

Upsets and shockers: The first few weeks of the 2007 soccer season have been full of surprises including everything from program firsts to firsts in a long-time to hopeful firsts and lasts.

The South Elgin boys varsity roster earned its first win in program history, and has since followed that victory up with two more. After losing a close contest 4-2 against Waubonsie Valley in the season opener, the Storm entered the Burlington Central Tournament where they beat Yorkville in a big way via an 8-0 conclusion.

South Elgin has also defeated Genoa-Kingston (4-1) and Driscoll (11-0) and with 27 goals to date, the team has seen goals from 11 different players.

Elgin upset Waubonsie Valley last Saturday with a 3-2 come-from-behind victory for the first time in at least 5 years. Since the beginning of the season, head coach Dave Borg has said time and again that this would be the year the Maroons would surprise some teams and defeat teams they have struggled against in the past.

This past Saturday, that happened. Elgin came back from a 2-1 halftime deficit to beat Upstate Eight Conference opponent, Waubonsie Valley.

"These guys just don't fold," said Borg. "This team is relentless."

Team chemistry is more than likely the biggest difference between this year's team and last season's roster.

"Communication on the field is at its best yet," said Borg. "Not only are they working together as a team, but they are also taking instruction better. They listen to what we say, and they are applying things immediately.

"It's nice to see them respond."

Westminster Christian really beefed up the schedule in 2007 to help prepare for the post-season. Seventh-year coach Josh Guge said early on that the team's overall record might suffer playing much bigger schools, but in the end Westminster Christian would be a much better soccer team for it.

Thus far, the Warriors have stayed true to their mascot and find themselves hanging with the big boys just fine.

To date, they have beaten long-time foe St. Edward twice by scores of 1-0 and 4-0, and have tied both Hampshire (2-2) and long-time Private School League rival Wheaton Academy 1-1.

"We're looking really good," said Guge. "We wanted to toughen up our schedule for the post season. Here these guys are proving that they can compete with anybody."

The best game yet came most recently against Wheaton Academy this past Tuesday.

"To tie Wheaton is huge for us," said Guge. "When I came into the program we were losing to them 13-0. Each year we have gotten closer and now we've managed a tie. That was really important to our guys."

Guge attributes the team's success to both chemistry and talent in every position.

"Just the fact that our team is competing with some of these bigger schools speaks volumes for our guys. We've got nothing to lose here."

Who's hot: Cary-Grove is off to a strong start having won its first seven games of the season before dropping a Fox Valley Conference Valley Division contest to Dundee-Crown in overtime earlier this week.

The Trojans won the FVC Valley Division title last year going 10-0 and finished the season 14-3-1. With just 8 games played, they are half way to matching last seasons total win tally.

Larkin remains a team to watch. Despite dropping two tough ones at the Pepsi Showdown, the Royals sit at 5-2 and 2-0 in Upstate Eight Conference play.

After a rocky start, Streamwood has won three straight including victories over Fenwick, Glenbard North and most recently Upstate Eight Conference opponent. St. Charles East.

Under new head coach Brian Allen, Crystal Lake South is off to a 7-2-1 start including wins over Bartlett, Glenbrook South, Jacobs and Rolling Meadows.

"Our consistency is getting better," said Allen. "We have also had some big wins so our confidence is growing.

"Our midfield has gotten stronger which had been a concern for us."

According to Allen the real unsung heroes have been the back line of Chris Ruzbasan, Nick Jones, Chris Connelly and Ian O'Malley as well as goalkeeper Zach Dalzell.

"These guys have been extremely consistent," said Allen. "We have always known exactly what we are going to get from them."

News: Burlington Central will welcome Danny Conran back to the field Monday for the St. Charles East Invitational.

Conran was a key player for the Rockets before undergoing ACL surgery over the summer, and his return might be just the spark that Burlington Central is looking for.

"Danny is looking great, and we are very excited to have him come back into the line-up," said Rocket coach Michael Gecan.

"He's practicing well and appears to be back at 100 percent."