Boys soccer: Carranza's return sparks St. Charles East over Kaneland

Kaneland has shown that it's not afraid to play the big boys as the Knights welcomed St. Charles East to its beautiful grass soccer field on Wednesday afternoon.

For the occasion, the Saints were thrilled to have sophomore forward Sebastian Carranza back in their starting lineup as he had missed the past five games due to an ankle injury.

The Knights would have been OK with Carranza resting that injury at least one more day as he proved to be the biggest difference-maker, scoring twice in the first half in a 3-0 victory. That's definitely not too shabby for a guy who hadn't played in a while.

"He's very active and he causes a lot of problems," Saints coach Vince DiNuzzo said. "He changes the way we play and he provides a comfort level for the kids. He was great today."

DiNuzzo explained that it was best for Carranza to rest his ankle rather than rush back into action, especially since he makes a great team even better.

"It's not going to keep him out anymore, but it was something that had to be rested," DiNuzzo said. "We were all happy to have back out there."

Well, maybe not the Knights, especially after he converted a penalty kick. He had dribbled into the corner of the box and was taken down in the 11th minute. Then, he buried his seventh goal of the season about six minutes later to make it 3-0.

"It was fun to play again," Carranza said. "I was just glad to be out there with my teammates."

Tucker Jahns and the Knights found themselves defending more than creating their own chances until late in the first half when Jahns overcompensated on a shot while another was denied by Saints goalkeeper Jack Settle with 10:43 left before halftime.

"We play games against these teams to see where we're at," Jahns said. "It's been a pretty weird season against these big schools compared to the previous year. We're used to losing to St. Charles North 5-1, but we lost 2-0. Then we lost to Geneva 2-1 and they just beat the defending state champs (Naperville North). It's just been a weird year."

Kaneland (7-5) needs to be challenged since it has been so dominant in the new Interstate Eight Conference, boasting a 4-0 record and outscoring teams 23-2. Its four losses are to the two St. Charles schools, Geneva and West Aurora. The Knights beat Batavia.

"We don't have much of a choice and we still have Yorkville and Naperville Central so we're not shying away from the big schools," Knights coach Scott Parillo said. "We've got the second strongest 2A schedule in the state, but we know these teams are going to make us work and make us stronger."

It's kind of like how Carranza makes Settle and the rest of his team better by having to defend him during practice.

"In practice we're always getting mad at (Carranza) for always messing with us, but he honestly makes us better," Settle said. "I would rather have a kid wrecking me in practice than in games."

Settle and the Saints' backline play as been quite unheralded. They have only allowed four goals all season and now have shut out eight opponents.

The Saints (9-1-1) denied what could have been a festive celebration in Maple Park as Parillo is just one victory shy of his 200th as boys head coach. Now he will have to wait at least 24 hours as the Knights will play at Plano on Thursday afternoon.

"I thought we played much better in the second half," Parillo said. "We settled down our nerves and I thought we possessed the ball well and we got some shots off."

St. Charles East had wasted no time in jumping ahead 1-0 as Jake Maslowski's shot off a Kaneland defender was redirected somewhat but still found the back of the net five minutes into the action. That seemed to set the tone for the game as Carranza then followed with a pair of goals to build an early commanding lead.