Boys soccer: Crystal Lake South holds off Dundee-Crown
Even as Dundee-Crown thwarted one quality scoring chance after another, Crystal Lake South maintained the faith and kept up the pressure.
"I liked that we kept forcing issues," Gators coach Brian Allen said. "We peppered their keeper (Cristo Varela), he made some really great saves to keep them in the game. I thought our mentality was good, that we knew it was going to come if we were patient enough."
Eventually it did. Defender Josh Washington scored off Tyler Getzinger's corner kick in the 64th minute, and 3 minutes later Getzinger scored on a penalty kick as South defeated the Chargers, 3-2, in their Fox Valley Conference boys soccer game Tuesday at Jonathan W. Collins Field.
D-C (4-3-2, 4-2) took a 2-1 lead 3 minutes into the second half when Ashton Ajroja knocked in a rebound off Domingo Conejo's corner kick.
South (4-2-1, 3-2-1) immediately applied the pressure and kept it on. The Gators outshot the Chargers, 10-3, in the second half and two of D-C's shots came in the final minute when South was playing one man down.
"We always say, no matter what happens or who scores, we have the next five minutes," said Gators forward Sam Bahnfleth, who scored the game's first goal. "We win those five minutes and keep the pressure on the whole time. We just wanted to keep them in front and keep a solid line in the back. We just wanted to keep them in front of us."
It took 20 more minutes after Ajroja's goal for South to find the net with Washington's goal. Shortly after that, forward Tommy Coughlin was fouled in the goal box and Getzinger put in the game-winner.
"As soon as they scored on us, right away we said, 'Pick up our heads, the next one is ours,' " midfielder Deven Tinajero said. "We have to push each other to our best. We kept talking and pushing each other and got the result."
With 2:24 remaining, Coughlin was called for his second yellow card and the Gators had to finish with 10 players. D-C turned up the heat before the final horn.
Tinajero prevented a tying goal when he kicked the ball off the goal line in the final minute.
"It went through the keeper's legs and our center back's legs and I just saw it at the last second," Tinajero said. "It was pretty close."
Gators keeper Dominic Timberlake then came up with a final big save with 20 seconds remaining.
"They came out in the second half and outworked us," Chargers coach Rey Vargas said. "They had us pinned down for a while. When you can't get out of that, they're going to eventually score. That was the difference.
"We had some great opportunities (in the final two minutes). We had them pinned down like they did to us earlier. We had some great looks and some great balls serviced. We have to put one in the back of the net."
Allen appreciated the mindset his team showed after falling behind.
"We kind of decided we were going to flip the script the best we could with our pressure," Allen said. "We were able to get pressure farther up the field, which caused some turnovers and allowed us to create some chances that way.
"I felt, even with 25 minutes on the clock, it was just a matter of getting one and then the momentum shifts and we keep working to see if we could get the second one."