CL South blanks Jacobs to advance

E-mail this story

Print this story

Share

McHENRY – Crystal Lake South’s boys soccer team did all of the little things right for its biggest win of the season Tuesday.

The Gators scored in the first five minutes and cruised to beat Jacobs, 3-0, in an IHSA Class 3A McHenry Regional semifinal at McHenry West Campus. They advanced to the final at 11 a.m. Saturday against the winner of today’s semifinal between McHenry and Round Lake.

Top-seeded South (18-3-2) beat fourth-seeded Jacobs (6-12-3) for the third time this season. The win atoned for last season, when the Golden Eagles ended South’s playoff run with a win in the regional finals.

“The guys showed a lot of resiliency,” South coach Brian Allen said. “They knew that Jacobs wasn’t going to be an easy opponent, especially seeing a team for a third time. They gritted it out, and they did the little things they had to.”

Senior midfielder Carey Bienert started the scoring about five minutes into the game with a header off a corner kick by Andy DeBoer. After Bienert’s goal, the Gators clamped down on defense to preserve a 1-0 lead at halftime.

DeBoer increased the lead to 2-0 in the fourth minute of the second half with a header off a perfectly placed free kick by Adam Gatza.

“He’s got me with a couple assists this year,” DeBoer said. “He plays really nice balls, and I know I can just get up above everyone else and get it into the back of the net.”

Sophomore forward Charlie Oliver made it 3-0 five minutes later with a low kick past Jacobs goalkeeper Danny Trevor, and the Gators’ defense preserved the shutout.

Jacobs managed five shots against Gators goalkeeper Dave Walsh. The loss ended a frustrating season for Jacobs that included a coaching change this month.

“We had a lot of ups and downs,” said Jacobs coach A.J. Cappello, who stepped in after Jim Dzialo resigned. “The players had to go through a lot with the coaching change. That’s tough. That weighs on the kids more so than people would admit.”

South will seek its first regional title since 2004. The Gators already dusted off the record books with their first conference title in 12 years when the won the Fox Valley Conference Valley Division.

“We’re definitely confident,” Bienert said. “We want to make sure we’re not cocky, obviously. We want to carry the momentum that we got from this win over to the next game.”