Hats off to Hagan

Dundee-Crown's Kyle Hagan looks upfield on his way to scoring his third goal during Wednesday's game against Woodstock at Emricson Park in Woodstock. Dundee-Crown won, 4-2. (Travis Haughton – thaughton@nwherald.com)

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WOODSTOCK – Kyle Hagan didn’t like his first goal Wednesday, so the Dundee-Crown junior forward polished his next two.

Hagan’s first hat trick of the season got better as it unfolded, the effort helping the Chargers defeat Woodstock, 4-2, in a Fox Valley Conference crossover.

With the right players around him seeing the field and recognizing his location, Hagan has been able to get creative in his attack, and the hat trick could be the first of many to come.

“It feels good,” Hagan said. “This was a good way to start the [conference] season, for sure.”

Hagan staked the Chargers to a one-goal advantage 10 minutes into the first half, launching a ball from the right side of the penalty area that hit the crossbar before falling just behind the goal line.

“I kind of botched that one,” Hagan said. “Luckily it went in or I would’ve been embarrassed.”

Junior midfielder Adolfo Sandoval hit Hagan for his second goal with 7 minutes left in the first half, threading him a pass he sneaked past Woodstock goalkeeper Rodolfo Carreon to put D-C up 3-1.

Hagan completed his feat with a goal with 33:30 left in the second half after Woodstock had cut its deficit to one.

Trailing by two at halftime, the Blue Streaks (2-2-1) got a quick goal to open the second half from senior midfielder Silmar Martinez on a breakaway up the right side of the field, but Hagan gave the Chargers a two-goal cushion again when he tapped in a ball off a pass from senior defender Rigo Garcia.

“I expect a lot from him [Hagan] this season,” D-C coach Rey Vargas said. “When you surround him with people who are going to feed him the ball, you have to expect good things.”

D-C had a chance to go up 2-0 early in the first, but Carreon (12 saves) stopped Mauricio Arellano’s penalty kick and Martinez harnessed the momentum, taking the rebound, sprinting the length of the field and sending a ball past D-C keeper Scott Nowicke to even the match at 1 with 20:10 left in the first half.

D-C senior midfielder Rafael Herrera put the Chargers up for good, 2-1, with his goal at the 10 minute mark in the first half – the only Chargers goal Hagan did not score.

Woodstock coach Mike Golda was without senior midfielders Nate Connell and Luis Arellano and senior defender Marco Ordoñez, who all are injured and expected to return in the next few days and weeks.

It wasn’t an excuse for a two-goal loss, though.

“Dundee-Crown has a good team,” Golda said. “They came out full of intensity, and it seemed like whenever they scored, we felt like we had to match that intensity. With a team like this, though, you have to take their intensity and play above it and we didn’t do that.

“It seemed like after [the second half goal] we relaxed too much and then [Hagan] got the ball again. At halftime we talked about keeping one man on him, I assigned someone to mark him and we lost him.”