Maroons suffer tough loss to St. Charles E.
It was everything that spectators look for in a soccer match Tuesday night when the Saints came marching into Elgin's Memorial Field for a heated Upstate Eight Conference matchup.
Nothing came easy, and some things came at a hefty price.
In the end, the high speed, physical and intense match concluded in favor of St. Charles East which walked away with the 3-2 UEC victory over the Maroons.
The Saints got on the board first when Cameron Caruso found the back of the net on a free kick from about 13-yards out with 32:03 remaining in the first half.
Elgin goalkeeper Nikil Satish (16 saves) anticipated left, and reacting on a gut feeling, his diving effort to defend left the right side of the net wide open for Caruso's knock.
With 25:32 left to play in the first, St. Charles East would extend its lead to 2-0 as Caruso connected with forward Ben Fowler in front of the net. Fowler would dish a shot past Satish with a soft touch.
"Cameron and Ben are playing very unselfish right now," said Saints coach Jorge Ortiz. "They work off each other well and feed off of one another. They have been our bread and butter offensively."
But, Elgin (8-5, 2-3) refused to quit and with 19 minutes left to play in the first, a battling Lucas Valencia found Kevin Rodriguez to cut the lead in half.
Valencia went down in front of the net, but continued to fight, rolling over and dishing a pass to Rodriguez from the ground. Rodriguez fired a shot over leaping St. Charles East goalkeeper Charlie Lyon (12 saves) and into the upper left to make it 2-1.
"The guys did everything we asked them to do in the first half," said Elgin assistant coach Ricky Hernandez. "They were communicating well and playing as a team."
The half concluded at 2-1 after several empty exchanges for both teams.
Elgin would tie things up just 4 minutes into the second half when Valencia's head-on collision with Lyon in front of the net would help the ball into the net to make it 2-2.
Valencia left the game, and would not return.
"Lucas, he is hurt," said Hernandez. "We are hoping to have him back for our next game, but we will have to wait and see."
Seven minutes later, with 30 minutes left to play, the unstoppable East tandem of Fowler and Caruso would strike again putting the Saints on top once and for all.
Fowler drove the ball down field pulling Satish out of the net, and a beautiful feed to Caruso resulted in the game-winning goal.
"Unselfishness by other teammates was the key," said Caruso. "The guys do what they can to find Ben and myself up top and we do our best to finish."
Elgin had its opportunities with time remaining, but could not finish.
"After that third goal by East, the guys got sloppy," said Hernandez. "St. Charles brought the game to us, and in the end, they got the best of us."
"They found gaps in our defense, and that is how they scored."
St. Charles East (8-4-3, 2-1-1) attempted to widen the lead several times in the final 20 minutes of regulation, but Satish spoiled any chances with several incredible stops to keep Elgin in the game.
"I thought we played extremely well," said Ortiz. "We knew that Elgin had a lot of individual players with skill, and to be effective we had to work as a team."