Boys soccer: St. Charles North handles Elgin
St. Charles North fans who arrived late to Thursday's Upstate Eight River boys soccer game against Elgin missed some quick action.
Fortunately for them, the North Stars had plenty more to offer.
Behind a pair of goals from Bernard Elegbede and Ryan Olson, the North Stars took the field with a purpose, devouring the Maroons, 6-2.
"It was mostly my teammates. I have to give all the credit to them." Elegbede said. "They found me on the one goal and then the second one was just hard work getting the rebound and crashing the box. Coach (Eric Willson) says crash the box and get that second ball and I just got lucky today."
Elegbede scored exactly three minutes into the game on a play that was assisted by Jonathan Acevedo. Elegbede added an unassisted goal with 34:44 left in the first half.
Sandwiched in between the junior's two scores was a goal from Elgin's Cesar Gomez that came just 13 seconds before Elegbede's second goal.
St. Charles North (8-1-3, 1-0-1) extended its lead to 3-1 with 3:48 left in the half on a cross from Dylan Mientus that was finished by Ryan Olson.
"From playing with Olson for so long I know he's got a great header," Mientus said. "When I picked my head up I just had to find him because I knew he'd put it away, simply and easily."
Elgin (7-4-0, 2-2-0) created some scoring chances in an attempt to get back in the game, but the North Stars put them away for good within a 40-second span relatively early in the second half.
The North Stars scored once again via a cross from Jason D'Amico to Olson with 28:35 remaining before Mientus probably had the prettiest shot of the night less than a minute later.
Mientus showed a nifty dribble, displaying some fancy footwork to fend off a defender before redirecting himself and sending a perfectly placed shot just inside the far post.
"That's just stuff we do in practice," he said. "I actually learned that from Willson. After playing here for four years I know I need to slow down, take a deep breath and then beat the defender and put it away in the back of the net."
The Maroons cut into their deficit slightly, getting a goal from Mishael Gomez with 11:52 left in the game, but they wouldn't get any closer, while the North Stars tacked on a goal from Adam Fries.
It's been a rough week for the Maroons as they also dropped a conference game to Geneva on Tuesday.
"We did what hurts us every time - we started to push the ball into the middle instead of getting to the outside. That's the kiss of death for us," Elgin coach Dave Borg said. "We're tired and we've had a tough schedule. They're kids and they're tired. We need to get through this week and then we get some time off and back to practice."