Round Lake ends Gators' record-setting season

 

By Mike Garofola

The stars seemed to be aligned for Crystal Lake South on a frigid Thursday night at Barrington, as the Gators took the field for its sectional semifinal against Round Lake.

After all, there was the revenge factor for South, which lost 1-0 to the Panthers early on in the 2010 season. It was the lone defeat of the season for the FVC Valley champs. The Gators were also going into the rematch against a Round Lake team that had given up two goals in its last two games.

But this hasn't been a typical state tournament series.

Top seeds have been falling all over the place. Three of the top four seeds were eliminated at the Schaumburg sectional, while higher-seeded Fremd and Lake Zurich fell to upstart and No. 7 Highland Park in consecutive matches at the Libertyville sectional.

The Gators burst out of the gate on Thursday, going close on two glorious chances in the first quarter hour of play, but then failed to muster another opportunity over the next hour of play.

The Gators (21-2-2) would be shutout for the first-time in a record-setting season, falling to the Panthers 2-0 and ending what will be remembered as the best season in program history by a former all-state goalkeeper in Gators coach Brian Allen.

"This season was another unforgettable one that I would like to believe has put South back on the soccer map," Allen said.

Allen must say goodbye to his entire backline of Matt Biederwolf, Brian Karp and Adam Gatza, along with keeper David Walsh, who were a part of a school record 15 clean sheets. South only gave up 15 goals in 25 matches, another Gators record.

Allen knew his lads would have a difficult time recording one more shutout to the scoresheet on this frigid evening. The Round Lake trident of Jordi Rubio, Edgar Rodriguez and Mauricio Salgado were on the prowl and quite capable of adding another to their combined 60-plus goal total.

But the Gators coach was also confident his club could score, and defend the Panthers and their high-powered attack.

"The long delay for us to start our match while Boylan-Larkin completed their shoot-out match didn't effect us at all,” Allen said. “In fact, we got off to the start we wanted, forcing the issue and getting good pressure. We produced some terrific chances in the first ten minutes."

All-state striker Charlie Oliver had one of those chances, nearly stunning the Panthers 2 minutes into the match with an enterprising 40-yard run and carry into the area, where a trio of defenders raced to tackle the junior before he got free and in on keeper Luis Leon.

Alex Tapia and Oliver would combine on a nice 1-2 to set-up Oliver once again, but Leon made the save at 8 minutes.

"I think we were all very nervous at the start, and it really showed in how we played all over the field," Rubio said.

The best -- and unfortunately the final -- quality opportunity for the Gators fell to Oliver at 14 minutes, off of a 3-vee-1 counter, but Leon blocked Oliver’s shot and lit a fire under Round Lake’s defense.

"Luis made a couple of big saves for us against their great player up top, and after that I think our defense finally settled down and played a little smarter the rest of the way," offered Round Lake head coach Hugo Tellez.

Rubio would give his club the only goal it would need at 37 minutes on a penalty kick.

“The PK, well I don't know if was the right call or not," Allen said. "But the fact (was) we just didn't capitalize on our chances, and after we didn't score you could almost tell from our body language the guys were thinking, uh-oh, here we go again."

Allen and his staff made a few adjustments at intermission, but Round Lake elevated its play to gain the run of the play for most of the second half.

Some chippy play resulted in a few yellow card bookings after the break, and except for a handful of free-kick serves into the area from Gatza, and a couple of deep throws by Jacob Stock, the Gators could not pry open the Panthers defense.

The result was never in doubt after Rubio put in his 29th goal of the season at 74 minutes when he deftly went up and over Walsh from the right of the Gators keeper.

"A season-ending loss is always difficult to deal with at all levels, but there's a lot of great memories for these guys to take with them," Allen said.

The Gators’ accomplishments this season include the best winning percentage in school history (21-2-2, .880%); a first-ever undefeated FVC record (12-0-0); and most consecutive wins (13).

The Gators’ 21 victories was also the second most in program history - the program’s record is 22 wins.

"And,” Allen said. “It was a really great group of young men, who have all become family to one another."

"Midfielders Mike Hernandez and Trevor Bittenbender worked tirelessly to give us a 2-way threat, Tapia scored some huge goals for us along the way, and role players like Javas Singh, Zack Sebastian and Miguel Loera are really going to be missed because they pushed everyone to their limits during training. They were constant professionals on the bench, and were terrific students in my classroom."

"It really is a special group, and one that I will never forget."