Gators blank Johnsburg to claim 13th straight win

By David Kuechle
Photos courtesy of Keith Allmandinger

Despite an overall effort that wasn't characteristic of its recent play, Crystal Lake South found yet another way to win on Thursday.

Defender Brian Karp tallied the lone goal of the game to lead the Gators to a 1-0 Fox Valley Conference shutout victory at Johnsburg.

"Defensively, we could have been a little more solid and kept it a little more crisp, but we kept the shutout," Gator defender Jacob Stock said.

Crystal Lake South (14-1-1), which won its 13th straight match, didn't show its usual offensive explosiveness, rather it came out flat in the first half.

Whether it was missed coverage, or the fact that they were forced to play against extremely strong winds initially, few things seemed to be working for the Gators.

"The wind was a huge factor for us, but all we had to do was fight through the first half," CLS midfielder Mike Hernandez said.

After spending a good seven minutes in their own half of the field, the Gators started playing tighter in all aspects of the game.

Hernandez had a great scoring chance off of this momentum swing.

Skyhawks goaltender Robert DeRosa reacted to the one-on-one situation aggressively, diving to block Hernandez's shot in what appeared to be a perfect opening.

"The midfielders started sluggish, and it took us a while to sort out what they were doing", Gators coach Brian Allen said.

"We have to simplify our game. If we do the small stuff right, the creativity will find itself."

Still, Johnsburg was picking up slow passes between the Gators, and exploiting them up the field.

CLS goaltender David Walsh had yet another solid game, making a few big saves in the first half.

The Skyhawks had many more chances, however. Johnsburg forward Michael Dombrowski had a stellar break with 13:18 remaining in the half.

He kicked the ball just wide of the net, much to the relief of the Gators who had been relying mostly on their defenders to cause the turnovers and stop rushes.

The wind gusts were having a big effect on the Gators' attempts to get the ball downfield.

Any time the ball was kicked relatively high, the wind would completely change the course of its path.

This is something that affected both teams while going against the wind, and ended up causing confusion on the field multiple times.

By the end of the half, CLS was making smarter and faster passes and set up its style of play for the rest of the game.

"In the second half, we connected our passes and found it more," Hernandez continued.

At 10:45 minutes into the final half, Gators defender Adam Gatza took a blistering shot directly on net.

DeRosa made the save, but was unable to catch the ball, which led to two more quality scoring chances for Crystal Lake South.

Off of a beautiful feed from Charlie Oliver, Karp netted the only goal of the match with 29:13 remaining.

The rest of the team seemed to feed off of this momentum, as just a short time later, Gatza made a huge block from what looked like a sure goal.

Johnsburg didn't sit back on its heels. A ball that was lobbed towards Walsh forced him to make a leaping save with the tip of his hand, projecting the ball inches above and over the crossbar.

Even with the increased assault, the Skyhawks couldn't overcome the Gators defense.

Turnovers were becoming more frequent, and rushes were quickly broken up and brought back towards the Skyhawks net.

The intenseness of the scoring chances were matched only by the physical collisions between players.

Oliver and Matt Biederwolf appeared to have both been injured on separate occasions, but each returned to play minutes after their falls.

"The best thing is that the kids hopped back up and kept playing, and I was glad to see that, instead of complaining and looking for calls," Allen said.

While the team isn't completely happy with the way they've played, the Gators added to their winning streak.

They've now outscored their opponents by a 43-1 margin during their current streak of 13 straight wins.

Crystal Lake South plays the next three games at home, beginning with Prospect on Saturday at noon.