Spartans rally from deficit before falling late to Elgin

By Casey Callanan

St. Francis broke an unacceptable trend that had plagued its team all season in a 3-2 loss to Elgin Saturday afternoon in Wheaton.

Despite facing a two-goal deficit, the Spartans battled back against a team with a much larger enrollment.

"Usually when we go down 2-0 we defeat ourselves," said St. Francis coach Kristin Keigley. "But we didn't just let that happen today.

"That mentality will help us as we get closer and closer to the playoffs."

Elgin goalie Omar Villafuerte didn't have to touch the ball until the 19th minute of regulation.

The Maroons broke through for the first goal of the game in the 30th minute after Samual Escobar's lightning-quick speed got the best of St. Francis.

Escobar controlled a 50-50 ball and fired his shot from 25-yards away to give Elgin a 1-0 lead.

Not surprisingly, the first 40 minutes of action swung in favor of the Maroons, but St. Francis gained quality looks at the goal after a sluggish start.

With nine minutes to play in the half, St. Francis junior Perry Poulos' direct kick looked on frame, but an unfortunate bounce put the ball directly out of bounds.

In the last two minutes of the first half, the Spartans had their best chance to tie the game.

With Villafuerte completely out of position, Andy Wood tried to get a deflected ball on the open goal, but his shot rolled out of bounds.

"We put away goals today, but we did miss some breakaways," said Spartan senior Andres Pena. "We have to put those away and it would have been a different game."

The score could have been a lot more lopsided if not for timely defense from the Spartans.

Matt Bonner and Kyle Bhatia cleared away two early chances from Elgin and Poulos' header denied another chance.

In addition, TJ Kliebhan wrestled a ball away from Elgin's Cuauhtemoc Estrada on a breakaway to keep his team in the game at halftime.

"The whole defense and midfield came back to help us," Keigley said. "It was an eight person group that made a difference in us containing."

Midway through the second half, an Elgin corner kick led to the Spartans flying to the other side of the field on the counter attack.

Spartan forward Nick Konchel found himself all alone but had his shot deflect off the hands of Villafuerte. Konchel gained the rebound but he misfired high.

Shortly after the Spartans' best scoring chance to that point, Elgin's Carlos Moreno scored to give the Maroons a 2-0 advantage.

But instead of throwing in the towel St. Francis showed a fight to make the comeback.

With 16 minutes left in the game, Pena controlled a favorable bounce in front of the Elgin goal. He blasted the ball into the net and cut Elgin’s lead in half.

Eight minutes later, Pena's throw-in from the left side of the field led directly to a goal off the foot of junior Drew Mascari .

The equalizer shocked Elgin and changed the entire complexion of the game.

"Usually (being down) is a problem for our team, but we just kept going," Mascari said.

The Maroons bounced back in the 75th minute. Moreno broke free from the St. Francis defense and scored the game-winning goal.

"It's disappointing," Pena said. "We battled really hard. We made a mistake and we have to keep our heads up going into Monday's game against Freeport."

"I told our team we shouldn't be upset because of how well we played today," Keigley said.

After playing Freeport at home, the Spartans will conclude their regular season with a road trip to Larkin on Wednesday.

Then one week later, St. Francis begins postseason play with a match against the host team in the Class 2A Riverside-Brookfield Regional.