Spartans fail to finish vs. Elgin
By Bill Hupp

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With both St. Francis and Elgin taking turns playing into constant 26-mile per hour southeasterly gusts on Wednesday night, the team that scored with the wind at their backs figured to be the winner.

Ultimately, Elgin dominated St. Francis in the second half, outshooting the Spartans 14-0 in the period en route to a 2-0 victory at the St. Charles East Tournament.

With neither team passing the ball on the ground much, the field was significantly tilted toward whichever team was playing with the wind. As a result, the Spartans had better possession, more corners (four to none) and shots (four to one) than the Maroons in a strong first half effort.

St. Francis nearly took the lead late in that opening frame. In the 31st minute, senior striker Remi Mifsud struck a long through ball that senior midfielder Matt Bonner ran on to. The Elgin goalie came off his line, but Bonner just beat him to the ball and chipped it over the keeper’s head with his right foot. Alas, the ball hit the top of the crossbar and bounced harmlessly away.

Once the game reached halftime tied at zeroes, the Spartans’ advantage for a victory seemed to be gone with the wind. After having taken no shots in the first 38:50 of the game, the Maroons ripped off eight in the next 15 minutes of play with the wind at their back.

Elgin strikers Oscar Rodriguez and Eduardo Perez played with a lot of confidence and skill, dribbling through and around defenders to create difficult situations for St. Francis goalkeeper Bobby Rozner.

Early in the second half, Rozner made a few fantastic saves to keep Elgin (2-10) off the scoreboard, including blocking a point-blank shot from Rodriguez off the line with his right foot.

“It’s not what they were doing, it’s what we were not doing,” Spartans coach Kristin Keigley said.  “We weren’t defending smart – we were jumping, poking, diving in, things they know they aren’t supposed to be doing. So we were making it easy for Elgin to just dance around with the ball.” 

In the 52nd minute of play, Rodriguez forced a turnover, dribbled into the box and blasted a hard shot to the top left corner of the net for the game-winning goal.

“We did exactly what we wanted to [in the game],” Elgin coach Dave Borg said. “We just wanted it to be 0-0 at the half because of the wind, and then pelt them with shots in the second half. [Having the wind at our backs] was an unreal advantage. St. Francis worked hard in the first half, then they had to work harder in the second half – so they were exhausted.”

The proverbial nail in the coffin for St. Francis came with a minute to play in the game. Elgin sophomore Juan Flores made a few nifty moves around a couple defenders before drilling a left-footed cross that Chris Lempa, a late substitute for the Maroons, headed home to make it 2-0.

“It’s just frustrating when we decide to play behind the whole time,” Keigley said. “We tell [the kids] in the first half to shoot often, shoot from far away and they dribble into the box. Then once we switched sides, they shoot from far away. They did the opposite of what we wanted them to do.”

“We need to track back better,” freshman fullback Nick Roehl said. “We started the second half with a stopper/sweeper combination, but that wasn’t working. Things got a lot better when we switched back to a flat four [defensive alignment]. We just need to focus defensively.”

Roehl and fellow fullback Jake Miller were a few players that Keigley singled out for their contributions. She also complimented the toughness of midfielder Brett Jungles, and defenders Jason Bhatia and Joe Denny.

“We started off slow and out of it tonight,” Keigley said.  “We’re kind of a come-from-behind team and I don’t know why we like to play like that. There are going to be games where you aren’t going to be able to come back.”

This is the Spartans first loss to Elgin in three years, and after a four game winning streak, St. Francis (5-5) has now dropped the first two games in the St. Charles East Tournament. The Spartans head back out west again tomorrow afternoon to play Glenbard North in the final game of round robin play.

“We need more offense,” Keigley said. “We need more shots, more goals and we need to win tomorrow because we’re not going to come all the way out here for a tournament and lose every game that we play.”