Things were not looking good going into the second half for the boys varsity soccer team (12-3-1) Tuesday night. Under the lights at Jacobs, the Eagles had established a 2-0 lead less than 10 minutes into the second half.
While the Raiders kept the ball on the attack for most of the first half, none of their shot attempts succeeded. Jacobs scored first on a fast break with a well-aimed kick into the top right corner of the Huntley goal, and again off of a penalty shot following a Huntley yellow card on senior defender David Langford.
The Eagles were playing a physical game, which slowed the Raiders in the first half, but served as motivation for the second half.
“We knew that eventually we would break them down, and you just have to have enough runs at it before you do it,” said head coach Kris Grabner. “I thought at that point we needed somebody to knock us down once or twice until we got up tight and started doing something about it. We controlled ourselves, but we still went hard. We still hit hard.”
With 20 minutes left in the game, Huntley fought back. Senior forward Lucas Baker ran through several Jacobs defenders and launched himself parallel to the ground to head-in a chip shot by junior midfielder and captain Eduardo Gonzalez.
“The second half we just fought and we knew we had it in us to beat Jacobs this year and the end result showed it,” said Gonzalez. “After being down, it kind of gave us memories of regionals here last year, and getting knocked out in the first round to Jacobs, and we said we don’t want that again, and we fought.”
The Raiders tied the game up when junior midfielder Christian Ramos put in a free kick through the keeper’s fingertips following an injury timeout.
With the game tied at 2 with slightly more than three minutes remaining, overtime seemed inevitable, but Baker wove through the Jacobs defense to put in the winning goal.
As the Raiders began to have success on offense, the Jacobs team became increasingly rough, but the Raiders took it in stride, and despite high emotions, continued to demonstrate good sportsmanship.
Huntley’s Niko Mihalopoulos, a junior midfielder, helped a Jacobs player stretch on the field when the Eagles’ midfielder went down with a cramp in the second half, and junior goalie Austin Emery helped a Jacobs forward to his feet after a collision.
Grabner cited the continued effort in the second half and the positive response to being pushed around by the Jacobs team as Huntley’s keys to the 3-2 victory.
“After being down, it kind of gave us memories of regionals here last year, and getting knocked out in the first round to Jacobs, and we said we don’t want that again, and we fought. This is a big step forward in taking conference,” said Gonzalez. “We took another top team down and we look forward to playing Cary Grove on Thursday.”