South Elgin battles but can't finish vs. St. Charles North

By Gary Larsen

In the end South Elgin couldn’t find a tying goal in Thursday’s 1-0 loss to St. Charles North, but it wasn’t for a lack of trying.

“It’s Senior Night, and we all came out to play,” Storm senior Matt Shipon said. “It’s unfortunate we couldn’t get a result, but we played hard.”

North led 1-0 at halftime, during which the Storm’s seniors met their parents on the field on Senior Night at Streamwood’s Millennium Field.

“After that, it was our last 40 minutes of our last home game, in our last year,” Shipon said. “We came out after halftime and we played hard. It’s our last home game and we had to give it all we’ve got.”

The Storm had 15 seniors listed on its roster this year, in Shipon, Bart Mazurek, Dan Bohlin, Devin Crockett, Ryan Hicks, David Esquibias, Anthony Giammanco, Edwin Jaramillo, Ryan Underwood, Josh Hoeg, Kevin McElwain, Mike Lopienski, Onyx Gonzalez, Mike Kenney, and Gustavo Salas.

The program reached new heights in 2009, posting a record 11 wins on the year.

“I think all of us playing together for so long, and this was our last year together,” Shipon said in explaining the elevated level of play this year. “We had something to look forward to this year, and we wanted to get after it.”

Coming off a lop-sided 7-0 loss to Upstate Eight foe Waubonsie Valley, South Elgin (11-5-3, 4-4-2 in UE play) rebounded with a solid effort throughout Thursday’s contest.

Trailing by a goal, Mazurek ripped a good chance just high in the 48th minute, and sent a dangerous through-ball into the box that nearly found a teammate’s foot. Bohlin hit a head shot just high on a good chance soon thereafter, and St. Charles North held on for the shutout.

“Our effort was good in the middle third of the field, but we weren’t quite getting those chances in the offensive third,” Neville said.

“I had a couple seniors from jayvee play and they did a great job,” Storm coach Mark Neville said. “Josh Hoeg and Ryan Underwood – they’re not used to playing on this surface, but after a few minutes they composed themselves and had good touches on the ball.”

“And I thought Onyx (Gonzalez) did a lot of good work defensively for us tonight, and there there’s a lot more to take away from this game than we did against Waubonsie.”

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