Neuqua Valley leaves no doubt against South Elgin

By Gary Larsen

Watching the first few minutes of Neuqua Valley’s game against visiting South Elgin was like watching a hunk of lumber being fed into a buzz saw.

The Upstate Eight Conference game was sheer Neuqua, with an attack that sent wood chips and sawdust spraying all over the field. Scott Davis posted a hat-trick by the game’s seventh minute and the Wildcats cruised to an 8-0 victory in Naperville.

South Elgin (7-2-1, 3-1) has played the best soccer of its program’s history this year, but the Storm just wasn’t ready for the speed of play that top-ranked Neuqua Valley (16-0-1, 5-0) threw at them.

Did the Storm’s players know how good Neuqua Valley was beforehand?

“We just weren’t ready for that kind of good,” Storm senior Bart Mazurek said. “Our defense definitely wasn’t ready for that.”

The Wildcats grabbed the game’s momentum by the throat from the outset.

“We’ve been giving up the first chance in our games, so (Neuqua coach Tony Kees) wanted us to come out strong and really get after them from the beginning,” Neuqua senior Nate Freed. “I think we got it done. We try to come out and not even give them a chance, and make teams adjust to how we play.”

Davis struck first after Freed turned the corner at the end line and served a ball that Davis buried in the game’s 2nd minute. With the Storm back line playing well high, Davis broke behind and chipped the keeper soon thereafter, and scored again a minute later.

Cale Brown made it 4-0 on another Freed feed.  South Elgin’s best chance of the first half came when Dan Bohlin sent a diagonal ball towards the far post, where David Esquibias managed to send it rolling towards the goal line.

Freed was there to clear it away, however, and the Storm trailed 4-0 at the break. South Elgin managed a good spurt of play on Neuqua’s defensive half of midfield before halftime.

“They had more of the ball and we kind of lost our way a little bit,” Kees said. “It was like our guys were less interested in connecting passes, and that drives me nuts. So we got on them at halftime a little.”

Kees’ boys responded with four more goals in the second half. Freed got in on the action, and Neuqua got goals from Brandon Loncar on a Davis feed, Alex Karkazis, and Nico Markopolous after the break.

“It was like a perfect storm. They’re extremely good,” South Elgin coach Mark Neville said. “They play two-touch, worked the ball around, and unbalanced our defense. And when they had gaps to exploit, they did, every time.”

Kees did everything he could to get his squad motivated and prepared for South Elgin.

“They’ve had some big victories so we knew they’d come out hungry and fired up,” Davis said of South Elgin. “We definitely prepared for that Friday, Saturday, and (Monday).”

With an unbeaten team that is top-ranked in Illinois and ranked No. 4 nationally by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America, Neuqua Valley continues to keep its shoulder to the wheel for Kees.

“I think we’re starting to move the ball around a little better,” Davis said. “We’re still making some sloppy passes, but the intensity is really good and the defense is staying strong.”

“We can get better on restarts, both offensively and defensively. We haven’t put enough in that we probably should, and defensively we’ve had some lapses.”

Afterwards, Kees was particularly happy to see a finish from Karkazis, a converted defender that saw time up top in the second half. The junior is a big kid that may not seem suited to a forward’s spot, but Kees sees something in Karkazis that he likes as an attacking player.

Even if some of Karkazis’ friends on the team haven’t seen it.

“Guys are laughing, and I said ‘what are you laughing for? He’s going to score’,” Kees said. “And he scored a goal.”

“When you’re around the game long enough, you just see certain things…he’s got some of that instinct in him, so we put him up top. They’re wondering why he’s at forward, but I’ve seen things in practice from him and he also finished a great goal against Larkin.”

Man of the match: Scott Davis

By Gary Larsen

Neuqua Valley's Scott Davis spent a lot of time grinning early in Tuesday's 8-0 win over visiting South Elgin.

Davis netted his first hat-trick of the season by the game's 7th minute, giving him 14 goals on the season for the unbeaten and top-ranked Wildcats.

Davis was the exclamation point on the end of the sentence for a Neuqua team that buried the Storm early.

“We came out hard, the intensity was up, we collapsed on their defense and they really didn’t have a way out," Davis said. "I was really pleased with the way that everyone came out because we knew that this game could determine the conference.”

The win put Neuqua at 5-0 in Upstate Eight Conference play.

Davis also hustled his way to a second-half assist, spinning around a defender in the box before toe-poking a centering pass to Brandon Loncar, who finished to the back netting.