Boys soccer: Somonauk-Leland-Newark co-op rolls to Class 1A regional title

SOMONAUK – The Somonauk-Leland-Newark co-op boys soccer team continued its strong season with a dominant 7-0 victory over Aurora Central Catholic at Tuesday night’s Class 1A Somonauk Regional championship match.

Bobcats’ senior Lance Grandgeorge scored three goals, all in the first half. Evin Hensely scored twice and Carson Bahrey and Austin Todd scored to help their team finish the season unbeaten at home (10-0-1) with their 15th consecutive overall win .

S-L-N (18-3-1) dominated the stat sheet, outshooting the Chargers 24-4, including 16-2 on net, and holding a 9-1 advantage in corner kicks. The Bobcats scored directly off four corners during the win.

“I feel like we’ve scored a ton of goals off corner kicks this season,” said Bahrey, who also had a pair of assists. “It’s part of the game where you have to be in the right spot at the right time, but also makes it easier when you have someone like Luke Rader putting the ball in great spots for the rest of us to attack it. We work on corners a lot in practice, and it’s been a good weapon for us this season.

“This season and the current winning streak are because of the team, everyone contributes. Whether it’s at practice or on the field, every one of us wants to make each other better. Our practices are tough, and we work on creating pressure on both ends of the field. I think our pressure was and has been the key to our season so far.”

Somonauk-Leland-Newark advances to the Oregon Sectional semifinal at noon Saturday to play Johnsburg, which defeated Stillman Valley 7-0 in the Marengo Regional title match. ACC finished the season 10-12-1.

“We knew we were a little bit bigger and stronger than ACC, so we told Luke Rader to just put his corners right in the middle of the box, and just have everyone crash to it,” S-L-N coach Jonathan Liechty said. “Luke was right on target all match, and the guys were hungry for the ball. To be honest, much of converting off corners is players having heart to go after it. ... The guys showed they have that tonight.

“Our defensive unit [Silas Johnson, Chase Lafferty, Pasakarnis, Tristian Garcia and keeper Tristian Reed] have been solid all season and they were again earning a 15th shutout. They didn’t really allow anything to become a good chance for the opposition.”

The Bobcats took the lead for good in the 14th minute when Hensely headed in a corner from Rader (two assists). Bahrey made it 2-0 four minutes later after scoring off an assist from Hensley. From there Grandgeorge, who now has an eye-popping 57 goals on the season, scored three times, in the 19th minute (Lance Pasakarnis assist), and in the 22nd and 35th minutes off helpers from Bahrey to make it 5-0 at the half.

S-L-N added a pair of goals in the second half, first in the 54th minute by Hensley off a Rader corner, then in the 68th minute when Todd scored off a give-and-go with Landin Stillwell.

“I just try and find some space before Luke makes his kick, but once it’s in the air I have the mindset ‘That’s my ball’ and I go after it,” said Grandgeorge of his thought process right before a corner. “We talked before the game about continuing to stay aggressive, and I thought we did a great job of doing that. A lot of us have been playing together since we were little kids, so we have a lot of chemistry.

“We didn’t have the best start this season, a little slow. I think after the opening six or seven games we all really started to click.

“Hopefully we can keep clicking the next few weeks.”