Boys soccer: Happy birthday, Coach Huey! Streator wins own invitational for ninth consecutive time

STREATOR – There are times when it’s hard to pick out that perfect birthday gift for someone.

On Saturday at the SHS Athletic Fields, the Streator boys soccer team – aside from the balloons and cake – gave coach J.T. Huey a pretty nice present.

The Bulldogs, after opening the 28th annual Streator Invitational with a 4-0 win over Newark, dropped a tough 1-0 decision to Dixon, and a chance for a ninth straight title looked to have taken a hit.

However, after the hosts’ 3-0 victory in the day’s final match over Bartonville Limestone left the Bulldogs, Dukes and Rockets all finishing 2-1 on the day, Streator won the points tiebreaker system (three points for a win, a point for a shutout and a point for each goal scored, up to three per match) for first place. Limestone finished second, followed by Dixon and Newark.

“That is confidential information,” Huey said with a laugh when asked how many candles would be on his cake. “This was a good birthday present, and they made it interesting for sure. It all came down to the wire, and that’s a tribute to how all four teams played today. It was a fun day. There was good competition here with the four teams, and that is what you want to have.

“It’s nice to be able to say we won another one in a row. This [event] is special to me and the kids ... it’s our tournament.”

In the opening-match win over the Norsemen, Streator (5-1) received a pair of goals from Declan O’Connor, one each from Kannin Angelico and Noah Russow, as well as assists from Adam Williamson, Landon Muntz and Russow. Against Limestone, Muntz scored a pair of goals, Brady Grabowski had a goal and an assist, while Parker Phillis and Williamson recorded assists.

SHS keeper Noah Camp stopped over a dozen shots in the three contests and posted a pair of clean sheets.

Connor Akin, Keaton Yedinak, Camp, Phillis, Russow, O’Connor and Muntz all were named to the all-tournament team.

“The team rose up,” Huey said. “They had a moment in the loss to Dixon that made them take a little step back. We were scored upon and our heads were down. Then against Limestone, we just weren’t stringing anything together, but at halftime our leadership used its voices and, bang, we got one in right away in the second half to get everyone fired up.

“We had a little adversity today and we were able to overcome it.”

Newark (0-5) came into the day with a short bench, missing a few key players because of injury, and lost another during the event. The Norsemen played for stretches in their final match against Dixon, a 4-0 loss, with only 10 players on the field, and also dropped a 3-0 decision to Limestone.

Four members of the Norsemen – Collin Collet, Henry Mathre, Lance Pasakarnis and Nathan Kath – were selected to the all-tournament squad.

“I can’t be prouder of this group today, they’ve kept hustling and working the whole day,” Newark first-year coach Liz Skwarczynski said. “We are improving, even today I’ve seen we’ve gotten better, but the situation we are in right now with really no players to be able to sub in and out makes things tough.

“We lost to Streator earlier this week, 8-0, and today we only lost 4-0. Not the result we would want, but better. Our second game today, we played Limestone and allowed just three goals. We are making baby steps in improvement, but moving in the right direction.”

Streator will next be in action Tuesday at 4:30 p.m. when it travels to Herscher to begin the Illinois Central 8 Conference schedule. Newark plays at Morris at 6 p.m. Monday and opens Little Ten Conference play when it hosts Indian Creek at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday.