Boys soccer: Jacobs comes back to tie Crystal Lake Central 3-3 in FVC opener

ALGONQUIN – Alexander TrujilloRivera exemplified Jacobs’ second half against Crystal Lake Central on Thursday night.

The Golden Eagle continued to apply pressure no matter how close he came to putting the ball in the net until he finally broke through, scoring with less than a minute left in regulation to help Jacobs come back from a three-goal deficit to end the match in a 3-3 tie.

“I thought the boys responded well, worked hard, earned their way back into the game,” Jacobs coach Colin Brice said. “Unfortunate we couldn’t get that fourth goal.”

Jacobs’ (1-4-2, 0-0-1 FVC) first goal came a couple minutes after Central took a 3-0 lead, when Nevin Volarath scored on a penalty kick after a foul inside the box with 31:44 left in the match to make it a 3-1 lead.

The Golden Eagles changed to a 3-5-2 formation and suddenly found life after failing to score in the first half. Jacobs kept coming up with chances until Peter Wolf found himself in a fast break and scored to reduce the deficit to 3-2 with 17:33 left in the match.

Jacobs’ attack continued until the final minute of regulation when the Golden Eagles won a toss-up ball and TrujilloRivera found himself coming toward the side of the net. He knocked in a goal in the upper-right corner of the net to tie the match with 50.9 seconds left.

The attack continued in both 10-minute periods of overtime, including a shot that went off the upper Central crossbar in the first overtime, but Jacobs couldn’t knock in a fourth goal for the win.

“As long as we work hard, we’re going to be in every single soccer game,” Brice said. “They continue to work hard. Once we got that first goal, the lightbulb came on, and look boys, we can do it, and they started to buy in.”

Central (5-0-2, 0-0-1 FVC) seemed like it would control the match after it ran out to a 1-0 lead after Gideon Burleson headed in a cross pass with 34:15 left in the first half. Jefferson Garcia made it 2-0 when he scored off a rebound that floated into the goal.

The Tigers had their second header of the match when Aiden Andrews knocked one in off of a corner kick with 33:46 left to make it 3-0.

Central coach Jay Schwarzock thought his players weren’t disciplined on 50/50 balls in the second half, slow getting back up defensively and played too vertically instead of diagonally when they approached the ball. But he was proud that they hung strong to not suffer the Tigers’ first loss of the season.

“I’m proud of my guys,” Schwarzock said. “I’m not disappointed in their play, I’m not disappointed in their effort. It’s unfortunate.”

The Tigers will play Loyola on Saturday at the Streamwood Tournament, while the Golden Eagles will host South Elgin on Saturday.

After a slow start to the season, Brice hopes to see Thursday’s second half be the spark his team needs as they progress through the season.

“If we take what we did in the second half and roll that going into the rest of conference play,” Brice said, “we’re going to be a very competitive team in conference.”