Crystal Lake South started the postseason early this week with its final two regular-season matches.

The Gators approached Tuesday’s match against Huntley – a 2-1 South win in overtime – as a playoff match and will treat Thursday’s finale with Hampshire the same. South needs to win both if it wants to win the Fox Valley Conference title outright.

“You can’t re-create these atmospheres, and that’s definitely a huge bonus of having stuff on the line the last week of the season,” South coach Brian Allen said. “It gets you playoff ready much sooner because you’re in that environment, that one-and-done atmosphere that you’re in that situation this week.”

South, 7-1 in FVC play, can win the conference title outright if it defeats the Whip-Purs (2-5-1 FVC). The possibility came after Dundee-Crown (7-1-1 FVC) tied Jacobs on Tuesday.

Despite what’s on the line, Allen wants his team to remain focused.

“We’re trying our best to tune out that noise and realize that if they can improve each game and each training, then instead of focusing on that big picture, to focusing on that small stuff, that makes it a little easier for them to get out there and play,” Allen said. “It’s exciting for a high school athlete to have something on the line for sure in the last week of the season. It should be exciting, no doubt.”

Allen thinks South (11-4-3) is hitting its stride. The Gators are 10-2-2 in their past 14 matches and came back to win against Prairie Ridge on Thursday in the final minutes and defeated Huntley in overtime Tuesday.

Now it’s just continuing that momentum in the playoffs.

“We’re hoping to play our best soccer,” Allen said. “If we keep being better than our previous game, I think we’re going to be in a really good spot because we’ve been playing really good soccer all season long.”

Changes paying off for Prairie Ridge

Joe Schroeder found the lineup that turned Prairie Ridge’s season around.

The Wolves’ coach kept switching lineups throughout the season before he discovered something that worked in a 2-1 loss to Huntley on Sept. 21. He moved Cade Collins back to defender to give Prairie Ridge a senior-heavy back line that has led to a 5-1 stretch.

“He’s embraced it. He was fine with it,” Schroeder said of Collins. “He wants to win and realized what has to be done in these last games. It’s been great with three seniors who will play wherever you need to.”

Collins joined defender Sean Bainbridge and goalkeeper Brogan Amherdt to create a senior-heavy back line with a young front line. The Wolves came close to beating Huntley and upset Dundee-Crown before losing to Crystal Lake South in the final minutes.

Mason Fowler and Henry Knoll had contributed goals to get the Prairie Ridge offense going, but Schroeder has been proud of how many players have led to the Wolves’ success.

“We don’t have a 20-, 30-goal scorer on the team, but we have multiple kids that are capable of finishing,” Schroeder said. “It’s exciting to see different kids step up in different situations and positions.”

The Wolves will start the postseason against Carmel on Tuesday after earning the No. 9 seed in the Class 2A Grayslake Central Sectional. Schroeder is excited to see how far this season’s turnaround can go.

“We’re ready to play against anyone,” Schroeder said “No. 1 seed, No. 16 seed, we’re going to show up and fight each game.”

Harvard’s final test

Harvard is looking for a challenge heading into the postseason.

The Hornets will play Wauconda on Wednesday, the No. 4 seed in the Class 2A Grayslake Central Sectional where Harvard is the No. 7 seed.

Harvard coach Victor Gonzalez wants to see how his team competes against a top team before it starts its postseason run.

“We’re going to have to beat teams like that if we want to do something in the postseason,” Gonzalez said. “We’re just going to see if we can compete.”

The Hornets already showed they can beat good teams Thursday when they beat Genoa-Kingston, 2-1. The Cogs are 16-4 this season.

Gonzalez thought his team did a good job of possessing the ball well against G-K and Harvard made the most of its opportunities, scoring twice. Now Gonzalez will see whether his team can win on senior night in a match where the Hornets won’t be afraid to show off too much since they would play the Bulldogs in the sectional final.

“Being able to create opportunities against a top team, being able to possess so well against them, that was encouraging,” Gonzalez said. “We didn’t play to our potential and were still able to come out with a win. That was good for us going forward.”

Dundee-Crown/Huntley rivalry continues

The Dundee-Crown and Huntley rivalry had another exciting chapter Thursday.

D-C prevailed 1-0 to not only pick up a win over its rival but also set its path to an FVC title.

“Over the last few years, both teams have really just battled,” D-C coach Rey Vargas said. “You know it’s a one-goal decision and you prepare yourself for that. They’ve become a big rival.”

Huntley and D-C tied 2-2 in their FVC match last season, then Huntley beat D-C 4-3 in the Class 3A Huntley Sectional semifinals, a match Huntley led 4-1.

Both teams entered Thursday’s match with 6-1 conference records at the top of the standings.

Huntley coach Matt Lewandowski considers the Chargers to be the Red Raiders’ top rival and knows their matches always prepare each team for the postseason.

“Everything with us and them are tight, it’s high-strung,” Lewandowski said. “These are the types of games you need to play to get ready for the postseason.”

• Joe Stevenson contributed to this report.