For the second consecutive game, Plainfield Central’s boys soccer team got off to an early lead. For the second consecutive game, Plainfield Central wound up on the losing end of things.

Despite scoring a goal five minutes into the contest, the Wildcats lost to South Elgin 2-1 Thursday evening. The loss drops them to 0-2 while South Elgin is 3-0.

Coming into the season, Plainfield Central knew it would be in search of new offensive playmakers. The graduation of Sebastian Chavez left 24 goals and 13 assists to be replaced. However, keeper Marshall DeGraff is one of the top all-around returning players in the state. Against the Storm, the Bowling Green commit certainly played like it.

However, after the first 25 minutes, the Wildcat offense seemed to run out of steam while the defense did DeGraff no favors. Coach Kevin Fitzgerald expressed confidence in the team’s ability to turn it around and cautioned that it’s just the second game of the season.

But after leading Glenbard East 1-0 in the season opener only to lose 3-2, Fitzgerald also expressed frustration.

“It’s the second straight game this has happened so now we have to wonder if we can learn from game two since we didn’t learn from game one,” he said. “I don’t think we’re in good enough shape to go eighty minutes yet against anyone decent. We played really, really well for twenty-five minutes both games, but that’s not nearly good enough. It’s not the standard that they set for themselves.”

The game started 20 minutes later than scheduled due to traffic issues for South Elgin. As Fitzgerald said, the first 25 minutes belonged to the Wildcats with Finn Lambert striking one into the back of the net just five minutes in.

However, South Elgin took over from there with Alan Munoz securing the equalizer in the 24th minute. The contest remained a draw until the 57th minute when Matt Lipp put the Storm up for good.

The previous two contests between South Elgin and Plainfield Central ended in 0-0 draws, which Storm coach Jerzy Skowron credited to the keeping of DeGraff. At 3-0, he’s pleased with where his squad is at for the most part, especially after earning a hard fought road win.

“They got a good one on us early, challenged us a little bit and we were able to grind away a win,” he said. “I think we were the better team in the second half amidst the chaos going back and forth with a lot of yellow cards. We’ll gladly take it.”

Skowron said he told DeGraff he was still probably the best high school goalkeeper he’s ever seen. While DeGraff appreciated the praise, he’s far more focused on Central being 0-2 to start his senior season.

“I think the key is we need to put together a full eighty (minutes) and we haven’t done that yet,” he said. “We’ve gone up 1-0 early in the game both times and then we make a mistake defensively that results in us collapsing. We just need to be mentally tougher, learn to close out games and play together.”

Plainfield Central’s next game will be Saturday at Noon at Batavia. South Elgin will play Prospect the same day at 3:15 p.m.