Friday, Oct. 10, 2008

Freshman spurs Kahoks past East

Adams' overtime goal runs Collinsville win streak to five

BELLEVILLE -- Collinsville freshman Robbie Adams got a perfect pass from sophomore teammate C.J. Cerna and proved he knew what to do with it.

Adams outraced sophomore goalkeeper Alex Taylor of Belleville East to Cerna's feed and lifted a shot over Taylor and inside the right post less than four minutes into the first overtime Thursday, giving the Kahoks a 2-1 victory over the Lancers in a Southwestern Conference game.

"I just pressured the defender, got the ball, looked up and saw that Robbie had a gap," Cerna said. "I just played him the ball and he was there."

Adams' first concern was making certain his shot avoided the hard-charging Taylor, who broke off his line. If Adams could do that, the rest was easy since there wasn't a defender in the vicinity.

"I looked up and raised up my hand so (Cerna) saw me first," said Adams, whose goal was his second of the season. "It was a perfectly placed ball. I looked up when I had the ball on my feet and saw the right corner of the goal and went for it."

With that, the Kahoks (11-4-3 overall, 3-1-1 SWC) extended their winning streak to five games. During the surge, Collinsville has outscored its opponents 13-1.

"I told the guys right before the extra time started, 'Something is going to happen. Someone's going to slip. There's going to be a miskick. The field's really choppy. Something's going to happen in that third of the field and you have to take advantage of it,'" Kahoks coach Chris Digirolamo said.

"Robbie made a well-timed run and got behind the defense. He beat Taylor to the ball, flipped it over him and put it in the net. It was a real nice flighted ball (by Cerna). It had proper backspin. It hit into space and instead of rolling to the goalie, it kind of bit back like a nice golf shot so (Adams) could run in stride and get the ball."

East, which led 1-0 in the first half, fell to 6-8-1 overall and 0-4 in the SWC. Lancers coach Mark Lasley said Taylor was indecisive on how to defend the winning goal.

"You've got to go all-out or you've got to back up," Lasley said. "It's one of those young mistakes. You've got to make your decision like that."

Sophomore Travis Hoguet scored past senior Rodbert Randant from inside the box nine minutes into the game, giving the Lancers a 1-0 lead. But Cerna got to a rebound of senior Cade Osborn's shot that caromed off a defender and finished inside the left post from 25 yards outs at 16:33, tying the game at 1.

Cerna's shot off a throw-in by senior Danny Recklein was cleared off the line by a Lancers defender at 36:08. East countered quickly, and less than 20 seconds later, Randant made a strong save to rob junior Brandon Leveling of a goal.

The Lancers had an apparent goal by junior Josh Tarr waved off at 56:42 when officials called Tarr for being offsides.

"I don't know why that one wasn't a goal," Lasley said. "The defender headed it, then our guy headed it and then another guy (Tarr) ran past him and put it in. So which guy was off? (The official) said, 'The guy who put it in.' Oh, well."

The last quality chance in regulation came when Cerna's shot toward an undefended goal was wide right.

Contact reporter David Wilhelm at dwilhelm@bnd.com.