Once again, West Aurora found a way to win, and this time the Blackhawks did it against crosstown rival East Aurora.
The Blackhawks (13-2-1) continued their winning ways at home on Tuesday against the rival Tomcats, earning a 2-1 victory.
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“I think it was a great day overall for Aurora soccer,” Blackhawks coach Joe Sustersic said. “Both teams played a clean game and had to be happy with how well they played even if they were on the other side of the result because it was that kind of game.”
Emanuel Acosta struck from 29 yards out to give the Blackhawks a 1-0 lead barely five minutes into play. His shot snuck into its resting spot just inside the opposite post.
“It’s just a good feeling to get that early goal and put that team down,” West Aurora senior midfielder Ulises Guerrero said. “That’s what we are trying to do. We just want a goal and I don’t care who scores it. We just want to get that early boost and take control of the game and it doesn’t matter who we’re playing, but this was a bigger one.”
West Aurora padded its cushion with 24 seconds left in the first half when Patience Yuha scored to make it 2-0.
“I just try to connect with the guys,” Yuha said. “I know we can cause more trouble to other teams and we were able to do that there. That’s what we try to do.”
That goal really put the Tomcats (8-5-2) in a tough spot heading into the break.
“There were times when I thought we controlled the game and others where they controlled it,” Tomcats coach Nathan Parry said. “We had beautiful weather and a good competitive game, but going down like that made it rough. We gave up that early goal and that hurt us in trying to come back, but that second one was really a bad one going in. But I liked how our guys continued to fight.”
Parry felt that as the game wore on, the Tomcats took control of possession at times, but ran out of game clock to take over the game.
“I think we were the better team at certain times,” he said. “But it’s hard to say. We switched up our defense and that created more opportunities to score, but we were down and could not come back.”
Dariel Menchaca’s goal cut East Aurora’s deficit in half, but West Aurora held on for the win.
“They’re a really good team and we always look forward to playing them,” Parry said. “Getting down 2-0 we tried to switch things up and be more offensive. That helped us create some more opportunities.”
C.R. Walker is a freelance writer for The Beacon-News.