Senior center midfielder Fernando Cuahquentzi has been one of Elgin’s unsung heroes.
Every once in a while, however, the spotlight shines upon the unheralded Cuahquentzi, and that was the case Wednesday when he began the Maroons’ scoring against DeKalb.
“It was an amazing feeling to get the first goal,” the jubilant Cuahquentzi said afterward. “First goal of the playoffs, early on in the game, it was a good feeling.”
It got better, too. Cuahquentzi’s fourth goal of the season set the tone for the host Maroons during an 8-1 victory over the Barbs in the Class 3A Elgin Regional semifinals.
The Maroons face South Elgin at 4 p.m. Saturday for the regional title.
Eduardo Nava scored three goals for Elgin (14-3-3), which plays at 4 p.m. Saturday against South Elgin (9-7-4) for the regional title. Nava now has 29 goals this season.
Alberto Gaytan and Edgar Perez also scored in the first half as Elgin built a 6-0 lead on DeKalb (7-12-2).
Elgin coach Jimmy Romano confirmed that Cuahquentzi is one of his team’s best offensive finishers, but he’s so valuable in other ways that Romano uses that skill selectively.
“He’s very important on both sides of the ball,” Romano said. “Defensively breaking up plays, making tackles, reading the game and organizing players around him.
“Offensively, he keeps us in possession, switching up the point of attack and keeping the ball.”
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It didn’t take Cuahquentzi long to get the Maroons on the board.
He played the ball ahead and then ran up to trail the play. After the ball bounced off a DeKalb defender, Cuahquentzi took a shot and scored with 34:09 left in the first half for a 1-0 lead.
“I just have to keep pushing and be there when it’s unexpected,” Cuahquentzi said. “And put it in.”
Nava followed with his first goal at the 20:29 mark. He added two more goals before halftime and then sat out the second half.
“We have to put every team away right away,” Nava said. “From the beginning, we have to go all in.”
Nava has been used to garnering the accolades all season, but he was happy to see Cuahquentzi get his moment in the spotlight.
“He’s a great player,” Nava said. “He has a left. He has a right. He’s got vision. He’s a great player overall.
“I’m really happy that he got his goal. It was good that he got the first goal. We needed a goal no matter who it was.”
With an offensive threat as dangerous as Nava, having solid play in the midfield from Cuahquentzi is a big part of that success. And it’s not lost on Romano.
“A huge part of it,” Romano said of Cuahquentzi. “It’s awesome because there’s a lot of responsibility with him. He’s selfless and patient. We are fortunate to have quality players all over the field. If teams don’t watch out for them, they’re going to be able to expose them.
“We had all players step up and that helped take the pressure off (Nava) and open up some opportunities for him later on.”
The Maroons went without a loss until the supersectional last season. That wasn’t the case this year. They had to regroup and learn to face adversity.
“We did have a practice where we talked it out, got on the same page,” Romano said. “The only direction now is forward. The way they responded, I couldn’t ask for a better way.”
After airing out issues, Cuahquentzi feels like Elgin is ready to make another deep postseason run.
“We learned that losing feeling,” Cuahquentzi said. “We needed to get back together as a family. We had our downs, but we got back together. We’re all on the same page.
“We talked out what we felt — what was going wrong. Now, we’re all good.”
Paul Johnson is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.