ALTON – The Alton High School boys soccer team hosted the Collinsville Kahoks Tuesday night in their final Southwestern Conference match and regular season finale.
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The Kahoks beat Alton for the 22nd straight time, a streak that dates back to 2013, this time by a score of 3-1. Collinsville won the season’s earlier meeting 4-0.
“What we haven’t done yet, and I talk about it all the time, is we’ve got to find a way to win these big games,” Alton head coach Greg Nasello said. “We’re close, but close doesn’t get you there. We just keep coming up a little bit short.”
“We’ve been shooting ourselves in the foot; we didn’t do that tonight. We didn’t give away a goal; we made them earn everything, which is good,” Nasello continued. “We just have to find a way to convert one of these and make it a winner.”
It didn’t take long for the Kahoks to get on the scoreboard. In the eighth minute, Tyler Huntebrinker launched a throw-in into the 18-yard box. Enrique Carranza flicked it along to Gauge Hensley, who eventually tapped it in at the back post to make it 1-0.
A few minutes later, Collinsville nearly doubled that lead, but Rodrigo Heernandez-Mendoza’s shot rang off the crossbar.
Giovanni Mann also drilled the woodwork in the 32nd minute. Ty Starko delivered a set-play corner kick to the top of the D, where Mann was waiting to take a one-time shot, but it was just high, hitting the bar and going out of play.
Collinsville had to settle for a 1-0 halftime lead.
Carranza nearly scored off the second half opening kickoff when he dribbled through most of the Alton defense and had a point-blank shot saved by Redbirds’ keeper Patrick Henesey.
TJ Carter would double the lead in the 51st minute, but Alton quickly made it 2-1 thanks to Luke Gallivan’s right-footed effort from right inside the 18-yard box in the 54th minute.
“I liked the fact that even down 2-0, we didn’t quit, found a way to get back into it at 2-1,” Nasello said. “Probably pushed up a little bit too soon, but you’ve got to take risks. It left us open, made a mistake, and gave up the third goal, but I think it’s worth the risk. When you’re down, I think you’ve got to push it.”
That goal came in the 65th minute, a floating header from Carter for his second of the game and sixth on the season.
“TJ, he’s the man,” Collinsville head coach Robert Lugge said. “He’s not only a great soccer player, but he’s one of the best kids I know. To see him succeed and score goals means a lot. He’s really stepped up this year as a senior leader, and I think he might be our leading scorer as our left back.”
Both of these teams were playing the second game of a back-to-back. Collinsville hosted one of the top-ranked teams in IHSA Class 1A, Father McGivney, on Monday, and lost 3-0. Alton traveled to Highland and lost 2-0.
Lugge knew that his team had a little more in them to give.
“Not even just tired legs, tired brains maybe,” he said. “There were moments when we played like a good soccer team, and then moments when we struggled with decision-making. Simple things that kept getting in our own way that we’ll need to clean up in the next week before we see them again.”
The teams will meet again in under a week in the regional semifinals. The No. 4-seeded Kahoks host the regional and will take on Alton, the No. 6 seed, on Tuesday, October 21, at 7 p.m.
No. 2-seeded Edwardsville plays No. 7-seeded Belleville East in the first semifinal at 5 p.m. The regional final is set for Saturday, October 25, at 1 p.m.
Despite not beating Collinsville since 2012, Nasello said that his team gained confidence from Tuesday’s game.
“I think we could have beat them tonight. I truly felt that,” Nasello said.
And Lugge knows it won’t be a cake walk in the regional semis as well.
“That’s the hard part about our conference and our region; you have to play teams a lot,” he said. “It is difficult to beat a team three times in a row, and they’ve improved from the last time we faced them.”
Despite seeing improvements all over the field, Alton still struggled to get results down the stretch. After starting the season with a 3-1 record, the Redbirds have since gone 3-11, heading into the postseason on a four-game losing streak.
They finished the regular season at 6-12 and 1-9 in the Southwestern Conference.
The Kahoks are having quite the opposite ending to their season.
After losing four straight to SWC rivals O’Fallon, Edwardsville, and then in tournament play to SLUH and Parkway South, Collinsville was 4-9-1 after October 2. Since then, the Kahoks have won five of their last six, and still have one regular-season game remaining at Granite City on Thursday, October 16.
“Considering where we started, we’re definitely on the upswing,” Lugge said.
Collinsville is currently 9-10-1 and it finished 6-4 in the SWC.
