Boys soccer: Sam Keen, Kaneland top Sycamore on penalty kicks

MAPLE PARK — Sycamore boys soccer coach Kevin Bickley said his team got away with losing track of Kaneland forward Sam Keen once in the teams’ Interstate 8 rivalry match on Wednesday.

They didn’t get away with it the second time.

“That’s what my midfielders do. They just send me balls and I run on to them and try to score.”

—  Sam Keen, Kaneland soccer

Keen broke away in the 12th minute up the left side and pushed it past goalie Ryan Guzinski on the ground for the first goal in the Knights’ 2-1 win on penalty kicks.

“That’s what my midfielders do,” Keen said. “They just send me balls and I run on to them and try to score.”

Sycamore (3-5-1, 2-1) ended up tying the game on an eventful sequence that ended up emptying the stands of spectators. It started with a beautiful free kick on frame from Carson Matthews. It looked like in the chaos it may have gone in, but Kaneland (5-2-2, 3-0) was called for a dangerous kick, setting the Spartans up with an indirect kick right in front of the next.

Jameson Carl took the backward tap from his teammate and with all 11 Knights on the goal line powered it in for the equalizer in the 68th minute. Carl and the Spartans ran over to the sideline where the fans were for their celebration.

“Hopefully you bury it but when they have 11 guys across the goal box you never know if you’re going to put it in,” Bickley said. “Jameson and they guys were smart, got together, and Jameson buried it to the back post.”

Carl was issued a yellow card for leaving the field during the celebration, his second of the game which led to his ejection from the game. He will also miss Sycamore’s Thursday game against St. Charles East.

Earlier in the second half, the referee sent Kaneland athletic director Dave Rohlman over to the fan side of the field to try to keep tempers under control. As the fans applauded Carl’s ejection, the referee decided to empty the stands.

It was the second time in three years that the Sycamore game in Kaneland ended in front of no fans. In the summer 2021 game tempers flared in the stands and the fans were emptied out.

“It was very frustrating and confusing,” Keen said. “I mean, at the end of the day, we got the result and we’ll just clean it up for next time. Hopefully it won’t go as far.”

Even though the Knights prevailed on PKs, they played the final 12 minutes with a man advantage but could not capitalize. Neither team had a great scoring chance after the stands were emptied, sending the game to penalty kicks.

It took seven rounds of PKs to decide, but Tommy Watson connected on his to start the seventh and final round and Quinn Schulz turned away Gavin Crouch for the Kaneland win.

“It was a little sloppy at first, I’m not going to lie,” Keen said. “We just sent some through balls, attacked, we got a lucky chance and we scored.”

Keen started the PKs with a goal, matched by Matthews. He also had a couple of other scoring chances, but was turned away, including a clear defender Aiden Sears in front of an open net in the first half.

“[Keen] is a guy you have to you have to know where he is,” Bickley said. “I mean he seems to find space for himself and he’s fast. ... You have to know where he is basically and we lost track of him a couple times. Ryan made a good save on the first one. And unfortunately he gets another one and he buries it.”

Bickley said the long pause - more than 20 minutes - as the stands were emptied worked to the benefit of the Spartans.

“There’s a little bit of delay after the goal with the red card and then the parents and I felt like that might actually have worked to our advantage to kind of collect ourselves a little bit,” Bickley said. ”But I thought we stayed compact. Great job to those 10 that finished the last 12 minutes down a man to preserve the tie.”