Boys soccer: Serena stays unbeaten, opens LTC season with 3-2 win over Somonauk

SOMONAUK – Most soccer coaches will tell you a one-goal lead, especially late in a match, is a situation where you don’t want to be on either side.

The Serena boys soccer team was in that spot a couple of times against Somonauk during the second half of each team’s Little Ten Conference opener Wednesday.

However, the Huskers were able to hang on for a 3-2 win over the Bobcats to improve to 6-0 on the season, while Somonauk fell to 3-3.

Serena got a pair of goals from Cam Figgins, another from Richie Armour and three assists from Tanner Faivre in the victory.

Somonauk’s goals came from Evin Hensley and Lance Grandgeorge.

“We have a lot of experienced talent this year, and my expectations for this group are very high,” Serena coach Dean DeRango said. “In years past, I may have been happy to keep games close, but that’s not the case this year. I’m happy with the win today for sure, especially being a conference game, but I’m just not sure these guys realize how good a team they really can be.

“We’ve done a really good job with our passing so far, and today was more of the same. Tanner had another solid all-around game, and it was really nice to see Cam put a couple in the net.”

Serena grabbed the lead in the 15th minute when, after taking a short, quick pass from Faivre, Figgins would not be denied from right in front of the Bobcats’ net.

“Cam just kept shooting the ball, but it just kept bouncing off defenders,” Faivre said. “He was finally able to get a really good touch on it and it went in. It was just a scramble play that he was able to finally win.”

After holding the 1-0 lead at halftime, the visitors made it a two-goal game in the 48th minute when Armour took a throw-in from Faivre and blasted a shot into the net from the top of the penalty box.

“I saw Cam cutting from the middle to my left and two defenders went with him,” Faivre said. “That left Richie pretty much wide open in the middle of the field, and I just wanted to get it to him moving toward the goal. He did the rest.”

Somonauk made it 2-1 in the 65th minute as Hensley worked the ball between a pair of defenders and scored from 20 yards out, but Serena responded 10 minutes later when Figgins got behind the Bobcats’ defense off a Faivre through pass, dribbled around keeper Coleton Eade (14 saves) and chipped the ball into the open net.

The hosts made things interesting as Grandgeorge sent a left-footed 25-yard rocket into the bottom right corner past Serena keeper Carson Baker (14 saves) with 51 seconds remaining, but Serena was able to close out the match from there.

“This was a very close, contested match. I feel like them getting that early first goal made a huge difference,” Somonauk coach Jonathan Liechty said. “That allowed (Serena) to sit back a little and defend while we were chasing. We have to come out of the blocks strong, and I felt like we came out a little sleepy and needed to have a better response. We are still only five games in, and we graduated five key players from last year, so we are still trying to figure out where everyone goes and even formation-wise how we want to play. We also were missing a couple starters last week who are back now, but it’s going to take time for them to get up to speed.

“Hats off to Serena, they are a good side with a lot of seniors who have been playing together for four years, and they fought for each other today. I’m proud of my guys for playing hard for 80 minutes and never giving up. For an effort, mentality and attitude perspective, I felt we did an outstanding job.”

Both teams play Thursday with Serena heading to La Salle-Peru and Somonauk taking on host St. Edward.