Boys soccer: Mikkel Olsen’s 4 goals, assist help Kaneland top Ottawa, 6-2

OTTAWA – The Ottawa boys soccer team faced three one-goal deficits against Kaneland during Wednesday night’s Interstate 8 Conference match on the pitch at King Field.

The Pirates were able to knot the score on the first two, but the third time wasn’t the charm.

The Knights snapped a 2-all tie in the 55th minute, then popped in three more goals the rest of the way to earn a 6-2 triumph.

“Kaneland is a very organized team that works well together,” Ottawa coach Kevin Olesen said. “They are a solid program. I was proud of my guys for a really good effort. We pride our program on being one that never gives in no matter the score, and I feel like we held up that standard tonight against a really solid team.

“We were able to play them even on the scoreboard for 53 minutes, but then they were able to capitalize on a couple of chances, and we just couldn’t find an answer. I know it ended up 6-2, but I feel we can take a lot of positives away from tonight and hopefully keep improving.”

Kaneland (2-5-2, 1-0 Interstate 8), which held a 37-5 overall advantage in shots, including 16-4 on net, was led by Mikkel Olsen’s four goals and an assist, plus goals from Sam Keen and Eric Ramos. Anthony Buchanan recorded four assists, with a single helper posted by Michael Happ.

Ottawa (4-6, 0-2) received a first-half unassisted goal by Evan Snook and a second-half goal from Christian Solis off an assist from Jorge Lopez.

“We are still trying to find the right lineup with 15 new players against each team,” Kaneland coach Scott Parillo said. “We’re trying to put the puzzle pieces together every match we play. We wish it was easier than that and we could just say, ‘Go out there and do your thing’, but it’s not that way this year. It’s going to take time. We preach about crashing the net, and we did that tonight – and it led to five of our goals.”

Olsen notched the match’s opening goal on a tap-in off Buchanan’s initial shot in the 17th minute, and potted his second goal in the 34th minute off another rebounded Buchanan attempt. In between, Snook stole a clearing pass and sent a 30-yard shot into the bottom corner of the cage in the 24th minute.

“At halftime we talked about playing faster because I thought we played at a slow pace in the first half,” Parillo said. “That pace, even though we had a good amount of ball possession, was allowing Ottawa to get back on defense, and we were trying to dribble through eight or nine guys in the box.”

Ottawa tied the match 13 minutes into the second half when Solis shot home a deflection from 15 yards out.

Kaneland needed only two minutes to respond as Olsen completed the hat trick on a 15-yard blast off a nifty crossing pass from Buchanan. Olsen then found Keen for a header on a corner kick in the 60th minute, scored his fourth goal in the 65th minute on a 20-yard shot off a rebound, and Ramos scored at the goal mouth off Buchanan’s fourth set up.

Ottawa keeper Brady Wendt made 10 saves and had a number of excellent clears.

“Brady has come up with some really miraculous stops for us this season, and he had a couple more tonight,” coach Olesen said. “Unfortunately, we are down a couple guys due to different reasons in our defensive rotation, but everyone on our back line really played hard and gave everything they had. The fact that the defense and Brady communicate and are aggressive are the two main keys to them really having good seasons up to this point.”

Kaneland is right back in action Thursday at home against Geneva, while Ottawa is off until Monday when it travels to play rival La Salle-Peru.