Boys soccer: Serena rolls to 8-0 win over Sandwich in rainy, windy 1A regional semifinal

SERENA – Serena had one of the best regular seasons in program history and was looking to continue that success into the postseason starting with Tuesday’s rainy and windy Class 1A regional semifinal against Sandwich, which had only 10 healthy players available.

The host and subsectional No. 2-seeded Huskers did just that, scoring seven times in the first half on the way to a dominating 8-0 victory over the No. 8-seeded Indians.

Serena’s Tanner Faivre scored four goals and passed for three assists, while Richie Armour recorded two goals and two assists to lead the way as the hosts improved to 20-3, tying the school record for wins in a season with the 1999 squad.

Also finding the scoresheet for the Huskers were Eduardo Moncada with a goal and two assists, Beau Raikes with a goal and Hudson Stafford an assist.

“We have really been emphasizing to the kids about making the right pass, moving the ball around and getting it where it needs to go,” said Serena coach Dean DeRango, whose team held a 50-2 advantage in total shots, including 32-0 on net. “We also continue to talk about finding open space, either getting into it physically or putting the ball there for a teammate. Sometimes when a team gets up a few goals the tendency is for kids to just start blasting the ball towards the net or try and do things they wouldn’t normally try to do.

“I thought we did a good job from start to finish today of playing the same way throughout and doing all of those things I mentioned pretty well.”

Serena now will play the winner of Wednesday’s 4 p.m. semifinal between No. 3 Somonauk and No. 5 Earlville for the regional championship at 4 p.m. Friday. The Huskers have split two matches with each possible opponent this season.

“Whoever we play on Friday it’s going to be a battle for sure,” DeRango said. “They are both very good teams, and we’ll have to be ready to go on Friday afternoon.”

Serena took the lead for good in the third minute when Armour’s 20-yard shot off a pass from Moncada beat Sandwich keeper Johnathon Carlson. Raikes then made it 2-0 four minutes later on a left-wing shot off a nifty pass from Faivre.

From there, Faivre caught fire, finding the back of the net in the 22nd, 30th, 32nd and 33rd minutes – off of assists from Armour twice, Moncada and Stafford – to make it 6-0 and give the standout junior forward an eye-popping 46 goals and 26 assists this season.

Armour scored again in the final five minutes of the first half, while Moncada tallied early in the shortened second half.

Carlson finished with 24 saves for the Indians, while Huskers’ keeper Carson Baker was only forced to make a handful of saves.

“We had more talent as a team least year and didn’t win a game. We had more talent two years ago and didn’t win a game. So this year’s team, we had six kids who hadn’t played soccer since middle school or not at all until this year,” said Sandwich coach Aaron Mlot, whose team finished with a 4-19-1 record. “Despite our record we made improvements throughout the season and there was growth as individuals and as a team. Seniors Luis Baez, Nate Barbey and Ethan Rome had a lot to do with that.

“We lacked experience and numbers this season, and you can see that in the lack of physicality we play the game with because of that. Even today, there were times we made the right play, a good play, but then couldn’t sustain it with one more pass.

“We were able to keep Serena sitting on two goals for a while, but they were able to control the ball in our defensive end and eventually started to find the back of the net consistently.”