Boys soccer: Streator drops Peotone in ICE showdown

STREATOR – With temps nearing 90 both Streator and Peotone were looking to take advantage of any scoring opportunities they could before the heat started to take its toll.

Luckily for the Bulldogs, they capitalized on a couple of those chances and came away with a 2-0 Illinois Central Eight Conference victory Thursday afternoon.

“Yeah, it was definitely warm today,” Streator coach J.T. Huey said. “And with Peotone being a physical team, we knew we needed to control the ball best we could and take advantage when we could, as well, and I thought we did a good job of that.”

Just over eight minutes into the contest the Bulldogs looked to crack the scoreboard first as Noah Russow hit the angle shot and just missed scoring the game’s first goal.

Less than a minute later the Blue Devils had a good look at the net, but Connor Decker was there for Streator to keep the game scoreless.

Throughout the game, the Blue Devils were putting the pressure on Streator with their corner kicks as Logan Mather nearly put a header into the back of the net only to be denied by the Streator defense.

“Yeah, I thought we did a nice job with those corner kicks most of the afternoon,” Peotone coach Ryan Murray said. “Each time it was just a little to the left or a little to the right and on others solid defense by Streator.”

Then with 8:09 remaining in the first half Issac Fowler centered the ball and blew a shot past Nick Moore in goal and put the Bulldogs ahead 1-0.

Streator’s defense remained solid and took that one-goal lead into the second, while Peotone was more aggressive and physical in the second half to keep the pressure on Streator.

But nearly three minutes into the second half Russow sent a perfect pass to teammate David Paton who found the back of the net to put the Bulldogs ahead 2-0.

“That was an absolutely perfect execution,” Huey said. “It was a simple touch and finish, but they just executed it exactly how you draw it up, and he found the net.”

Four minutes later Nate Wehrmann’s header nearly found the corner, and a minute after that teammate Caleb Greenquist again missed by inches with the header as Peotone remained scoreless.

The Bulldogs defense came through with 14 minutes remaining as Adrian Granados made the nice kick save.

With just over four minutes remaining Greenquist and the Blue Devils kept the pressure on the Bulldogs, but this time the kick sailed just over the crossbar which proved to be the last good scoring chance as Streator came away with the 2-0 conference victory.

For the game, it was Folwer and Paton scoring the goals, while Andrew Vogel took the win in the net for the Bulldogs.