Trust the hunch
By JON STYF
-
jstyf@daily-chronicle.com
|
| DeKalb's Eric Galvan (right) moves the ball away from Rochelle defender Javier Marin on Tuesday during a Class 2A Sterling Regional semifinal match. The Barbs won, 2-1, to advance to Saturday's championship match against Sterling. (Philip Marruffo – pmarruffo@svnmai) |
STERLING – Since he was suspended for a week in mid-September, Chris Calbow hasn't seen much of the field for the DeKalb boys soccer team.
He's sat on the bench, watching the Barbs' season roll by, waiting for an opportunity.
On Tuesday night, DeKalb coach Brent McIntosh had a "feeling" Calbow's luck was about to change and decided to start the 6-foot-3 senior at forward even though he hadn't scored a goal all season.
That "feeling" helped the top-seeded Barbs come away with a 2-1 win over Rochelle in the Class 2A Sterling Regional opener behind Calbow's two goals.
"To his credit, he didn't complain. He kept his chin up and whenever he was called on he was ready to go," McIntosh said. "He's a great example to everybody. This is what happens, you get rewarded."
Calbow's first goal came seven minutes into the match off a centering pass from Sammy Lake that looked like it would be the first of many scores for the Barbs (13-6-4).
But, instead of running up the score, DeKalb kept hitting the posts with shots, having near-misses on at least four close-range, first-half shots from Niko Tsiagalis, Cory Filkins, Thomas Ogundipe and Eric Galvan.
That opened the door for Rochelle to take advantage of a late first-half miscue between goalkeeper Adam Lorenz and his defense when Rochelle's Emmanuel Almaraz stole the ball from Lorenz and evened the score in the final 30 seconds before intermission.
That put DeKalb in a tough spot early in the second half as it pressed to regain the lead. With 13 minutes left, the Barbs broke through.
Calbow trapped a through-pass from Keith Hendley and put it in the right corner of the net for his second goal of the night and the game-winner.
"[McIntosh] told me I would get some playing time and I knew I had to prove something," Calbow said. "Hopefully I did."
From there, the Barbs breathed a big sigh of relief and killed the clock before heading to Saturday's 3 p.m. regional final against Sterling.
"I've got to give a lot of credit to the kids," McIntosh said. "They battled back. They had to fight for this one and they did a good job, especially in the second half after getting that goal, of killing the game off."
