By Chris Bennett
Correspondent
The Elkhorn Area High School soccer team is the champion of its WIAA Division 1 regional for the second consecutive season.
Elkhorn (16-3-3) defeated Delavan-Darien 1-0 Oct. 11 at Elkhorn in the final of the WIAA Division 1 Elkhorn regional bracket.
The victory allows the Elks to advance to the sectional bracket, where they will play Kenosha Tremper at 7 p.m. tonight in Kenosha at Ameche Field.
The victory against the Comets is the Elks second of the season. They defeated Delavan-Darien 1-0 in the title game of the Southern Lakes Conference tournament Sept. 30 at Elkhorn.
Elks coach BZ Kayser maintains Delavan-Darien received too low a seed in the sectional bracket.
“I think Delavan-Darien for the raw end of the stick with their seed,” Kayser said.
The remaining schools in the Elks sectional bracket – teams advance out of regionals and into sectionals – are Kenosha Bradford, Kenosha Tremper, Fort Atkinson and the Elks.
The Elks defeated Janesville Parker 6-0 to advance to the regional final against the Comets. In their Oct. 9 game at Elkhorn Jon Stopple scored twice and Jeroham Duran, Alex Hall, Erikas Jurevicius and Jose Estrada each scored once.
“The only challenge that night is it was windy and it rained and it was cold,” Kayser said, adding that he also hoped none of his players became sick as a result of the game.
Against Delavan-Darien, Stopple scored the game’s only goal on a set piece after a foul inside the Comets 18-yard-box. Duran assisted on the play.
Kayser said Stopple, in recent years, is the Elks best player in the air, and has a knack for timing his jump and being able to put his head on the ball and score, which is what he did against the Comets.
The Elks now face Tremper, which defeated Racine Case 6-0 to win its regional final and advance to the sectional bracket. They defeated Wilmot 8-0 in their regional semifinal and seeded second in the sectional bracket. Elkhorn is seeded third.
The Elks defeated Tremper (19-3-1) last season in the sectional final for the right to advance to the WIAA Division 1 State Tournament, where the Elks lost 3-0 to Neenah in the quarterfinals.
