While soccer and basketball may seem to require different skill sets, Mount Carmel senior Jaylen Anderson has excelled at both, and he feels he's benefited greatly.

“Soccer has helped me tremendously with my footwork,” he said. “In basketball, I feel like I'm a very strong defensive player, because of soccer. The awareness that you have to have when you play basketball helps me in soccer, because you have to be aware out on the field, too.”

Anderson has been playing both sports for a long time, but his first love was soccer.

“I feel soccer is the greatest sport there is,” he said. “I've always had a passion for it. I started playing it when I was 3 or 4, because a lot of my family played. I picked up a basketball when I was young, too.”

On the soccer field, Anderson is a four-year varsity starter. The forward led the Caravan with 12 goals last season and is one of the team's top scorers this year.

At 6-foot-2, he's a big target at the top of the Caravan's attack. He also draws a lot of attention from opposing defenses.

“A lot of teams already know him and they'll double- or triple-team him and that opens up space for other guys,” Mount Carmel coach Antonio Godinez said. “He knows when to dish the ball off. He's an unselfish player. He brings maturity and he's like another coach on the field. When the team gets rattled, he calms them down.”

For Anderson, getting an assist is as good as scoring a goal.

“If my space is crowded and it opens up space for my teammates, that's fine with me,” he said. “As long as we're winning.”

Mount Carmel (14-4) is a contender for the Class 2A championship. The Caravan are the top seed in the Nazareth Sectional.

“We knew we had a special group this year and this was our chance to make a run,” Anderson said. “If we come out strong in every game from the start, we'll be tough to beat.”

Regional repeat: Beecher hadn't won a regional title since 2004 before last season, when it captured regional and sectional championships.

Now, the Bobcats have won two regionals in as many years.

Host Beecher topped Carver 2-0 in the Class 1A Beecher Regional final Saturday behind goals from Nick Bryerton and Ben Strick.

“Both guys who scored goals are defenders,” Beecher coach Dawn Compton said. “That's how our team is this year. We don't have a star, but we rely on the whole team to step up.”

Beecher (19-5-2), which blanked Wilmington 4-0 in Tuesday's Manteno Sectional semifinals, no longer has the Cinderella status it carried through the 2015 postseason.

“Last year, no one really expected anything from us,” Compton said. “This year, teams know we're strong and they're ready for us, but our kids are hungry. They got a taste of what it's like to go far last year and they want to get there again.”

Charging forward? Stagg forward Matt Sulamc perhaps summed it up best when discussing his team's postseason prospects.

“I feel like we can beat anyone we're going to play, but we could lose to anyone, too,” he said.

The Chargers (6-4-7), who take on Eisenhower in Wednesday's Class 3A Lincoln-Way East Regional semifinal, are dangerous. But they must avoid goal-scoring droughts that have plagued them all year.

“Now's the time to see what we've got,” Stagg coach Mike Kealy said.

Steve Millar is a freelance writer for the Daily Southtown.