South Elgin outlasts Hampshire

South Elgin finally wore down Hampshire.

The Storm came out a bit sluggish following a tough game with Larkin on Wednesday, but eventually used its depth to overcome the Whip-Purs, 2-0, in nonconference boys soccer action in Hampshire Thursday night.

Tyler Piszczek broke a scoreless tie with just under 16 minutes remaining and Danny Fry added an insurance goal 15 minutes later for South Elgin (3-2).

The first half was pretty even, with Hampshire maybe even having a slight edge. But as the second half wore on, the Storm began spending most of its time in Hampshire’s end. After a few narrow misses, they finally got things going.

“We’re hurting right now,” said South Elgin coach John Uveges. “That was a tough game against Larkin, and it took the first half to get going.”

Hampshire, with Brian Contreras in goal after rejoining the team this week, kept it even for 60 minutes.

“We knew coming in that they were going to be deep,” said Hampshire coach John Gosling. “They’ve got 20 bodies. They made changes and it didn’t hurt them.

“I thought we had the better of the opportunities in the first half. We just couldn’t find the back of the net.”

Contreras made some athletic saves and Paul Novacovici made a couple of nice defensive plays to keep the Storm off the board early in the second half.

With the game still scoreless, Contreras stopped a shot by Mike Kozielek. With Conteras out of the play, Miguel Valle pounced on the rebound. But Novacovici came from nowhere to make the save.

The same two teamed up on a similar play a few minutes later.

But the Storm kept building. Finally, Piszczek fired in a shot in the air from about 20 yards away.

Then Fry scored on a low shot from the left side. Kozielek assisted.

Ismael Morales had several scoring chances for Hampshire, but couldn’t find the range, as Tyler Shipon and Jarod Schieler combined on the shutout for South Elgin.