Fremd pulls away at Wheeling

Fremd emerged as the victor Monday night in Wheeling, using a sensational goal from Jeremy Kosacz to go ahead for good, then two quick strikes after the break to pull away from a stubborn Wildcats side in a 4-2 victory in Mid-Suburban League boys soccer play.

Kosacz scored at 27 minutes; his teammates Tim Lehigh and Brock VonHolt scored within eight minutes of each other to give the Vikings (6-2-1, 3-1-0, 9 points) their second consecutive win over a club from the MSL East. Fremd also kept pace with both Schaumburg and Palatine, which stand atop the league table heading into Week 3 of the regular season.

“There were some very good things I saw out there tonight, but also some bad as well — most of that coming in the first half,” said Fremd coach Steve Keller.

“As a unit, our play on the defensive side of things was a shambles in that first half,” said Kosacz. “Our 1 v 1 defending wasn’t very good, and again, for the second game in a row, we came out lacking the intensity needed to take charge. Wheeling had a lot to do with that, but we just didn’t do the things we need to do each time we go out there to play.”

The Wildcats took the initiative early, using the quick field turf to find their feet in the early exchanges. Midfielder Irving Balboa at times seemed to have the ball on a string as he directed the Cats’ attack, finding Sergio Nunez and Jose Garcia up top while getting plenty of quality touches in the first quarter hour.

“We’ve been trying to possess the ball more and get it to the endline — and in the last couple of games, we’ve been doing a better job of that,” said Balboa, a junior who’s been in coach Ed Uhrik’s first-11 since his freshman year.

Despite a rather subdued start, the visitors still managed to get on the board first when Kosacz got things started, by finding Yusuke Kanada, who in turn connected with Brian Hindle for a redirected header which eluded keeper Lee Kresner.

The Wildcats got one back just 60 seconds after the Hindle strike when a superb ball from the mid-line by Balboa fell to sophomore Jose Garcia. He out-raced two defenders and chipped keeper Colton Caesius, who had raced off his line to challenge.

Wheeling gained confidence after the Garcia goal, and its possession game forced the Vikings to chase and defend far more than they’d have liked.

“I felt that in the first 25-30 minutes we had the run of play and did a lot of good things on both sides of the ball — but without scoring a second goal, which might have turned things around in our favor if we did so,” said Uhrik. “But as we have all season long, we somehow allowed too much space, and our opponent has taken advantage of our lack of defending and marking. And their guy (Kosacz) had a nice strike on their go-ahead goal. Later, we left guys open, and (Fremd) took advantage once again.”

Hindle was the architect on the Vikings’ goal just before the half hour by Kosacz. Hindle first shielded his mark as he carried along the endline, then sent the ball out to his teammate, whose right-footed blast curled around the face of the goal, bouncing off the far post and into the net.

“Brian did all the work on that goal, and (Keller) has been telling me to be more selfish — so I shot the ball, and when it left my foot, I just kind of knew it was going to go in,” said Kosacz, a junior midfielder.

The Wildcats had few answers after intermission, as the visitors scored twice in short order to put this match firmly in its control.

A brilliant crossfield serve from the far side by Kanaka met Lehigh on the tail end of his run up the flank, and from there the senior smacked it home and past Kresner at 45 minutes.

VonHolt beat a pair of Wheeling defenders to touch past Kresner, despite an attempt to clear the shot off the line from Alfonso Noveron. The sequence started with a wonderful serve from Nate Hellwarth.

Ten minutes later, Keller started to bring many of his first-11 off for good, as the final quarter hour also saw Uhrik do the same.

“We’re getting better in some phases, but we just haven’t developed that life-and-death mentality in the box, at both ends, so we haven’t finish chances we’ve created in close, and on the other side, we just haven’t stopped our opponent like we need to in order to compete,” said Uhrik.

The Wildcats are on the road at Elk Grove tonight, while Fremd hosts Rolling Meadows.