Magical finish for Schaumburg
The magic continues for Schaumburg.
The Saxons broke the heart of visiting Palatine on Friday night when Kristian Pawlikowski fired in the game-winner just four minutes into the first OT period to give the hosts a 1-0 victory, and another 3 points to increase its lead to 6 points over Fremd in the Mid-Suburban League table as another week of boys soccer draws to a close.
“It wasn’t very pretty out there, but this team continues to find ways to win soccer games, and that’s a very good thing to do in a tough soccer conference like the MSL,” said Saxons coach Hamid Mehreioskouei, who knew his club would have its hands full. “Palatine forces you to do things you don’t want to do, and they always, always play so hard. We challenged our guys at the break and told them the only way we would beat (Palatine) tonight was to out-work when we went back out there for the next 40 minutes, and to win each and every 50-50 and first and second ball, and to put them under pressure for the entire half.
“They got an unbelievable performance from their keeper, and I know they had a few guys hurting, but the team went out and did what it had to do in order to defeat a very good opponent.”
The Saxons, now 6-0-0 (18 points) and atop the MSL table, rarely enjoyed the run of play in the first half and counted on its backline trio of Nick Abel, Peter Piers and sophomore Christian Michalowski to stay organized and sharp in tackling to slow anything the Pirates (7-3-0, 3-3-0) had going forward with Jon Clark, Jack Reynolds, Tim Murphy and Josh Lee.
“We did a lot of good things in the first half, but never really generated any dangerous chances at their keeper, and when we had trouble finding our midfield in the second half, and the deep throws and corners began to pile up for Schaumburg, we knew we might be in a little bit of trouble,” said Palatine coach Willie Filian.
Pirates keeper Evan Held was magnificent, particularly in the final quarter-hour, when the angular senior used his height to pull one serve after another out of the air, or off the heads of Saxons who went airborne in hopes of going into the back of the net.
Already a little short on the bench, the Pirates lost Jason Palmas from the midfield near the hour mark to an injury.
And Clark, one of the best players in the area, was slowed by an ankle injury sustained just minutes into the second half. The all-area senior was able to return, and despite an obvious loss of quickness in his first step, his effort was still an impressive one as the Pirates’ captain showed enough pace to still be a dangerous option up top.
The Saxons’ best chance came at 72 minutes when Held sent a cruise-like missile out of the box with a strong punch — only to find himself in a 1 v 1 with Jake Savino at the near post moments later. With a calm, but direct challenge off his line, the Pirates’ keeper smothered the shot from Savino.
Savino got his revenge during the first 10-minute extra session when he found Pawilkowski with a crisp move on the left side.
Pawilkowski drove a left-footer into the far corner to send the Saxons’ faithful into a rip-roaring celebration.
“When you have been watching results and see that (Schaumburg) has been scoring late goals, you know that they’re a fit side, and that (Hamid) has them playing hard, and doing all the little things to win games like they did tonight,” said Filian.
“Our back three did a great job all night long to limit Palatine to maybe one of two chances at our keeper Ben Beard,” said Mehreioskouei, “and we had someone different in (Pawlikowski) score a big goal for us — and so it goes.”