Schaumburg tightens MSL West grip
Schaumburg maintained its position at the summit of the Mid-Suburban League boys soccer table Tuesday.
But more important for the Saxons, they stayed atop the West division as they cruised to a 4-1 victory over Elk Grove. The match moved to the Saxons (9-3-1, 8-1-0) home turf after a day-long rain made the Grens’ pitch unplayable for this crossover match.
The triumph not only gives coach Hamid Mehreioskouei’s club a league-high 8 victories, but with 24 points, the Saxons’ tightened their grip in the MSL West and increased the pressure on pursuers Fremd and Barrington.
“The thing you see every year in the conference is teams vying for a championship play hard for 80 minutes, and although we started a little slow tonight, we still were playing hard, and really (did so) in the second half, and that’s something we’ve been doing all season long thus far,” said Mehreioskouei, who knows a win at home next Tuesday sends the Saxons to their first MSL Cup since 1996.
“We played a very good 30-35 minutes in the first half, but Schaumburg got stronger as the game went on, and when we weren’t able to control the midfield, and (they) were winning nearly every first and second ball in the second half, it quickly became 2-0, 3-0 and then it was too hard for us to come back,” said Elk Grove head coach Joe Bush, whose club falls to 1-6-2 in the league and 2-8-4 overall.
The Grens dodged a bullet in the early stages when Jake Savino was unable to catch up to a wonderful freekick from Nick Abel — and again, as Savino served across the face of the goal, only to miss Drew Simon by inches at the back post.
However, that was about all the Saxons could generate after this initial push, and with the help of Justin Gavros, Gio Carcia and Colin Murphy, the Grens’ enjoyed most of the run of play for the next quarter hour of play. That stretch saw Saxons’ keeper Ben Beard punch a couple of well-aimed serves into the box, including one from Jesus Lara at 24 minutes to help the confidence of Elk Grove build with every touch going forward.
“I thought we possessed the ball really well in (the) first half, but just couldn’t really create too many dangerous chances for ourselves, and although we fell behind in the second-half, everyone played hard right up until the end,” said the junior Gavros, one of three who wears the captain’s armband for Bush.
Simon gave the Saxons a 1-goal advantage at 34 minutes after the Grens initially cleared a long throw from Abel. It wasn’t far enough out of the area to allow Raul Alcala to keep things alive long enough to give his teammate Simon the chance to finish.
The Saxons’ would roar into a 3-0 lead just before the hour when Joey Faleni found the back of the net following a scrum created after Grens’ keeper Mike Ragano made a spectacular save on a Savino full bicycle at point-blank range.
The Faleni goal at 52 minutes gave way to Alcala striking past Ragano, who was on the floor after turning away an attempt from Savino from the near endline.
“Once it became 3-0, and with the way their backline defends, (we) knew it would be tough to get back into the match, especially the way it’s been hard for us to finish of late,” admitted Bush.
Christian Michalowski, Peter Piers and Abel kept everything in front of them, and away from Beard, with the help of Mike Chase, who in his role just in front of the trio, won balls, tackled efficiently, and slowed the Grens’ attack when they first entered the Schaumburg end.
“We communicate really well, stay organized and composed, and play together as a unit,” offered the sophomore Michalowski, who joined the Saxons this fall after playing club soccer in 2010.
John Franco curled his brilliant freekick around the wall at 72 minutes to find the upper right corner to increase the Saxons lead to 4-0. Sophomore Jonathan Arzeta dashed the hopes of Beard for another shutout when he rattled one off Beard and the post three minutes from time to end the scoring for the evening.