Maine West perfect after topping South Elgin
Maine West’s boys soccer team stayed undefeated in its tournament following a 3-1 victory over visiting South Elgin as the third round of the Warriors Invite came to a close Thursday in Des Plaines.
Striker Nelson Herrera, who has 5 goals though the first three matches for the unbeaten Warriors, turned a Jerry Espinoza helper around and past Storm keeper Tyler Shipon at 32 minutes. Maine West struck against just 1 second before the break with Alex Contreras providing the tally.
“We did that a couple of times last season, and to give a goal away so easily like we did today is something that we’ll need to be more aware of, regardless of our opponent,” said South Elgin coach John Uvegas, who ,like his counterpart, Mike Divincenzo, thought the heat, and tough tournament schedule led to some sloppy play from time to time.
“We looked a little ragged at times, and at this point I am sure both Mike and I would just like to have an easy training session to work on a few things before giving the guys a little time off.”
The Storm (2-1) resumes tournament play Saturday when it meets Chicago Taft at 2 p.m.
The Warriors were denied by Shipon in the 20th minute when the senior came off his line to stop Christian Ayala, who was put through by Miguel Lopez. Shipon again frustrated the hosts moments later with a save on Herrera, who’d broken through on the right side.
Near the half-hour mark, Shipon made his best stop of the first period after Herrera roared up the left side before finding Luis Zamora, whose close-range attempt was turned away.
The Storm worked hard at midfield to slow the Warriors’ attack, which had produced 5 goals the previous night against Streamwood. But faced with good energy and crisp tackling from South Elgin, Maine West couldn’t solve South Elgin until Herrera scored eight minutes from the break.
“Today, much like our match with Streamwood, we played well in spurts,” said Divincenzo. “When we did play well, we created chances and put a few into the back of the net, especially Alex’s goal right before the half, which came at the end of a great run by him.”
The Storm nearly cut into the Warriors’ 2-goal lead just minutes into the second period when Adam Smith came up the left side and found Phil Saccameno, but the chance was snuffed by keeper Jecsan Torres, who never hesitated coming off his line and quickly squashed any ideas from Saccameno.
The confident Storm continued to attack. Quinn Uvegas skimmed the bar with a well-struck shot to make the hosts just a bit nervous, and a second attempt by the senior was saved by Torres after a long throw fell to the South Elgin striker.
“We did a much better job of creating some opportunities in the second half, and we never gave up throughout that time, right up until we finally broke their shutout bid,” said John Uvegas.
A sublime touch by Herrera all but put the match out of reach as he finished what Espinoza started past a diving Michael Cortez, who came on in the net in the second half for South Elgin.
Matt Padron found some space before crushing his right-footer into the net at 80 minutes to finish the scoring.
“That was a first-class goal by Nelson to make it 3-0, but I really wanted us to get the shutout today,” said Divincenzo.
Maine West’s next tourney matchup is at 4 p.m. Saturday against Marian Central.