Streamwood notches first win
Mario Rodriguez played a starring role in the first victory of the season for Streamwood when the Sabres rolled over Chicago Taft (0-3-0) Thursday evening 5-0 in third round play of the Warriors Invite boys soccer tournament in Des Plaines.
The senior struck for a hat trick, his third and final goal of the night on a sensational 30-yard drive in the upper right corner to help Matt Polovin’s club earn the win after dropping the first two matches of this tournament.
“It feels good to get that first one,” said a relieved Polovin, “we really needed it to get everyone going and to gain some much needed confidence.”
“We’ve always play very good possession soccer, we did in our first two games, but we just haven’t been able to finish the chances we created,” began Rodriguez, who now has 4 goals for the season.
“There’s a lot of new players on the team this year, but I feel that the chemistry on the team is beginning to come around, and tonight we showed we can score, and play good soccer as a team.”
The Sabres forced their opponent to defend with all its might as they knocked the ball around, almost at ease, with Nestor Ascencio, Ivan Rosales and Christian Vences enjoying most of the touches during the opening stages, but after going close on several occasions, and with Taft keeper Piotr Klimek helping to keep his side in the match with a couple of wonderful goal-saving stops, Marion Rodriguez put the Sabres (1-2-0) in front for good at 24 minutes when he beat his mark to a loose ball and slotted past the diving Klimek.
The senior captain, and Isamel Diaz worked some magic just before intermission to help double the Sabres’ lead to cap 15 minutes of play which saw Streamwood have at least 80 percent of the possession leading up the goal at 40 minutes.
Streamwood would dominate the second half, and would put the match out of reach of the hard playing, but undermanned club from Taft when it went into the back of the net twice within 60 seconds.
Vences was allowed to get enough space before hitting a left-footed smash to make it 3-0 in the 53rd minute then moments later, Mario Rodriguez unloaded his highlight film goal to bring the Sabres’ faithful out of their seats.
Junior keeper Phil Lewy was a spectator for the entire second half, thanks in part to his back line in front of him, Christian and Luis Rodriguez, as well as Christian Balbino and Angel Guterirrez.
Christian Rodriguez would put the icing on the Sabres’ win in the 65th minute when he finished from the right side coming out of the back.
“We were kind of hoping if we scored a few goals, it would be contagious, and then maybe we find the back of the net a little bit more,” said Polovin.
“It was a good effort, and a good win for the team.”