Streamwood, Larkin battle to scoreless tie

The boys soccer teams from Larkin and Streamwood won't meet again in the regular season, but after what transpired Tuesday night in Upstate Eight River play, one can only hope the IHSA pairs the two Elgin Area District U-46 schools with each other in the Class 3A regional hosted by the Sabres next month.

Based on the display put forth by the teams' respective goalies in a scoreless tie at Memorial Field in Elgin, the potential matchup would be a penalty kick dream and every bit the price of admission to see two of the top rated goalies in the state, Sergio Blanco and Leo Perez.

Blanco stopped 5 shots for his third shutout overall for the Sabres (7-3-2, 0-1-2) this season while Perez turned away 7 for his first shutout for Larkin (2-7-3, 0-2-2).

"I think both of those keepers are two of the top keepers in state," Larkin coach Ken Hall said. "Leo played with the Sockers team that won the national championship and he was the keeper so he was a pretty good pedigree."

And Perez was the one doing damage control late. Streamwood amassed 10 of its game-high 16 shots in the second half, none more than a near-lethal sequence with just under 2 minutes to go in the match. Sabres forward Alan Camarena had a chance to give Streamwood the lead on a nasty strike from the top left of the box but Blanco managed to get his fingertips on it and up into the crossbar. Then Perez made a diving stop to his left just seconds later to stop Blerim Shoboni's chance on the rebound with 1:46 on the clock. Perez wouldn't know where to start on how the sequence went down.

"I seriously don't know," said Perez, who also made a diving save in the 63rd minute on a shot from 30 yards out by Erie Ortiz. "All I was thinking about was that none of these shots are going to go in because I was trying to keep a clean sheet."

But so was Blanco. Last year the Sabres' goalie allowed just 12 shots to get by him all season. He showed why that was such a magical number as Larkin's Alex Herrera in the early moments of the first half won a loose ball and had a point-blank shot stopped while Blanco did so again on Freddy Jungo's blast and Alex Cruz's shot midway through the first half. Blanco saw 2 shots come his way in the last 40 as the teams traded attacks but he too wanted no blemishes.

"We wanted to keep a clean sheet, I didn't want to get scored on," Blanco said. "(Larkin) is a very good team and I didn't want to let my team down."

"That's why he one of the top goalies in the state, he definitely is," Sabres' coach Matt Polovin added. "He's a big-game keeper and he definitely came prepared. I don't feel he was tested like their goalie was but when he had to come up with the save he definitely made it."

Streamwood outshot Larkin 16-11 but the Royals owned a 6-3 advantage in the first half. Camarena, an area leader in scoring, was double and tripled-teamed throughout which allowed the Sabres to create more chances. By the same token, Larkin relied heavily on its youth as the Royals are trying to right the ship.

"To us we think this is a good result," Hall said. "We had chances to score we've just got to put them in. Once we put in our chances I think our season is going to turn around and we're going to start winning some games."

And after a night like Tuesday the Sabres, who hit the crossbar three times, can relate.

"We were so close yet so far it seemed like, "Polovin said. "We had a lot of great chances. (Perez) gets on top of everything, doesn't give up any rebounds, he saved that breakaway on Blerim. If we hit those corners we'd be talking a different story."