Rosado's goal keep Hersey's East hopes alive

With 100 minutes of soccer fast approaching, Darren Llewellyn admits he began to think how a draw would likely dash the hopes of his club in the MSL East race.

"We couldn't be 2-1-4 after tonight - we would be done for," said the Hersey coach.

But roughly at the same time those thoughts were racing through Llewellyn's mind, Huskies senior Luis Rosado ran onto a loose ball from Jack Rasmussen's wicked strike.

Rosado steered in the game-winner to stun host Elk Grove (4-7-2, 1-7-0) and keep the Huskies' divsional hopes alive after its 1-0 victory Tuesday night.

"I had really been on Luis during the last 20 minutes or so for not running hard," Llewellyn said. "But he did exactly that when we needed him to, and that was the difference for us tonight."

The win kept the Huskies within shouting distance of division-leading Rolling Meadows. The Mustangs' 2-1 decision over Barrington gives them 18 points, 6 points clear of Hersey (9-2-4 and 3-1-3, 12 points in the league).

"We had to win tonight," admitted an exhausted George Boyle, who wears the captain's armband along with teammates Tim Griffin and Campbell White. "We pretty much have to win out. Everyone on this team knows it, and we showed what kind of team this is by playing with our usual heart and energy, and right until the very end."

It was a fast-paced, entertaining match which greeted a chilled, and sometime damp audience at Robert E. Haskell Memorial Stadium.

The hosts were coming off their first victory in the MSL following a 2-1 victory over Hoffman Estates on the road last week.

"We challenged the guys to be positive, and to come out with some urgency, and a lot of energy and pride tonight," said Grens coach Rob Shepard. "And to be honest, I thought the entire team did just that, playing even better than we did last week during our win at Hoffman."

During the early exchanges, the Grens' trio of senior Ivan Corona, Jeromino Benitez and Carlos Miranda was impressive with and without the ball. Benitez and Miranda were up top and Corona was in the middle of the park, where he ran the attack with terrific distribution, alongside teammate Edgar Soto.

The Huskies' bench howled when it appeared an obvious hand ball in the box on a Boyle free kick was missed by the center official. Later, it was a pair of corners from Boyle which forced Grens keeper Alberto Centeno to turn away.

"Their keeper was tremendous and helped keep them in the game," Boyle said.

Just before intermission, Corona watched his close-range attempt create a scrum in front of Huskies keeper Adam Szymaszek.

A subsequent shot from Connor Emmerich rattled the football upright.

Szymaszek was forced to leave after a 50-50 collision in the 47th minute.

However, teammate Brett Harris came in for the sophomore and played near-flawless soccer between the sticks the rest of the way.

Brent Killian had a half chance in the 54th minute and Miranda had one at 59 minutes.

They signaled the start of some airtight defense from each club for the next 20 minutes and all the way through the two ten-minute extra sessions.

Rasmussen stung the gloves of Centeno with a smash from the right side to set up Rosado's heroics.

"Elk Grove's keeper was my man-of-the-match," Llewellyn said. "It's tough to see his night end like he did because he was so strong out there for them."

"We're all down right now after a tough one like this," Shepard said. "But hopefully we grow and learn from this before getting ourselves ready for Fremd on Thursday."

Hoffman Estates 2, Conant 1: The host Hawks got a first-half goal from junior Remzy Ahmeti and a second-half goal from junior Konrad Kieruzal, with assists from Angel Sarti on both, to upend the Cougars in Mid-Suburban League play.

Wheeling 2, Schaumburg 0: The host Wildcats got both scores in the second half as Frankie Estrada had assists for Fabian Acosta and Allen Mancilla. Jose Castillo made 3 saves in goal to help the Wildcats improved to 8-5-4 overall.

Fremd 3, Prospect 2: The Vikings pulled out a close one against the Knights in a divisional crossover.