Wheeling stays in East title hunt

With the chance to squeeze the life out its division rivals in pursuit of a Mid-Suburban East boys soccer title, Rolling Meadows instead revived the chances of Hersey and Wheeling by dropping a heartbreaking 2-1 match Friday afternoon to visiting Wheeling.

The Wildcats (9-5-4, 5-2-1, 16 points) survived a nervous final quarter-hour to earn a hard-fought victory, which draws them within 2 points of the Mustangs (8-5-0, 6-3-0, 18) with a game in hand heading into the final week of the regular season.

"This game reminded me so much of our win over Barrington the other night," said Mustangs coach Peter Mikulak. "We came out very strong, and built a 2-goal advantage - then after (Barrington) got one back, they were all over us but couldn't put another one in.

"The same thing happened to us today, and now we have to put this one behind us right away and then get ready for Schaumburg next Tuesday."

Hersey, which is sitting with 15 points (4-1-3) overall, takes on Buffalo Grove, while coach Ed Uhrik's Wheeling group meets Palatine.

"It looks like we're right back in it again," said a thrilled Uhrik, who leaned heavily on his back-line quartet of Francisco Arellano, Victor Gomez, Allen Mantilla and Pedro Flores after Meadows drew closer in the 55th minute, then poured forward in its search to grab at the very least 1 point for its effort. "This was a great win for us today, but we can't celebrate too long because of an upcoming week filled with three more games.

"We drew with Conant, 2-2, lost in OT to Barrington (1-2) and played Fremd very tight before losing 2-1. Better results in any of those three and maybe we're sitting on top of the division. But that's the way life goes in the MSL."

Wheeling dazzled in the first-quarter hour with its high energy and ability to keep the touches to just a few from Brett Gibson, Kou Glaser, Sal D'Acquisto and David Zarate. Except for a pair of quality chances off the left foot of Zarate, the Mustangs rarely were dangerous in the Wildcats' end.

"We all knew the importance of this game, but we came out a little flat and didn't play the way we're capable of, and that makes this loss even harder to take," said D'Aquisto, a senior.

Jose Garcia served a touch-line beauty from the near side to help set up Fabian Acosta, who drove in his close-range blast in the 21st minute.

Nick Janulus, who gave his club pace and holding power up top when brought on by Uhrik, was rewarded for his work when he doubled the Wildcats' lead in the 37th minute after a deep serve off a corner by Jose Mantilla broke the Mustangs down in their own box.

"It seemed like we came out a little unsure while we tried to find our game and rhythm, and we just weren't very clean in many parts of our game during that first half, especially on dead-ball and set-piece plays," said Mikulak.

Meadows responded after the break, though there was a period of adjustment when the Mustangs lost sophomore keeper Marc Quezada following a collision in the box with a Wheeling player and a teammate in a possession challenge. Quezada was replaced by senior Willie Mrofcza following the 41st-minute injury.

Glaser, Zarate and Jacob Koutas were at the center of the Mustangs' resurgence, and with defender AJ Aluquin added to the midfield mix, the urgency level seemed to increase.

The Mustangs were awarded an indirect kick just at the edge in the 55th minute. After Gibson teed things up for Koutas, his shot was cleared off the line, first by keeper Jose Castillo, then Arellano. That set up Glaser, who calmly drove home his strike.

Zarate later found the right post with his left-footer, and Castillo watched his back-line mates clear a ball inside the box after another Gibson corner. D'Acquisto also just missed catching up to a wonderful ball from Aluquin that would have provided a scoring chance.

"We did just about everything in that second half, but score," said Mikulak. "A win would have just about did it for us, but it's never easy in this league."

"We turned in a terrific first half of soccer," said a relieved Uhrik, "then had to really work hard to hold on for the win. I hope we learned something from this game today, especially with one more big week ahead of us."