Wheeling edges Hersey, repeats as MSL East champ
Wheeling achieved its dream of reaching the Mid-Suburban League Cup by defeating visiting Hersey 1-0 on Friday afternoon to clinch a second straight appearance in the conference championship matchup.
The Wildcats will meet Fremd in Thursday's MSL Cup.
Francisco Arellano converted a decisive spot kick at 40 minutes following a controversial call inside the Huskies' box, and after that, a stingy defense led by the Wildcats captain helped coach Ed Uhrik's club win a hotly contested, hard-fought regular-season finale.
"It was everything we expected out there from Hersey, and much more, but right now it feels good to be going back the MSL Cup," said Uhrik, whose team came up with three straight shutouts this week to close out its East Division competition.
"I cannot believe that PK call was the difference in this game today - it was a gift, if you ask me," said Hersey coach Darren Llewellyn, who let the center official know in no uncertain terms his dislike for the call when Fabian Acosta carried into the box before tripped up.
Up until that moment, most of the play was fairly even, with the Huskies (10-3-4, 5-2-4) having a little bit more of the play thanks in part to their ability to clog the center channel, win the air war along with a high percentage of 50-50 and second balls, especially at midfield.
"We didn't have a lot of spark in our game during most of the first half - we might have been tired from last night's win, and playing three games in four days," said Wheeling's Frankie Estrada, who was a key figure in a 2-0 win over Hoffman Estates to put the Wildcats (12-5-4, 8-2-1-25 points) in a stronger position to win the division crown outright. "We started to play a lot more direct in the second half to counter what Hersey was playing, and while that kind of play tired us out, it seemed to work much better for us."
The visitors got some much needed pace and energy up top when Llewellyn brought on Justin Vorndran to pair with striker Brent Killian, and the two did their part to put some extra added pressure on the Cats in its own end.
Vorndran took a ball from out of the back and steered his shot wide of keeper Jose Castillo at 26 minutes, and just afterward, Killian got to the end line, only to drive his low shot off the outside netting.
Wheeling found its form toward the end of the half, leading to a free kick from Estrada which was off the mark after Jose Garcia was fouled. But as the first period looked to be ending without a score, Acosta suddenly went down when surrounded by a trio of defenders.
Arrelano thumped in his PK past a diving Adam Szymaszek moments later.
"It was a tough call, no doubt, but that wasn't the reason we altogether lost today," said Hersey's back-line standout and co-captain Campbell White. "We had our chances but didn't finish, and you have to score to win."
"That's what I told the guys afterwards," Uhrik said. "That call went our way, but we also kept them out of the back of our net, and if it stayed scoreless the rest of the way, we still go through."
Hersey pushed numbers forward from the hour mark on, going with three forwards while getting others to push up. But terrific work from Arellano and his back-line teammates kept the Cats out of danger.
"We've come a long way since that very first week of the season when we didn't know each other very well, and there wasn't any chemistry yet between us," said Arellano. "But we're in the final - and that's what matters."