Boys soccer: Round Lake fall to Highland Park in PKs

The effort was there for Round Lake's boys soccer team in its season opener, but the Panthers lost to Highland Park 2-1 in penalty kicks in the Lake Forest Shootout on Tuesday.

Highland Park prevailed 3-2 in PKs after the teams played to a 1-1 draw through 80 minutes of regulation.

"First game and we've got to work on communication with our (midfielders)," Round Lake coach Hugo Tellez said. "It was a rough first half. We picked things up a little bit in the second half. It came down to the PKs. We just have to work on some stuff."

The Panthers have reached the championship of the tournament the last couple of years. Highland Park (1-1), which lost to Schaumburg 6-0 in its season opener Monday, came out with a defensive approach against Round Lake.

"The guys we played Monday were really strong and Round Lake was really a good team too," Highland Park coach Blake Novotny said. "This was a better matchup for us. We were playing with a defensive-heavy midfield lineup. We were clogging a lot of things up. That was very helpful."

The Giants scored the opening goal 22 minutes into the first half off a set piece. Justin Illes finished a volley in front of the goal, which was set up by Ambrosio Toledo outside the penalty area.

The Panthers had chances to score but were denied by Giants keeper Juan Chavez (12 stops) until the 67th minute. Freddie Ramirez beat Chavez to the ball off a long service from Christian Gomez in the top of the box. Ramirez controlled the ball and knocked the ball into the net.

"I scored a goal, but it really doesn't matter," Ramirez said. "For me, you want a winning goal. Highland Park has some strengths and that's what kept us down. We're a small team, but there's nothing big that we need to change. We have a good team this year."

Toledo scored the game-winning penalty kick for the Giants.

Round Lake will play in the consolation semifinals against Carmel Catholic (1-1) at 4:30 p.m. Thursday. The other consolation semifinal will be Lakes (0-1) against Lake Forest (0-1).

In the other games, Waukegan outscored Carmel 5-2, Lakes was shut out by Deerfield 1-0 and Dundee Crown beat host Lake Forest 3-1.

The semifinals are set for 4:30 p.m. Thursday, with Waukegan (1-0-1) playing Highland Park (1-1) and Dundee-Crown (2-0) taking on Deerfield (2-0). The tournament concludes Saturday.