This one shakes out in favor of Conant against Rolling Meadows

Rolling Meadows' boys soccer team was hit by an earthquake of Conant offense on Tuesday.

The shaking lasted about six minutes, and by the time it had ended, the visiting Cougars had rattled the back of the net three times to secure a 3-0 victory in Mid-Suburban League play at Robert Hoese Stadium.

Kevin Sindewald broke a scoreless match at 50 minutes before teammates Brian Rodela and Umi Kanao followed with strikes of their own to dash the hopes of the home side, which was looking for its second league victory.

"I don't know if was the early game time, or our 2-0 loss (Monday) night to Palatine," said Conant coach Jason Franco, whose team improved to 4-4-3 overall and 2-2-0 in the MSL. "But we came off the bus as flat as we could be, and just played awful in the first 15 minutes.

"Rolling Meadows played so well in that opening 15 minutes, and I thought, 'How in the world did they lose four conference games before today?' But once we found our pace and starting playing, things turned around nicely for us from there on out."

"What you saw today is kind of the way we've gone this season," said Meadows coach Peter Mikulak, whose club is 5-6-0 and 1-4-0. "We opened so brightly. We moved the ball around, we were creative with our attack and had a couple of great chances. But then we folded once we conceded that first goal, and a second one shortly thereafter."

If not for a pair of superb saves from keeper Christian Hyde during the first quarter-hour, the Cougars could have been chasing goals heading into the break.

"Christian allowed us to stay in the game while we tried to figure things out," Franco said. "And for that matter, their keeper (Pan Zervas) made a great save himself to keep us out of the back of the net as well."

Hyde stopped Jairo Dian Ugalde from in close in the tenth minute. But he saved his best for Ugalde's next attempt, a wicked left-footed half-volley on which the senior had enough time to tee up after Jash Snopek put him in position to unload from 6 yards.

Franco introduced Kanao, Mikoto Kobayashi and Shawn Khazey when his club was in need of pace and energy. The trio provide just that and more, slowly helping the Cougars regain the advantage.

"Those guys typically start for us, but we decided to change things up a little for this game," Franco said. "They came on and gave us exactly what we needed, and our attack really got going. And it continued right into the second half."

Sindewald ran onto a Cezar Alfaro free kick and redirected past Zervas before Rodela miss-hit a first attempt from in close. The ball, however, stayed near the 6, allowing Rodela to steer in a left-footed blast.

Then Alfaro put through Rodela with a wonderful early ball, only to have Zervas turn away his shot. Kanoa, however, finished with a rebound goal to end the damage for good in the 56th minute.

"Coach told us at half if we get the first goal, let's go after two more," said Alfaro, a senior. "And that first one really seemed to get us going after we began the game so badly."

And Conant is pleased it can quickly bounce back from a disappointing defeat.

"It's good to see us come back from that Palatine loss with a solid effort and win," Franco said. "We'll look to carry this over into our match with Schaumburg (on Friday), which is our homecoming."