Buffalo Grove clinches in MSL East
Buffalo Grove will join Schaumburg for the 39th Mid-Suburban League Cup after finishing with a flourish when Drew Brauner steered in his 85th minute penalty kick at Grant Blaney Stadium to defeat Conant's boys soccer team 2-1 on Tuesday.
"It was all heart tonight," said Buffalo Grove coach Brad Abel, who watched his team play a man down for nearly 70 minutes before seeing Brauner score the decisive goal.
The Bison (10-5-2, 8-1-0) clinched the program's fourth trip to the MSL Cup. Division rival Wheeling drew 1-1 with Fremd on Tuesday, but the Wildcats needed to win in order to make Friday's Buffalo Grove vs. Wheeling matchup relevant to deciding the East crown.
"It says a lot about this team to play a man down for most of the game," said Abel, "and to beat a team which had beaten Barrington last week, after beating Schaumburg, clearly the best team in the MSL this year, a few days earlier."
Bison senior Hans Haller, who along with Ryan Drum, Tyler Niemann and Christobal Damian, stayed organized most of the evening to help offset the loss starting keeper Daniel Sempoch.
"Things didn't look very good for us after Daniel was sent off," said Haller, "but as the night went on we began to play better, and with more confidence, especially our back line."
The sophomore keeper made a valiant effort and challenge of Shawn Khazey, who was put through with a wonderful ball out of the back from Matt Biernat. But in doing so, he was guilty of a hand ball outside of the box.
"It was a big play in the game, but we didn't take advantage of playing with an extra man until later in the first half," said Conant coach Jason Franco. "Then in the last 15 minutes of regulation when we were all over them when we finally got back even - before giving them the chance to win it with that PK."
Conant slipped to 7-5-5 overall and 5-5 against the MSL.
Brauner scored the first goal in the 13th minute when the visitors failed to defend Haller's long, deep throw, which allowed the senior to fire in his 11th goal of the season with a nice final touch.
The Cougars enjoyed a high rate of possession after the unfortunate red card sent Sempoch off for good. Caleb Mayhorn took over between the sticks for the Bison, and the sophomore was almost immediately tested by Khazey, whose left-footed looping strike seemed to dip and dive on its way in, forcing Mayhorn to make an important save to keep the 1-goal advantage secure.
The Cougars continued to get their passing game together, but when they neared the final third of the stadium, up stepped Haller, Drum and their back-line mates to knock down several direct balls and serves into the box.
"Those guys in the back were terrific all night long, with Niemann, and Brendan Carr - just fantastic, and Alex Alvarez having maybe his best game of the year," Abel said.
After surviving the first period, the Bison came out of intermission brimming with confidence, and it showed in crisp ball movement, which helped keep the Cougars under pressure during the first quarter-hour of the second period.
"We actually played better with a man down," said Brauner. "We survived 25 minutes of being a man down, and came out after the break attacking and with a lot of energy."
Colin Doyle could have made it 2-0 when he tricked his way past a pair of defenders, before narrowly missing an open back corner. Minutes later, a wicked strike off the right foot of Biernat rattled the underside of the bar and made it over the endline to tie it in the 73rd minute.
Francso said he was disappointed the momentum from the late goal didn't seem to carry over into the OT, as a hand ball inside the box led to Brauner's PK opportunity.
"This would have been a huge win regardless of what Wheeling would have done against Fremd," said Abel, whose team is now 7 points clear of the Wildcats with just 6 points available in the final two regular-season games. "Once again, we did what we had to do to win, and tonight it ended up giving us the division."