Vernon Hills tops Maine West for seventh straight win
Vernon Hills continued to serve notice of its boys soccer postseason intentions after an impressive 2-0 victory at Maine West in Des Plaines on Tuesday.
Freshman Brandon Kim and his teammates prevailed on senior night for the Warriors (4-13-3) while making program history with their 13th win of the season after securing a seventh consecutive victory for coach Mike McCaulou.
"We could not have started much better tonight," said McCaulou, whose team begins the state playoffs next week at home as the No. 2 seed in the Class 2A Harvard sectional. "We seem to be peaking at the right time, and things are coming together for us a little bit better each time we come out. I feel that everyone is on the same page with things as we get ready to begin the tournament in a week."
The first goal came as a result from some quick and heady play off the opening whistle, which saw Kim strike up and over keeper Edgar Vallejo after Michael Harty and Corey Takaoka heped put their teammate through in the first minute of play.
The early goal energized the visiting Cougars (13-5-2), who were quickly into their smooth passing and possession style, with all-state candidate Joseph Lee running the show in the middle of the park and linking up to creative strikers Chris White and Cole Guillaume.
"We got off to a great start scoring those two quick goals, and we could have added another one or two before the half as well," said Lee, a senior who intends to play at the collegiate level.
An enterprising run up the right side by White resulted in the Cougars' second goal in the seventh minute when the junior whipped in a wonderful helper to the back post. Kim beat his mark to the ball for an easy side-footed shot.
"Early mistakes have been our biggest problem this season, but once we get past those poor starts, we've settled down to play some very good soccer, against really good opponents," said Maine West captain Joey Pulvino, who was one of 14 seniors honored during a halftime ceremony.
The Cougars continued to make things difficult for Pulvino and his teammates for the rest of the first period. The best chances included a nicely played serve by Takaoka flashing through the box, and a header sent wide at the half-hour by Steven Tow after efforts from Lee and Takaoka helped put Tow in close enough for his attempt.
A wonderful crossfield ball from Takaoka to Kim saw Vallejo fearlessly come far off his line to stop the freshman from getting in. After that, thanks to some fine work from Pulvino, Brant Ibarra, Krystian Dabrowski and Rafael Estrada, the Warriors began to play evenly with their guests the rest of the way.
"No. 7 (Pulvino) is a very good player," said McCaulou, "and he did a lot of good things out there - especially in the second half when Maine West played more direct, which opened things up much more and kind of got us away from playing the way we did in the first half."
Terry Hatfield went wide with his 30-yard blast before Pulvino put one on frame to force keeper Brennan Reback into one of the few saves he needed to make.
The Vernon Hills back line of Ryan and Andrew Kim, Matt Hong and Harty stayed organized while keeping just about everything in front of them to help the Cougars earn their eighth shutout on the season.
"It was a good night for us all around," said Lee. "We set a program record for wins, got our seventh straight win and sixth straight shutout and continued to play good soccer as a team - which is all good with the postseason about to begin."