Boys soccer: Pallan produces as Barrington tops Streamwood
Barrington's boys soccer team continues to ride the hot shooting touch of Klaus Pallan.
Scoring two more Thursday night to give him 9 in five matches this season, Pallan and his teammates defeated Streamwood 3-0.
That makes the Broncos 3-0-0 in pool play and puts them in Saturday's 6 p.m. final of the 28th Barrington Classic, where they'll face either Conant or Lake Zurich.
"It was a fantastic game out there for us tonight, especially with Klaus continuing to put goals into the back of the net for us," said team captain and 2015 all-state defender Nash Pirie, who along with his back-line peers Justin Funk, John Gadbois and Josh Coulter kept a talented and skillful Sabres (3-1-1) club under wraps. Alex Ruffolo recorded his second consecutive shutout in tourney play at Barrington Community Stadium.
"I thought we played a very strong, and effective first half, and one that I feel we had most of the run of play," said Sabres coach Matt Polovin, whose team was even with the hosts in the tourney standings before play began with 6 points apiece. "But we didn't begin the second half very well, and to be honest, we were outplayed for most of it and it was clear we were beaten by the better team tonight."
At the onset of this third and final match in pool play, it was apparent for the Sabres to neutralize the Broncos, they'd need to keep the touches from Gio Guarnero, Enrico Ruffolo and Zach Carbonara to a minimum. And for the first quarter hour, that trio controlled midfield with their distribution while senior Kai Sebens managed to win the aerial battles.
But with some inspiration generated from Oscar Chavez and Alex Chavez, Aldo Lazaro and Rolando Martinez, the Sabres slowly got themselves back into the game.
"Streamwood was very crafty, and technically strong, so it was important we didn't give too many fouls to give them free kick chances. When they did get some, they sent some very good balls into the box," Pirie said.
When Streamwood did threaten, Alex Ruffolo came to the rescue with some fearless work around the goal.
Pallan's first goal of the night came, thanks in part, to the ability of Kyle Owen to force his defender to turn into pressure. Owen took advantage by gaining control of a loose ball, driving toward the end line and sending a wonderful ball to Pallan for a goal in the 20th minute.
"I was feeling a little under the weather early this afternoon, but I really wanted to play this game, so I pulled myself together and told coach (Scott) Steib I could go tonight," said Pallan.
"Last year Klaus' older brother (Hans) was on his way to scoring a bunch of goals for us until he got injured and missed the rest of the season," Pirie said. "Klaus is taking over his role as our go-to scorer this year."
The Sabres opened the second period brightly enough, testing Ruffolo on three occasions. The best chance came from Oscar Chavez, with Martinez the creative force. The second was at the end of a nice build-up which saw five Sabres have a touch, and Jorge Bracamontes ended the sequence by firing a blast from 25 yards wide of the post.
The Sabres could do little to prevent the Pallan's second goal when, near the hour mark, the Broncos' big striker ran freely onto a bending free kick from Enrico Ruffolo and thumped his header past Sabres keeper Daniel Dominguez.
Eleven minutes later, Michael Blanke put the finishing touches on an impressive second half of soccer from the hosts as the sophomore burst up the left side, turned the corner and unloaded a missile off of Dominguez and over the end line.
"We put in a good effort tonight, but we looked a little weary after that second goal, and I think it was the combination of a long week of tournament play against three very good opponents, and a quality team like Barrington that ultimately did us in tonight," said Polovin, whose team will play in the third-place match at 4 p.m. Saturday against the loser of the Lake Zurich-Conant contest.