Boys soccer: Lew's goal gets Barrington into finals of own tourney

Ethan Lew's 78th-minute half volley was enough to rescue Barrington, which despite dropping a 2-1 contest to Boylan still managed to advance into its own boys soccer tournament final Saturday.

Lew guaranteed the Broncos (3-1-1) a third consecutive spot in the championship match when his goal helped Scott Steib's team advance by virtue of tiebreaker over Boylan and Streamwood, all of which finished with 6 points in pool play action.

The Broncos, who will face Jacobs at 6 p.m. on Saturday at Barrington Community Stadium, were plus-2 in goal differential over Boylan and Streamwood, who were a plus-1 after three games this week.

"We knew either a win or draw would put us through," Steib said. "But when we went down 2 goals late in the game it meant our only chance to be in the final was to score a goal to give us the tiebreaker advantage."

Last season, the Broncos defeated Conant in the final, then again later in its state tournament semifinal.

"We played well at times, mostly in the second half when we had several chances but didn't finish," Steib said. "But for the most part, we had our troubles, many of which we'll need to clean up next week when we get back to training."

Boylan (3-1-1), which lost its tourney opener to Streamwood (2-1) on a late penalty kick, stunned the hosts in the 18th minute on a goal from Alan Rubio.

After creating four consecutive corners, the Broncos generated their first real opportunity of the game on another set piece chance as Klaus Pallan curled his 22-yard free kick around the wall, forcing keeper C.J. Cooper to make a goal-saving stop.

It was all Barrington after the break as the Broncos' rampant attack, inspired by Gio Guarnero, spent the first quarter hour in the Boylan end.

Guarnero's close control at midfield helped spring the speedy Michael Blanke as well as others, and it looked like it would only be a matter of time before the Broncos scored the equalizer.

Omkar Prabhavalkar, who showed terrific pace on the outside for Barrington, skimmed the bar with his attempt at 47 minutes. Blanke saw a close-range shot turned away nicely by Cooper after the junior ran onto a free-kick serve from Guarnero, played with sublime touch over the wall.

Connor Delahunt nearly caught up to a Blanke cross at the back post.

Despite all the pressure from the Broncos, it was Boylan, on its only real chance of the second half, that scored.

Jaime Alvarez started it with a free kick, and Javier Millan flicked the ball to an opportunistic Colin Beatty for the goal in the 75th minute.

A now frantic Broncos club, knowing time was running out, found the goal to help send them into the final.

Lew ran onto Blanke's corner and drove in his brilliant one-timer.

"My gosh, Barrington had a lot of talented attacking players, and they really worked us over and kept us under siege," said Boylan coach Chris Mera. "We played with a new formation, moving from a 3-4-3 to a 4-4-2, and we had some trouble with it. But the guys hung in there with a big effort, and that's what was really good to see tonight."

Boylan will play St. Charles North in the third-place game preceding the final.