Boys soccer: Conant keeps momentum with win over Hersey
Four days after a 5-0 win over Mid-Suburban West boys soccer rival Schaumburg, Conant dominated the last 30 minutes of the first half to earn a 4-1 victory over Hersey on Thursday in Hoffman Estates.
The Cougars (5-5-1, 3-1-1) withstood a quality start from its inexperienced opponent by scoring the first 3 goals of the contest, much to the delight of Cougars coach Jason Franco.
"I feel like it's beginning to come together for us," he said. "Our confidence appears to be back, and we've playing better along the back, and just cleaner all over. So if we can get ourselves a win here (on Friday) in our homecoming game against Fremd, we'll keep ourselves in the race for the division.
Junior Sota Ono had a hand in two of the first three goals the home side scored, sandwiched in between a PK conversion by Mateusz Pasula.
"I have to say that Hersey was the better team in the first 10-15 minutes," said Franco. "We play three in the back, and they have three up top, so there was a lot of 1v1 situations that gave us trouble. But I am sure Darren (Llewelyn) would agree the PK call broke the back of his guys."
"Yes it did," saod Llewelyn. "I didn't think it was the right call, but it's also important to say that Conant came out and played the type of physical game that my young team has struggled with. And that's something we'll continue to deal with as we go through our growing pains."
The Huskies at times had a handful of freshmen and sophomores in the game, as well as plenty of varsity newcomers.
"We're really young - so young that one of the things I have to do is give teammates rides home, while also being a leader and mentor to many of them, which is something that I enjoy doing," said Hersey senior and captain Mick Santry, one of just a couple of returning players from the 2016 club.
Ono opened the scoring for the Cougars in the 15th minute, before Pasula doubled the advantage with his spot kick eight minutes later.
A superb individual piece of work from Ono allowed Brandon Chlopek to add to the Cougars' score at the half-hour. But Hersey (0-5-3, 0-4-1) didn't go away when it pulled one back minutes after the Chlopek strike as Arturo Moscoso finished from in close off a free kick.
"I liked our response to Hersey's goal when we came back down and Harris (Dibek) put one in just inside the back post," said Franco.
Eduardo Dorado was credited with the helper on the Cougars' fourth and final goal.
The visitors enjoyed most of the play after the intermission, with junior Trey Schmidt, Eddie Marin, Jesse Lopez, Moscoso and others all getting into good attacking situations while creating a handful of half-chances, including three quality opportunities that required Conant keepers Piotr Pyz and Mathew Jensen to save.
"We've been improving each time out, and at the same time, our chemistry is getting better, as is the play in the midfield where we're starting to really come together," said Chlopek, a key figure in the Cougars' fourth-place finish in the Class 3A state tournament last fall.
BG 4, Hoffman Estates 0: Kevin Eloiza recorded a hat trick, his last goal coming with a sensational finish, and senior Kyle Adams got his 12th goal of the season to help give Buffalo Grove a 4-0 home victory over Hoffman Estates.
Eloiza gave the Bison (8-4-0, 4-1-0) the lead at the break with Adams recording the assist before three more goals from the home side broke open this tight MSL match.
Jonathan Peici and Michael Botello had assists for BG, and senior Daniel Sempoch earned the shutout, giving him 5.5 this season.