Boys soccer: St. Charles North, Streamwood play to scoreless draw
Meeting for the second time in six days, there were little secrets to be found as Streamwood and St. Charles North battled it out on the soccer field Tuesday night.
Neither offense could find the range, either, as the teams played to a spirited 0-0 tie in Upstate Eight Conference River Division action in St. Charles.
"It's difficult to play a team again - we just played them Thursday," said North Stars coach Eric Willson, whose team edged the host Sabres 2-1 in last week's PepsiCo Challenge semifinals on a late goal by Vito Lagioia. "We knew they were going to come in here wanting to get a little bit of redemption."
Both teams had solid scoring opportunities in the first half.
Matt Beaulieu's left-footed free kick was tipped over the crossbar by Sabres keeper Dan Dominguez (8 saves) midway through the first half, and Dominguez thwarted North Stars forward Jake Persenico's point-blank chance in the last 2 minutes of the opening half.
Streamwood (8-3-1, 1-0-1) also had a couple narrow first-half misses. Aldo Lazaro sent a cross to a hard-charging Alex Chavez, who just missed the corner of the net, and Gregorio Esteves' 26-yard free kick curled just over the crossbar late in the half.
"We created a lot of chances but we just couldn't put them in," said Lazaro.
"The game plan we had in the first half was working to some respect," said Willson. "We were sitting back and waiting for the right opportunities on counters but I think we wanted a little bit more intensity in what we were doing.
"The challenge at halftime was finding a way to get a spark and turning it into a little more of an intense, heated battle - and we certainly got that in the second half."
One of the North Stars' best chances came midway through the second half when passes from Persenico, Josh Amaro and Gabe D'Amico eventually landed on the right foot of senior forward Bernard Elegbede, whose blast sailed just high of the net.
With a minute remaining, North Stars keeper Piercarlo Ricossa (9 saves) came up with a leaping punch save of a 31-yard free kick from the Sabres' Oscar Chavez.
"We had our chances and they absolutely had theirs," said Willson. "I think the draw tonight is pretty fair with both teams getting some looks. Sometimes a tie kind of feels like a loss but it didn't feel like that tonight."
Neither team played conservatively over the final 10 minutes. "We didn't want to come for the tie," said Streamwood coach Matt Polovin. "We left everything out there.
"It's a game that either of us could have won. Hopefully we'll see them again later in the season - much later."
It was a night where the back lines of the North Stars' Kyle Kolodziej, Joey Sommer and Peter Willis and the Sabres' Rafa Gil, Jose Ibarra and Michael Rubio prevailed.
"It was a great team effort from all 21 people," said Kolodziej. "We had forwards tracking back in the box. We knew they were going to want revenge."