Conant suffers fall from Grace
Like an unwanted house guest, Minnesota boys soccer state power Totino Grace always seems to overstay its welcome when it visits the Northwest suburbs every September.
Less than 24 hours after defeating perennial Wisconsin kingpin Marquette High 1-0, Conant fell victim Saturday afternoon to a pair of late strikes to fall to the Eagles 2-1.
They'll head home with 1-1 record in their annual trip south for former Elk Grove player Bill Vance.
"This (win) will make the bus ride home tomorrow a little easier for all of us," said Vance, who played for Conant coach Tony Kees while at Elk Grove.
The Eagles (4-3-6), who dropped a 4-0 match to St. Viator on Friday, will end a busy weekend in the Chicago area with a visit to see the Chicago Fire play on Sunday.
They spent much of Friday at the Catalyst Charter School in Chicago's West Side to perform charity work.
"It's kind of hard to figure the results (here) at Conant the past two seasons," continued Vance. "Last year we came back from a 2-goal deficit to win 3-2.
"And today, after being very fortunate to be down (1-0) at the break, we were able to find a way to get 2 late goals to beat Tony and his boys."
Fortunate indeed.
Totino had little answer to a rampant Cougars (8-4-0) attack which assaulted keeper Daniel Spiess and his back-line and poured through the visitors midfield, despite the absence of starters Bryan Neubauer and Mike Marks, who were held out because of injuries.
Super-striker Eric Marofske found the back of the net in spectacular fashion just five minutes into the match. He found the upper right corner with the outside of his foot from a narrow angle while heading toward the opposite post.
But the Cougars squandered a half-dozen corners in the first half hour, in addition to several crackers from Marofske in close and a blistering drive from Brian Stack which went just wide after the senior collected a ball over the top from Marofske.
In an attempt to preserve a short bench and the energy level of most of his lads who played late into the night in Milwaukee on Friday, Kees withdrew Marofske to create in the middle after intermission, and at times appeared to be playing a 3-1-4-2 with Kevin Reddington and Zach Raetzman only up top.
"We both kind of went with a few tactical changes in the second half," admitted Vance. "When our engine (Paul Yonga) was continually being shut down in the middle, we moved him up (front) and that's when things began to get going for us."
Conant keeper Josh Summers, who on the day was nearly flawless, had little chance on the Totino Grace equalizer at 64 minutes in which Michael McCarty converted.
The eventual game-winner in the 77th minute, which was thisclose to an offside flag from the assistant referee on the far side, came when Yonga sent Matt Canton through after the sophomore dispossessed a Conant defender near the middle of the pitch before finding his teammate.
"Sometime the (defense) has to keep everything at zero in the back," said a disappointed Tony Rizzo, stand-out junior back-liner. "We can't always count on Eric and Zach (Raetzman) to finish.
"This weekend could have been a big weekend for us after going up north and beating Marquette, and there's no excuse for us not getting another good result today."
St. Viator 2, Marian Cath. 0: Victor Mendoza connected on a penalty kick and Ryan Cortese added an unassisted goal for St. Viator (10-0-3, 5-0) in the East Suburban Catholic Conference victory. Jonathan Harris earned the shutout in goal.
Schaumburg 4, Streamwood 0: Schaumburg coasted by Streamwood thanks to a pair of goals and assist by Erhan Caglayan. Josh Beard also scored by Lucas Portuese added a goal and an assist. Kyle Boyer got the shutout with 7 saves in goal.
Barrington 4, Niles North 2: Three second-half goals did it for the Broncos in Saturday's nonconference win at Niles North. Francesco Furio, Frank Ingrassia, Ryan Nolan and Ata Ozbay all scored while keeper Tom Unak made 3 saves.
Leyden 4, Maine South 4: Despite a 4-1 lead at the half, the Eagles had to settle on a tie at Maine South. Scoring for the Eagles were David Wisniewski, Danny Fuentes, Eddie Adam and Rafal Zalewski. Gerardo Franko made 8 saves in goal in addition to logging an assist.