Palatine takes early control
Palatine booked a place in its own boys Class AA soccer regional final Saturday after defeating Dundee-Crown 3-0 in the second semifinal Wednesday night.
The No. 6-seeded Pirates (14-8-0) will face No. 3 Lake Zurich (17-3-2) in a rematch of a midseason match which saw the NSC champion Bears triumph 4-1.
The action was fast and furious and never lacking in quality for the home side, especially up front as Haris Haskovic, Glenn Arnold and Louis Vargas showed creativity and too much energy for the No. 11 Chargers (9-9-2) despite rainy conditions.
"Coach (Willie Filian) told us that it was so important not to come out flat in the first 10 minutes and to set the tone for the rest of the match," said Haskovic.
Vargas scored the only goal the Pirates needed at 15 minutes on a superb strike. Matt Marturano sent the striker through with a marvelous pass to break down the Chargers' defense and put Vargas alone against D-C keeper Mike Zozokos.
Later, Todd Leitgeb sent a perfect ball over the top to find Haskovic, who out-raced a pair of defenders before delivering a low first-time finish from 10 yards to make it 2-0 at 19 minutes.
"Todd gave me a great ball out of the back." Haskovic said. "But his defensive work on Christian Meza was even better."
Meza, the Chargers' all-state candidate, was held to a quiet first-half, thanks in part to Leitgeb.
Ben Compton added another goal off a helper from Vargas and Haskovic.
"We've been going back and forth about playing three up top of late, and playing a little more direct with the postseason upon us," said Filian.
Lake Zurich 1, Fremd 0: Reid Bergstrom's penalty-kick conversion in the waning moments of regulation ended a bizarre and controversial sequence of events to give Lake Zurich a 1-0 victory over Fremd on Wednesday night in a Class AA regional opener at Palatine.
The No. 3 seeded Bears (17-3-2) now meet the host Pirates (14-8-0), a 3-0 winner over Dundee-Crown, at noon Saturday at noon to decide the regional champion.
Bergstrom's spot-kick completed a breathtaking passage for the favored Bears.
They survived the upset bid of the No. 14 Vikings (9-8-1), who slowly built confidence as the match continued and had chances to strike throughout, only to be done in by a questionable hand-ball inside the box with 23.3 seconds remaining to give Bergstrom his opportunity to be a hero.
"Did we agree with the referee's call. No. Obviously there was no advantage when (it) occurred," said Vikings coach Steve Keller. "It's a tough way to lose your final match of the year. But we also had our chances along the way, and we didn't finish."
Fremd's back line of Michael Ballschmiede, Cory Degrave and Vinay Goyal kept their composure against Bears' high-scorers Tim Kreutz, Nick Janus and Bergstrom in front of Vikings' keeper Rich Podjasek.
With a once slight rain beginning to pick up and as OT neared, and wayward blast off the right boot of Janus surprised Degrave, who was struck in the hand.
Despite no intent on the part of Degrave to gain an advantage, the center official called the foul and PK, just before a lightning warning scurried all to safer posts.
After a 20-minute delay, Bergstrom drilled his game-winner to Podjasek's right, who guessed the attempt would go the other way.