Saxons edge Conant in shootout
Fans attending today's Beckham-crazed Chicago Fire match at Toyota Park will be hard pressed to find the level of excitement attained at Saturday's Conant-Schaumburg Class AA regional soccer final.
This one had everything; two bitter rivals and a big crowd in a match moved from Conant to Hoffman Estates because of field conditions.
A dominant Schaumburg first-half performance in which Jose Reyna and Tim Piotrowski scored and it had two other apparent goals disallowed by officials whistles. A stirring Conant second-half rally as Eric Marofske scored 2 late goals to tie the match.
Not to mention four overtimes and a Schaumburg golden goal on a throw-in that was disallowed when the ball was ruled not to have touched a Saxon players on the way into the net.
There were two consecutive Conant point-blank headers bounced off the crossbar in overtime three, displays of sportsmanship and numerous cramped-up and exhausted players.
And oh yes, a Saxons' 3-2 shootout victory.
Schaumburg (13-4) keeper Jordan Sandberg stopped all three Conant (13-7) chances in the shootout, while Saxons' Josh Beard, Piotrowski and Declan Geraghty connected on their attempts to send the eighth-seed to Tuesday's 4:30 p.m. Streamwood sectional semifinal against No. 4 Lake Park.
"My legs were shaking," said Geraghty, who scored the game-winner after playing for more than three hours under the warm October sun. "But I just hit it -- I do it all the time in practice."
"I was just going on pure adrenaline," added Sandberg. "When the shootout started I was going 'oh man, oh man', but then the whistle blew and I forgot about everything else.
"I had a plan to stop the first three shots; but it's all guessing, and you hope for the best."
Schaumburg avenged an early-season loss to top-seeded Conant with the win.
"We had a chance to tie that game with five minutes left," said Schaumburg coach Hamid Mehreioskouei, "but we didn't get the bounce. I told the kids 'you'll see, the ball will bounce our way at the end of the season', and that's what happened today."
It was a tough final match for Cougars coach Tony Kees, retiring after 21 years.
"I thought we showed a lot of resiliency," said Kees, "coming back against the Schaumburg momentum and starting some momentum of our own.
"This is one of the better high school games I've seen. There wasn't a lot of room out there -- there were far more defensive plays than offensive plays."