Conant holds off Glenbard E.
Conant emerged with a 3-2 victory over Glenbard East as pool play continued at the Lake Park Lancer Classic on Tuesday, but not before putting first-year head coach Jason Franco through some nervous times on the bench.
The Cougars (1-1-2) exploded for 3 late strikes before the first half ended, then held on against a hopeful Rams (0-2-2) side which tried hard to find the equalizer but fell short.
Next up for the Cougars will be Downers Grove North on Thursday evening at the Lake Park East Campus, while East continues tourney play on that same night against the host Lancers, who are looking to earn its second-straight tournament championship.
"Getting those goals before the break was obviously very good for us," said Franco, who took over for coaching icon Tony Kees after serving as assistant under the long-time Cougars manager. "But if we could have finished on 2-3 of our chances in that first-half, maybe we would not have had to struggle to put this match away later on."
The Cougars certainly began bright enough, but after nearly 20 minutes of dominance, it was the Rams who found the back of the net first.
After senior Kevin Reddington hit the post at 11 minutes and teammate Tony Rizzo did the same off a deadly long throw from Derek Wojick five minutes later, Glenbard East junior Fernando Palacios redirected a Ryan Lewis helper with a superb header to give his club a 1-0 lead.
While Josh Stone, Kevin Stack, Reddington and Wojick all looked capable of causing problems with the ball during the opening period, it wasn't until Brent Hoffman leveled the score at the half-hour mark when his diagonal run caught up to a Wojick assist at the spot.
Three minutes later Jimmy Samarjis gave the Cougars the lead when he, Stone and Stack cut the East backline apart with sublime passing and movement, which would eventually allow Samarjis to slot under keeper Alek Munoz in close.
Moments later, Wojick's left-footed blast went off the gloves of Munoz to send the Cougars into the break ahead 3-1.
"Giving up those 3 late goals wasn't a good thing for us, but at the break we told the guys to concentrate on getting one of those (goals) back in the first 10 minutes, then keeping the pressure up and see what happens," said Rams coach Josh Adler.
Adler's club took advantage of an opportunity nearly 10 minutes after intermission when the Cougars struggled to clear in their own end.
Roger Samayoa and Palacios initiated trouble inside the box, which allowed a patient Sam Dennis to measure and fire in from 15 yards to draw the Rams closer at 50 minutes.
The strike helped the Rams (0-2-2) gather newfound confidence and energy, and with its midfield coming alive and Samayoa and Palacios more dangerous than ever in the match, the pressure mounted on Cougars first-year keeper Hugo Gonzalez, a sophomore.
Gonzalez saved a Samayoa free kick at 56 minutes and later against Palacios when the junior striker broke free at the hour mark.
"We've got a lot of seniors on this club, but only a few with actual varsity experience, and it shows in matches like this where the opportunity to put away an opponent is there for us," said Franco.
Barrington 5, Warren 1: What was a slow start for Barrington boys soccer has quickly turned around in less than a week.
Ata Ozbay and Ryan Mangone played a big part, as each scored a pair and led the Broncos past Warren 5-1 in the opener of the Barrington Classic Tournament on Tuesday.
It also was the Broncos' first time on the school's new artificial turf and its second straight win after opening the season with losses to New Trier and Hersey.
"Ata (Ozbay) and Ryan (Mangone) are pretty good attacking players," Barrington coach Scott Steib said. "Both are fast and I believe the turf will make them even faster.
"That really wasn't a bad Warren team. This team (Warren) is in range to Hersey and us. We could play them ten times and we might not beat them five or six times. We just got in and finished our chances."
Barrington (2-2), the reigning Class AA state champion, showed its strength and scored four times in an eight-minute span in the first half.
"We're capable to have that big explosion, but we haven't had it," Barrington coach Scott Steib said. "We're still trying to find ourselves."
Mangone, a senior, got the first 2 goals scored on the new field for the Broncos.
"Putting two in quickly gave us the big boost we needed," Mangone said.
Barrington's Noel Irion made it 5-0 in the 45th minute off a pass from Frank Ingraffia.
- Rusty Silber