Janicki saves Huskies
A virtuoso performance from Greg Janicki inspired Hersey to a historic victory Wednesday night in the 32nd Mid-Suburban League Cup.
The junior keeper brilliantly stopped a sure goal in overtime to save his club and send the match into a shootout. Janicki then stunned favored Barrington with a stop in the fifth round to give his club a 5-4 advantage in the shootout and a 1-0 victory in Arlington Heights.
Janicki's save on Tim Rudnicki helped Hersey (11-5-3) to an unprecedented third straight MSL championship and second in a row in a shootout over Barrington.
"What can you say?" said Hersey coach Darren Llewellyn. "The guys are just warriors, and all of them came in here tonight really believing that we were going to win this match no matter what. And tonight, Greg was the man."
After struggling early in the season and sharing time with last year's MSL Cup hero, Shane McGuinness, Janicki would eventually find himself in Llewellyn's first 11 to become a key figure in the Huskies run toward an East title and yet another appearance in the league's biggest match of the season.
"During the last 4-5 matches, we've seen Greg take control in and around the box, and gain loads of confidence each time out," Llewellyn said. "He struggled on a ball sent to the back post early on in this match. but after that, he was nearly flawless."
The Broncos (16-5-0) looked out of sync themselves in the opening stages as a day-long rain seemed to help betray most of their touch in the first quarter hour.
That meant rarely did the skilled trio of Ata Ozbay, Ryan Mangone and Frank Ingraffia get a good touch in the Huskies' end.
Broncos defender Will Farrell smartly tackled Alex Gardasevic at 22 minutes or the Huskies' leading scorer would have had keeper Tom Unak to himself.
Then as intermission neared, Gardasevic would chip the Broncos backline. But Unak was quick to react and smother a dangerous ball headed in close.
After the break, the Broncos found their pace and looked to have more urgency than the home side. They also appeared to have the Huskies on their heels with terrific work in possession and quick touches and switches on the slippery pitch.
"I thought we played pretty well and I'd like to say we probably had the better run of play for a good percentage of the time, but we just were not as sharp as we needed to be when we got in close and didn't really put any quality shots at (their) keeper in regulation," said Barrington coach Scott Steib.
Chippy play led to a handful of well-deserved yellow card bookings late in the match while Janicki easily pulled a well-placed serve out of the air and away from Mangone at 74 minutes.
Once in the first 10-minute extra period both sides pulled into the express lane and opened play up to give the big rain-soaked crowd plenty to cheer.
Gardasevic drilled a low blast from the right side through the box and moments later Mangone tricked his way inside the 18 on the right side before finding an unmarked Ozbay, who struck well over the woodwork from 10 yards.
Janicki then saved another Mangone blast after Tommy Arns set up the senior. But seconds later, the Hersey keeper would punch an Ingraffia missile from 30 yards up and over the bar to keep things scoreless and guarantee another 10 minutes of soccer.
Both sides were perfect in the first 4 rounds of the shootout with Mike Madsen, Kyle Pietro, Gardasevic and Rolando Herrera converting from the spot for Hersey while Ozbay, Shawn Deacon, Ingraffia and Mangone did the same for Barrington.
Unak appeared to glove-save an Eddie Rodriguez shot but the junior had enough pace on his attempt to carry the shot into the back of the net to give the Huskies a 5-4 lead and set-up Janicki's heroics.
With the coaching staff and teammates urging him to stay on his line in anticipation of Rudnicki's shot, Janicki did exactly that.
He kept low to smother a well-struck low ball and a huge celebration started from the Hersey faithful.
"It was the kind of save you always make in your dreams," Janicki said with a smile.