Aboona eases Lions' worries; Pirates rally
St. Viator head coach Mike Taylor could afford himself a welcome sigh of relief after seeing his boys soccer team cruise to a 5-0 victory over No. 13 seed Buffalo Grove (9-11-1) Tuesday night and finally erase one of the darkest days in program history.
Junior Alan Aboona made sure there would not be a repeat of the Lions' 1-0 upset loss to Jacobs in their 2007 regional opener when he struck for a pair of first-half goals.
The No. 4 seed Lions (19-2-0) next face host Palatine in Saturday's 2 p.m. regional final.
"This was the (match) that really worried me," admitted Taylor, who earned his 400th career victory with the Lions' shutout. "We knew, especially after last year, that every first-round opponent is always so dangerous, and I think the boys took Buffalo Grove very seriously because of that."
It was one-way traffic for the Lions, who had the run of play from the opening whistle as their midfield, led by Kevin Cavers, Billy Hamilton and Aboona continually found front-runners Trevor Wheeler and Petar Milenkovich with ease.
Despite their dominance, the Lions nearly found itself on the short end of things if not for a superb save by keeper Patrick Windle, who pushed a cracker from Kyle Fiordaliso up and over the woodwork at 22 minutes.
Moments later Aboona thumped a header into the back of the net with Jack Horvath providing a terrific serve into the box from the flag on the left side. Just after the half hour mark, Aboona made it 2-0.
"Scoring first in the playoffs is big, but getting that third goal right before (the) break was great for us and really tough for Buffalo Grove," said Aboona.
Bill Krawzak would thread a low shot through in the 38th minute to help seal its lead.
"No. 7 (Aboona) hit for a couple of terrific goals and you could sense how important that was to their confidence," said BG coach Rick Schoffstall.
Kevin Cavers added to the Lions cushion at 47 minutes with the helper going to Hamilton, and Joe Schmidt would finish things at 71 minutes when he headed a wonderful serve from Brendan King.
Windle and Joe Marinaro shared the shutout.
Palatine 3, Libertyville 1: Matt Marturano's 2 goals in the second half, including a late penalty kick gave host Palatine (17-4-1) the perfect start in the Class 3A boys soccer tournament Tuesday night in a 3-1 victory over No. 11 Libertyville.
With the victory, the No. 5 seed Pirates now meet No. 4 St. Viator in Saturday's 2 p.m. regional final in Palatine.
The visiting Wildcats (8-4-4) stunned the home side at four minutes when Andrew Stone took a superb ball from teammate Kyle Gustafson on the right and comfortably side-footed it home past a diving Kyle Held at the near post.
"We came out so slow and laid back and all of a sudden we were down (a goal) at home," said Marturano, a junior.
The Wildcats did well to defend and keep nearly everything in front of them after grabbing the early lead, and it was Josh Muchmore, Kevin Wolf, Dennis Mudd and Adam Chernoff, in particular, who were responsible for staying organized despite countless long throws into the box by the Pirates Willie Filian.
It appeared this match would go to intermission with the Wildcats holding their 1-goal lead, but Filian would hit the equalizer at 39 minutes when the junior finished a Josh Clark corner past keeper Chris Crow, who was in coach Andy Bitta's first 11, replacing Andrew Bitta (broken collarbone).
Two minutes after the break, Marturano struck the eventual game-winner.
Kyle O'Meara set things in motion with a well-hit ball up the left side to Marturano, who on the advice of assistant coach Charlie Gries, would then take on and get past his marker before turning the corner and unloading a low blast which went off of, and past Crow and into the far inside netting.
After the Pirates' goal, the match opened up as the Wildcats looked to get level, while the home side had thoughts of adding to its lead.
Marturano converted his spot kick at 75 minutes after Jose Quintero set it all up with a nifty tackle and subsequent pass to Marturano, who was brought down in the box.