Boylan ends Barrington's repeat bid

ROCKFORD - Barrington's run at a second straight boys soccer state championship came to an abrupt halt Tuesday night.

Despite a solid effort for 80 minutes, the Broncos allowed a pair of goals to Rockford Boylan and fell 2-1 in the Class 3A Boylan sectional semifinal at Titan Stadium.

The match featured two of the top three 3A teams from last season as Boylan finished third.

"We didn't play a bad soccer game," Barrington coach Scott Steib said. "We just made 2 really bad mistakes. We gave them an empty netter and a breakaway."

Boylan (23-3-1) scored the winning goal just 2:43 into the second half when Rocco Tagli found James Howe, who headed it into the open net. The Titans will play in Saturday's 6 p.m. sectional championship against Jacobs, a 2-0 winner over Round Lake.

Barrington goalkeeper Tom Unak (7 saves) had left then net to attempt to stop Tagli's potential shot, which left Howe open for the go-ahead goal.

Barrington (19-6-1) attempted 3 shots after losing the lead but never got an open look.

The Broncos had several chances in the first half, attempting 6 shots on goal, but Steib wasn't worried about the missed opportunities early. Boylan goalkeeper Adam Czerniewski (8 saves) finished with 5 saves in the first half and the Broncos just missed some other quality chances.

"We've been creating chances all season," he said. "When we were missing shots, I wasn't worried. I knew we were going to have more chances."

Boylan struck first when Howe drilled a breakaway 9:43 before halftime. Barrington responded quickly with Ata Ozbay punching in a pass from Ryan Mangone less than three minutes later.

The goal was the first one Boylan had given up this postseason, which allowed Barrington to go into the second half with some restored confidence.

"We had the momentum," Ozbay said. "We couldn't keep it. We fought hard."

Unak made some amazing stops to allow Barrington to keep its momentum, including save just three seconds before halftime to preserve the tie.

"We did real well in the first half," Steib said. "We were able to comeback pretty quickly."

Barrington also had chances late in the game. The Broncos shot the ball over the net with 15:16 remaining and failed to take advantage of a corner kick with seven minutes left. Boylan was able to clear the ball and that was the closest Barrington would get to the goal box for the remainder of the game.