Carmel's run finally stopped
After gaining admirers with every round of the postseason, upstart Carmel (12-12-3) finally saw its wonderful ride end Wednesday night.
Deerfield (19-3-1) senior Hooman Shams would score twice and teammate Brian Frankel would give his club a 2-goal cushion with a spectacular strike to give the second-seeded Warriors an advantage they would never relinquish en route to a 4-1 victory to end the Corsairs (12-12-3) season in the Libertyville Class 3A sectional at the Libertyville Soccer Complex.
The Warriors now face No. 1 Waukegan, which defeated Palatine 2-1 in overtime.
"I am very proud of our guys," began Carmel coach John Halloran. "Before the tournament (began) we were struggling a little bit. But after that, we came together, took a couple of teams down, and, tonight, we played hard for 80 minutes."
A frantic start to this sectional semifinal was brought down near the speed limit when Shams' left-footed blast found the back of the net at five minutes. It was 2-0 near the half-hour mark with Scott Lakin going under Corsairs keeper Lukas Manieri after a quick re-start may have caught them by surprise.
Earlier, Ian Tune nearly brought the Corsairs even when he and teammate Jimmy Ryan combined to break down the Warriors in their own end.
Manieri would turn a curling free-kick off the boot of Shams up and over the woodwork just before the Lakin goal, in what would be one of 3 superb saves by the senior.
Despite trailing, the Corsairs would create pressure up high with Tune, Ari Sandoval, Ryan and Wycoff running hard at the Warriors' backline. At 40 minutes this constant pressure would pay off.
Sandoval would race up the left side and hit a cracker at Brent Stabiner, which would handcuff the Deerfield keeper and spill a rebound inside the box. Wycoff, on the tail-end of a well-timed center-channel run would thump in the Corsairs' lone goal of the night.
"It was a big goal for us because it gave us some much needed momentum heading into the break," said Wycoff. "Unfortunately it didn't carry over and when (Deerfield) scored their third goal, it set the tone for the rest of the match."
Frankel's highlight-reel missile exploded past Manieri from 22 yards to give him his 20th on the season and the Warriors a cushion they had desired just four minutes after intermission.
"Deerfield's defense, especially No. 12 (Jason Domash), made it very tough for us to get inside on (them) as he seemed to clean just about everything up on us," Halloran said.
Shams, with a helper from Frankel, would close things out in the 64th minute.
With wins over Highland Park, then a stunning upset of No. 3 Stevenson, followed by the defeat of No. 6 Wheeling to garner a regional championship, things are looking up for Carmel next season.
"With 7 freshmen, and 2 sophomores, and some solid juniors coming back, the future looks bright for us," said Halloran.