Knights, Huskies battle to draw in soccer
Two heavyweights in the Mid-Suburban East met Tuesday night, and after 100 minutes of captivating and nerve-wracking soccer, Prospect and Hersey played to a 2-2 draw in Arlington Heights.
The defending MSL champs dashed the hopes of the Knights (4-1-1, 1-0-1, 4 points), who were looking to take 3 important points away from Darren Llewellyn's lads, while making a statement to others in and around the league.
"We've seen some pretty good clubs (so) far and I can say that Prospect is right up there with the best that we have played," said Llewellyn, following a well-played match which featured just about everything for the faithful on hand.
"Our problem tonight was we weren't sharp enough in the final third and didn't finish on our chances when we had them," said Prospect senior Mike Stankiewicz, who had more pace and energy than anyone else during this match.
"You've got to like what you see from No. 14 (Stankiewicz)," offered Llewellyn, "he really makes (their) attack go."
The first goal of the match came at the quarter-hour mark when a Stankiewicz drive had a little too much pace on the end of it to get past Hersey (2-1-3, 0-1-1, 1 point) keeper Greg Janiecki.
The Knights, who countered to perfection on several occasions, did so on their first strike with Patryk Ruta recording the helper.
This goal helped prove how much of the run of play the Knights would have, but despite the advantage, the home side answered quickly when Kyle Pietro converted a penalty kick at 22 minutes after a late call by the center official awarded the Huskies their spot kick.
With intermission looming, the Huskies stunned their opponent in the 39th minute when Pietro finished under Jim Brault in close after teammate Connor Miklasz provided the assist.
"That should have been the match for us," admitted Llewellyn."
Instead, the Knights exploited the gaps along the back of the Huskies and Stankiewicz drew his club even with what Llewellyn described as a professional-looking goal from just inside 14 yards.
The visitors attacked more often than its hosts after the break with Stankiewicz and running mate Sam Slusher also at maximum strength, while front-runners Francisco Nunez, Richard Lenke and Ruta took turns slicing in and through the Huskies backline, which bent, but never broke throughout.
"Hersey is so disciplined and so good at allowing you to possess all night long, but never finding a way into the back of their net," said Knights head coach Kurt Trenkle. "We're happy to get out of here with a draw and 1 point, and now we just move on from here."