Conant delivers comeback win over Schaumburg
Conant came back from the dead with 3 goals in the final 14 minutes, including a PK in the 79th minute from Kevin Reddington, to defeat host Schaumburg 4-3 Saturday afternoon in a Mid-Suburban West match.
The Cougars (7-0-3, 4-0-0-12) grabbed the last-gasp winner in a pulsating final quarter hour which featured plenty of high-speed action and contested calls.
"I told Hamid (Mehreioskouei, Schaumburg's coach) that no one likes to win a match like this, on a late PK," said Conant coach Jason Franco. "But I knew coming in this was going to be a thriller, and when (Mehreioskouei) told me he was finally near full-strength, I figured with their talent anything could happen."
And it pretty much did.
After opening the season with two straight victories, including a 1-0 win over defending state champion New Trier, the Saxons (2-4-1, 0-4-1) had fallen on hard times with many of their best on the disabled list. That forced Mehreioskouei to tweak and tinker with his first 11 while giving up much of his depth on the bench to do so.
"We've been without our center back (Blake Nelson) and his absence has had a ripple effect on the way we've had to line up," said Mehreioskouei, "and having him back in our line-up was a big deal for us. Unfortunately, we sustained a few other injuries which basically took the rest of our bench away from us.
"If we can get ourselves healthy, I know that we can compete in the last half of the season with everyone else."
The return of Nelson allowed the Saxons to get back to playing a flat three along the back, and along with all-area senior Declan Geraghty, Nelson and junior Mark Bielanski, the home side executed a near flawless offsides trap which confounded and slowed the Cougars' attack for nearly an hour.
It also gave the Cougars' faithful plenty to argue about on several flags. On another it was Mehreioskouei taking issue on the equalizer at 73 minutes from Thomas Kozlowski.
The Saxons fell behind near the half-hour mark despite having the run of play in their favor when Joe Bosco finished a helper from Dan Marrufo, who was terrific off the bench for the visitors.
John Franco, Maciej Herda and Jyoji Morimoto provided pace and energy for the Saxons leading up to Geraghty's sensational header on a Bielanski cross-field serve to tie things up at 32 minutes.
The second half provided some great individual play on both sides of the ball from each club, including several superb saves from Saxons keeper Peyton Irmen.
Franco converted a PK at 48 minutes, then teammate Jimmy McFarland, brought on for the injured Tim Olson, made it 3-1 when he slotted low past a diving Bobby Potratz.
Irmen punched a Marrufo serve to the spot, but Michael Zentner still found the far inside netting.
After Kozlowski drew the Cougars even, it was time for Reddington to provide his heroics. A ball sent into the box found a Saxons hand, much to the surprise of a stunned home-side.
Reddington drilled his spot kick off the right post and then watched it swing back and over the endline with just over 60 seconds remaining in regulation.
"I had missed so many chances," said Reddington, "so when the PK was called I knew I would I would be stepping up to take it."