Palatine surges closer to MSL Cup berth
With dramatic flair, Palatine's boys soccer team moved one step closer to an appearance in the Mid-Suburban League Cup on Tuesday.
The Pirates (14-1-1, 9-0-1, 28 points) overcame wild weather conditions, losing two players to red cards and a power outage late in the match to defeat Conant 2-0 Tuesday night in Hoffman Estates and gain the upper hand on the host Cougars (12-1-4, 9-1-0, 27 points) in the race for the top spot in the MSL West.
A victory on Thursday at home over Elk Grove will book the Pirates' place in the 34th MSL Cup on Oct. 15.
"All of us knew how good of a team Conant (is) and how important it was for us to come to come out tonight and score first," said Palatine coach Willie Filian. "We would have a very good start, and were able to get the lead - and we probably could have had another 1-2 goals, but with a little help from Kyle (Held, the Pirates' keeper) we were able to come away with what looks like a big victory tonight."
Still, Filian wasn't able to claim this win for certain. Both he and his coaching counterpart Jason Franco will await a ruling Wednesday as to whether the match is official. The lights went out at Charles O. Feutz Field, the school and surrounding neighborhood in the 75th minute when a transformer just north of the school lost power ... sending a stream of colors high in the sky as if it were the Fourth of July.
"Just when you've seen just about everything (in) this sport," joked Palatine senior Josh Clark, who helpped cap a superb 20 minutes for the visitors when he had enough of a touch on his left boot to slide a shot under Conant keeper Bobby Potratz.
The Pirates had dominated from kickoff, as the early pace of Clark, Kosta Ristecki, Jacob Velinski and Willie Filian, Jr. troubled the Cougars' defense, helping stymie the attack of the hosts, which failed to find top scorers Kevin Reddington and Shivam Patel with any regularity.
"We knew what we had to do in our end, and we did it tonight," said Pirates sweeper Tim Conklin, who along with Jeff Burda, Dan Schweikert and Josh Feldman did just that with crisp tackling and a high percentage of 50-50 wins.
Just before intermission Potratz pulled back a potential goal after a wicked blast from Velinski, while on the other end, Held saved two terrific opportunities to help send his club into the break with the lead.
"There was a flurry just before (half), and if their keeper doesn't come up with a couple of good saves, maybe it's 1-1 at the break, and it's maybe an entirely different second half," said Franco.
Just moments after being sent back on after suffering a slight injury in a scrum with Cougars senior Alex McKenna, Feldman attacked a long throw from Filian near the spot and drove his header into the back of the net to give the Pirates a 2-goal lead at 45 minutes.
Held stopped Reddington at 62 minutes and then it was a well-timed retreat to the endline by Michael Zentner to clear a sure goal by Clark seconds later which signalled a furious energy shift from both clubs.
With chippy play on the increase, emotions boiled over in the 69th minute near the far flag, which resulted in some unsporting behavior from both sides. After a long delay, officials finally sorted things out and tagged Reddington, Burda and Stephan Thabuteau with red cards.
The Pirates played a man down for the next six minutes, when the power failure ended things.
"I felt the run of play would eventually even out, but this (was) a typical Palatine effort and result, including 2 goals off of long throws," said Franco.
The Cougars may know their fate one day after the Pirates host Elk Grove. Conant travels to MSL East-leading Prospect on Friday.
Fremd 2, Hersey 0: Spencer Filosa and Alex Prelipceanu scored for Fremd in the MSL crossover.
Maine West 3, Maine East 0: Anes Kadiric scored 2 goals and Alberto Sanchez added another for Maine West in the Central Suburban North.
Leyden 2, Morton 1: David Wisniewski scored twice for Leyden in the West Suburban Gold.