Held's height helps Pirates hold off Glenbrook North
At 6-feet-7, Kyle Held can be a rather imposing figure inside his 24-by-8-foot workplace.
Now, just imagine what the Palatine goalkeeper looks like when lining up to defend penalty kicks.
To the Glenbrook North trio that watched the big senior turn away each of their spot-kick attempts on Saturday morning, Held must have looked a mile wide and just as tall.
Palatine converted 2 of its 3 shots in shootout and Held provided the heroics in goal for the Pirates (16-1-1) to help the Mid-Suburban West champs to a 2-1 victory over the tournament host Spartans (5-9-5) in a chilly second-round breakfast special at Meadowhill Park in Northbrook.
The win gives the Pirates a 2-0-0 record in pool play with a late afternoon match with Lisle remaining on its tourney schedule.
"That's what I am supposed to do - stop shots in shooutout," said Held, who according to PK protocol can charge off his line to challenge a spot kick, and did just that against John Choi, Jonathan Weber and Marco Luke to stop each attempt as cold as the morning air.
"I just raced off the line and guessed which way (they) would go," said Held.
A save wasn't necessary on Dan Bleeker's fourth-round attempt that veered wide of the post.
"Maybe the first 3 saves," smiled Held, "might have caused their (shooter) to go wide."
Teammates Jon Clark and Josh Feldman easily converted their attempts to give the Pirates a 2-0 advantage.
"We're a young team which is getting better with each match we play, and played a very strong second-half against a talented, well-coached team like Palatine," said Glenbrook North coach Paul Vignocchi, whose teams opens state tournament play next week against Rolling Meadows in a play-in match on Friday.
Held and his mates showed no ill effects from a late night on Friday, when the Pirates defeated Niles West 5-1 in a tourney opener. Palatine's midfielders created space with ease, while front-runners Josh Clark and Kosta Risteski ran freely in and around the Glenbrook North back line.
Clark made it 1-0 after finding the back of the net after an acrobatic bicycle kick at 10 minutes . But shortly thereafter, the inability of the Pirates to win 50-50 and second balls slowly evened out play until intermission and into the second half.
"We played very well at the start, but we fell off a bit after (Glenbrook North) scored on good goal off of us, and we had to work hard to keep things even after that," Held said.
The Spartans drew even on a wonderfully designed goal at 53 minutes. Junior Jack Rosenbach finished after a nice assist from sophomore Nick Olsen that just missed the long reach of Held.
Josh Feldman headed a pair of chances over the goal, as did Josh Clark to set up the decisive shootout.
Palatine will host Prospect at 7 p.m. Thursday in the annual MSL Cup.