Lake Zurich spurts past Round Lake
Lake Zurich's boys soccer team started out slowly, as everything was going in favor of host Round Lake in the North Suburban Conference championship game Wednesday night.
For the first quarter of the game, underdog Round Lake controlled the play. The Panthers needed a goal, however, and that never happened.
Instead, Lake Zurich woke up in a hurry to score three goals in just over nine minutes.
The Bears rolled from there, as the North Division champs won 6-0 from their fourth consecutive NSC crown. No Prairie Division school has ever won the conference championship.
Lake Zurich improved to 15-4, while Round Lake fell to 10-4-3.
Marquette-bound Eric Pothast and Wisconsin-recruit Nick Janus each scored twice, while John Pothast and Mark Osikowicz had the other goals. Janus also had an assist. Nate Holicky, Tim Kreutz and Brett Harper tallied 2 assists apiece.
"We really don't think of it as four (NSC championships) in a row," Lake Zurich coach Mike Schmitz said.
"We respected Round Lake, a good team with good players. They came out with a lot of energy and a lot of pace. It took us a little while to get used the (grass) surface and the tight field."
The Bears, who've played most of their games this season on artificial turf, got going offensively when Eric Pothast scored unassisted, firing a shot past Round Lake keeper Jose Landa, in the 26th minute.
His brother John scored off an assist from Janus four minutes later, and Osikowicz tallied on an assist from Holicky in the 35th minute to make it 3-0.
"It was tough getting the first goal," Eric Pothast said. "Round Lake wasn't an easy place to play. The field was heavy grass and Round Lake came out with a lot of energy. We kept pushing and kept our heads in the game."
Round Lake played with energy early on, with the Panthers' Carlos Salgado hitting a couple of solid strikes on target only to be thwarted by Bears keeper Tyler Raineri.
"Great keeper. I thought they were going in," Salgado said. "They were incredible saves. (Lake Zurich) is an incredible team and move the ball well. If we would have scored earlier in the game, it would've been a completely different game."
Raineri's biggest save was one that he snared out of midair, diving to his right.
"I made a few good saves at the start," said Raineri, who made 8 saves and posted his eighth shutout. "Making the saves changed the game. If they would have scored at the start, we probably wouldn't have scored as many goals."
While the Panthers' effort was strong, they couldn't stay with the Bears for the long haul.
"Lake Zurich had precision, size, strength and organization," Round Lake coach Mike Hruska said. "We just made a couple of mistakes and got down by a couple goals. (Lake Zurich) is an outstanding team. I think they can make a serious run for the state title. We played as hard as we could, but we ran into a horse that was just stronger."