Shipp, Lake Forest put an end to Palatine's season
The magnificent ride for Palatine's boys soccer team came to a sudden end Thursday afternoon at the Stevenson sectional.
A 57th minute strike from Michael Shipp was the eventual game-winner for the No. 5-seeded Scouts of Lake Forest, who overcame a spectacular effort from Pirates keeper Kyle Held, who in his final prep match, single-handedly pulled 4 strikes out of the net to help give his club the chances of staying alive yet another day with the hopes of reaching the final four of the Class 3A state tournament next weekend.
Instead, the Scouts (17-3-1) will meet No. 2 Deerfield on Saturday at 11 a.m. Saturday in a sectional final as they battle for a spot in the Loyola University supersectional.
"You know, the way we came out and played for the first 10-15 minutes, I thought we would have had a good chance of advancing on," said Pirates coach Willie Filian.
"But we created plenty of opportunities, and were not able to get into the back of the net, and against a team with the talent that Lake Forest has, it was only a matter of time that our inability to score would catch up to us."
The Pirates (21-2-1) wasted little time in gaining the run of play, with its best striker Josh Clark getting through on three occasions in the first seven minutes, while his club generated countless deep throws and set-pieces situations initiated by Willie Filian, Jr., much to the chagrin of Scouts coach Rob Parry.
"We had some trouble in the first part of the match as we gave away too many throws deep in our end, but gradually we began to defend them very well, with Noah Wagemann giving us a very strong effort along the back all throughout," said Parry.
The MSL champs made their intentions clear during the first quarter hour, with constant pressure in and around the 18, and inside the 6-yard box of keeper Kurtis Teskoski, but the Pirates were not as sharp as they needed to be to fool Teskoski, and would later see the best chance of the match fall to the Scouts at 21 minutes.
That's when Cole Smith's point-blank blast was saved by Held. At full extension, he was somehow able to block the Smith drive behind him with his right leg. At the half-hour mark, Held was at it again when he saved on Offer, who had the big keeper all to himself.
"I had to make too many goal-saving stops today, and that's not the way we've had all of our success this season," Held said.
The Pirates got back near top form just after intermission, peppering Teskoski with a handful of shots on frame.
The center official spotted a foul inside the box, giving the Scouts' Harry Shipp at PK at 46 minutes, but he missed wide. Moments later, Held sent his club another lifeline with a goal-saver against Offer in close.
Offer was the architect on the eventual game-winner, which featured Michael Shipp filtering through from the right side to blast a shot the opposite way, out of Held's range.
"Held was just brilliant out there today, but we were able to overcome (his work) by possessing, using some width, and winning play in the midfield," said Parry.
"It's hard to see our season end like this, and especially for all of our seniors," said Josh Clark, who was double-teamed nearly the entire 80 minutes.
"We reached every goal that we set this season, except getting into the state finals next weekend, but there's still a lot to be proud of," said Held.