Schaumburg charges ahead
Schaumburg is hitting its top form at the crucial stage of the state tournament, as evidenced Friday night when the No. 12 seed Saxons booked their place in next Tuesday's Barrington supersectional at the expense of Wheaton North with a 4-0 victory to capture the Hoffman Estates sectional crown.
The Saxons (13-5-1) will meet NSC champion Lake Zurich at 7 p.m., with the winner advancing into the final four of the Class 3A state tournament at North Central College in Naperville on Friday.
"I really don't think a lot of people expected us to be playing, but when we finally got healthy and everyone back, everything kind of came together for us," said Saxons junior Blake Nelson.
"That, and we have Declan (Geraghty)," added midfielder Maciej Herda, with whom Nelson wholeheartedly agreed.
Geraghty is the Saxons' all-stater, recently adding the honor of all-area co-captain to his resume. He shared the title with Trevor Wheeler of St. Viator.
Schaumburg's senior midfielder is the undisputed leader of a club which has won 10 straight. He and senior striker Erhan Caglayan have proven to be too much for a quartet of postseason victims.
"Both Declan and Erhan have been there during the past three seasons when we've won 2 sectional championships and a regional title, and tonight they were key figures in our victory," said Schaumburg coach Hamid Mehreioskouei.
The Saxons exploded for 4 second-half goals after absorbing plenty of pressure from the Falcons (8-10-5), who used a ferocious southwest wind and plenty of energy from Josh Bennett, Pat Langan and Mike Lenzi to match the Saxons' trademark work rate. But Wheaton North couldn't score before intermission.
"Our work rate has always been there in the playoffs, and for that matter during the regular season, and we had a few chances in the first half that we couldn't finish," said Falcons coach Bryce Cann. "But giving up a goal just four minutes into the second half didn't do us well, and after that we didn't react very well - and all of a sudden it was 3-0."
Caglayan struck for his 13th goal of the season after Mark Bielanski and Geraghty helped generate a dangerous situation for their teammate. Nine minutes later Geraghty lashed a left-footed blast past keeper Nick Barry, who despite allowing the 4 goals, turned in a wonderful effort in his final match of his career for the Falcons.
Just moments before the Geraghty goal, Jyoji Morimoto was called upon to clear a wayward ball off the line to help keep the Saxons clean and to set up an important 2-goal cushion.
Lenzi bulldozed his way up the right side on a enterprising run and carry that nearly led to a Falcons goal, but his team lost any momentum it had gained when Jake Savino went past Barry on the turn in close.
"How lucky are these players, and myself to see this club get itself into a position to be playing for a sectional championship, and especially where we were at just before the playoffs began?" said a proud Cann, whose teams had finished 1-5-1 in its final 7 regular-season matches. "It's a credit to our seniors and their leadership to help keep this club together, and I couldn't be happier and more proud of this team."
Mehreioskouei began to bring off many of his first 11 after the Savino goal, and Rene Vilchis ended the scoring when he and Michael Grassa worked a wonderful 1-2 in close in the 72nd minute.