Hughes comes up huge for Buffalo Grove
A late second-half strike from Alex Hughes proved to be the difference for Buffalo Grove in a 1-0 victory over Wheaton North (1-3-0) Tuesday afternoon at steamy Conant High School as the Lake Park boys soccer invitational hit the road in pool play.
BG's narrow, but deserving win moves the young club to 3-2-0 on the season, and helps erase an ugly 4-0 loss last Saturday to the tourney host Lancers.
"It wasn't the prettiest game out there today, but (you) saw a terrific keeper from Wheaton North (Nick Barry) make a couple of great saves," said BG coach Rick Schoffstall, "and for us, we did a good job defending for most of the match, with several guys playing real well today on a hot and humid day for soccer."
Schoffstall would single out Christoper Racz, Matt Bloom, Holger Kissner and Eric Schiller, among others, as well as Hughes. He was pushed back from his spot in the middle of the park to help defend the dangerous duo of Jacques Ntahoturi and Sam Klatt, each capable of making something out of nothing, if given the time and space to do so.
"Buffalo Grove did a very good job of making sure that we didn't find either Jacques or Sam with any consistency, which made it tough on us to get anything really going in our attack today," offered Falcons coach Bryce Cann.
Neither side had a high percentage of possession, as the extra heat from the field turf, and already stifling conditions led to chippy play and a first 40 minutes of play that saw plenty of take away-give away, with each coach bringing on fresh legs when they could in the hope of a surprise or two.
"Buffalo Grove set the tone with some early physical play, and we struggled with that as well," offered Cann.
Things opened up after intermission, with the Bison quickly earning the run of play, and twice nearly grabbing the first goal of the game. Joey Madio and Erik Quintana were turned away by Barry just before the hour mark, and later, Barry stopped Quintana once again and Alberto Eloyza's one-timer.
Long before this barrage on the Falcons' senior keeper, they would finally create their best chance of the match on a neat half-volley off the shooting boots of Klatt that missed in close.
Later, the Falcons' front-line duo would provide a burst of energy missing all day from the club, and with the help of Jordan Richert running out of the middle, both Klatt and Ntahoturi would get in close on Bison keeper Nick Landsberger, but were unable to finish.
Trouble in its own end, and a communication breakdown would cost the Falcons with the ever-opportunistic Hughes driving home the game-winner at 73 minutes when a loose ball fell to the senior just to the left of a helpless Barry, who would have little chance to stop the blistering shot.
"We still have a lot of things to work on and fix, but this was a good win for us today," Schoffstall would say afterward as his team travels to Streamwood on Thursday in another tournament match, while the Falcons meet Niles West at the Lake Park venue.