Pignataro's PK gives Jacobs dramatic win over Dundee-Crown
The atmosphere at Jacobs was described as "playoff like".
Neither visiting Dundee-Crown nor the host Golden Eagles failed to live up to the hype. Before a packed, vibrant crowd, Jacobs took a dramatic 2-1 victory over the Chargers in Fox Valley Conference Valley Division boys soccer action Thursday night in Algonquin.
Jacobs' forward Anthony Moscatello drew a foul in the goal box with 8:06 left in the game, which was tied at 1-1 at the time.
The play set up a penalty kick from senior Taylor Pignataro, but not before some controversy from the Chargers' bench. Dundee-Crown (5-4, 3-1) drew both a yellow and red card on the play with coach Rey Vargas getting ejected from the game.
Not to be deterred by the commotion, Pignataro calmly drilled the ball past Chargers' goalkeeper Scott Nowicke to give Jacobs (4-1, 3-1) a 2-1 advantage.
"The ball was on my feet," said Moscatello, who was driving and looking to score before being fouled. "I saw a defender on my side. I got contact and went down."
Even though Moscatello brought the Golden Eagles back into the game when he scored the tying goal with 22:50 left in the second half, he was confident to pass the penalty shot off to Pignataro.
"Every practice when we take penalty kicks, he makes every one," said Moscatello, who notched his second goal of the season. "We definitely felt the momentum. Once we started the second half, I knew it was going to be a lot better for us."
Jacobs took 6 shots in the second half after recording just 2 in the first 40 minutes. Dundee-Crown had 4 shots on goal in the first half, but managed just 1 in the entire second half in the loss.
The Chargers scored 16 minutes into play when Mauricio Areyano put the ball past Golden Eagles goalkeeper A.J. Pfatschbacher (4 saves). The Chargers felt good after getting the initial score.
"They felt a little too good," Chargers' assistant coach Sebastian Falinski said. "It's like they took a step back and played defense."
The lax play from the Chargers in the second half allowed for Moscatello to take a pass from Matt Ehrhardt and send the ball on the right side of the net past Nowicke (6 saves) before setting up the game-winning goal.
"Anthony is one of the hardest working kids we have," Jacobs' coach Anthony Cappello said. "He puts himself in that position to get the foul. He earns the foul."