Prospect lives up to billing; Christian Liberty rolls

Prospect lived up to its billing as the favorite to win the Mid-Suburban East, earning a 2-0 victory over rival Hersey on Thursday night on the Knights' home pitch.

The victory gave the Knights (8-1-1, 4-1-0) an important 3 points - 12 points overall - and the lead in the race for a spot in the MSL Cup championship next month over Elk Grove and Rolling Meadows. They trail the defending East champs by 3 points.

"This was a big match for us tonight, not only because it was Hersey, but also it begins a stretch of games in which 12 points are at stake, including a game against Elk Grove next week - so getting a good start with a win tonight was key for us," said Knights coach Kurt Trenkle.

The Huskies (4-7-1, 1-4-0), who were hit hard from graduation, injuries and inexperience among their first 11, have struggled to find the back of the net during the first half of the season. The Huskies suffered their sixth shutout after winning their last two matches at the Rockton Hononegah tournament over the weekend by 1-0 finals.

The Huskies mustered only a few quality chances on Knights' keeper Brad Reibel and allowed a costly early goal.

"Right now we're having trouble scoring, so we cannot afford to give up such an easy goal during the first few minutes of the match, then end up chasing your opponent from that moment on," said Huskies coach Darren Llewellyn, who at times played three freshmen and four sophomores against senior-dominated Prospect.

"I really thought our play in the first half was rather poor, we weren't clean in our touches, or through the middle or even when we were clearing the ball, and against a disciplined team such as Hersey and with the way they play, that is a dangerous thing to do," Trenkle said.

The Knights' Bill Cooney was responsible for both goals and enjoyed a strong night up top with Richard Lenke and Andy Schnepf. But the junior was shown his second yellow card, and subsequent soft red during a scrum on a 50-50 ball with the Huskies' Artur Folta.

Cooney strolled unmarked down the center channel at six minutes to easily slot a beautifully played ball from the right side by Brayhan Nunez.

Nunez, with fellow outside midfielder Mario Morales, showed plenty of energy along the flanks, to push the pace of the attack while getting to the endline as Trenkle asked his lads to do during intermission, before sending in several well-aimed serves into the box.

"Once we finally got the ball down and near the endline in the second half, we were able to keep the pressure on Hersey, and to create some chances for ourselves, which was missing from our attack in the first 40 minutes of play," admitted Trenkle.

The homeside would have a bright enough start after the break, and would see an attempt by Nunez punched out of the area by Huskies' keeper Irvin Velasquez, before Lenke tricked his way into the box from the right side, where the junior pleaded for a hand ball.

Huskies' junior Jared Martin would keep some amount of pressure on the Knights' backline with several meaningful serves out of the back or on dead-ball opportunites, but none would see their way through.

The Knights nearly completed a spectacular goal in the 66th minute when Lenke unloaded a blistering cracker which struck the underside of the bar, and over an acrobatic dive from Velasquez. But the striker was later rewarded for his efforts when he finished what Cooney had started with his run inside the box.

"We played well tonight as a unit, our defense was solid, so was the play from our midfielders, and our forwards were able to get a couple of goals for us," said Cooney.

Christian Liberty 5, St. Edward 0: Mike Hennek and David Colbert had a hand in 4 goals, and the Christian Liberty defense kept visiting St. Edward away from keeper Jack Salsgiver for 80 minutes to help the Chargers earn a 5-0 victory in Arlington Heights.

Hennek, the Chargers' leading scorer with 12 goals, added a pair of assists - the first coming on the eventual game-winner when Colbert connected on a right-footed touch at 19 minutes.

"Today we possessed and moved the ball much better than we have lately, and if we can be more consistent and improve our level of confidence, then we will continued to be better as a team during the last half of the season," said Hennek, who along with Kiefer Bennett, Shamil Tajuddin and Colbert had much too pace and speed for an undermanned Green Wave (1-15-0).

"With five starters gone (today) the last thing we wanted to do was to play (their) style and not ours, which should have included more patience in our possession and a slower pace," said Wave coach Tim Brieger, in his 16th year. "We unfortunately insisted on playing to their strength, and the speed that they have really did us in today."

Green Wave keeper Nathan Ptak, who moved to the backline after intermission, made several brave stops in the first-half - including a goal-saver on Hennek just moments before Colbert found the back of the net on the first of his 2 goals for the Chargers (4-5-0).

The Green Wave's best two chances of the first half came when Johnny Shepherd fired over the bar on the turn off a throw from teammate Logan Johnson and near halftime when Hector Alvarez teamed with Shepherd in close to force a kick save by Salsgiver.

"I thought we were a little sloppy in many facets of our game during the first half, despite our 2-0 lead," said Chargers coach Jed Bennett. "But we had a very good second half of soccer where we did a lot of good things, including some great assists on our goals, which were scored by three different players."

Hennek got things going at 57 minutes when he bent his left-footer away from new keeper Ben Galvan into the right corner. Four minutes later, Colbert was sent through to score by an assist from Hennek.

Solid work from the Chargers backline, led by Noah Johnson, did not allow much at Salsgiver, whose brother Tom scored a goal in the 80th minute.