Elk Grove eludes Glenbard East
Cesar Rodriguez was the player with the golden boots for Elk Grove.
The senior struck the game-winner at 75 minutes to help the No. 3 Grens (13-6-0) survive the upset bid of No. 14 Glenbard East on Tuesday afternoon with a 2-1 victory in the Class 3A boys soccer regional semifinal in Elk Grove.
The Mid-Suburban East champs will now meet crosstown rival No. 6 Conant this Saturday at 2 p.m. to decide who will advance into the Schaumburg sectional beginning next week.
“We didn't look or play anywhere near what we are capable of, said a relieved Grens head coach Joe Bush.
Bush watched his club struggle in the first half, then had plenty of the ball after the break, only to fail to finish quality chances until Rodriguez scored his team leading 13th goal to put away a gritty Rams (5-15-1) side which did everything tactically that coach Josh Adler asked.
“We've been in a lot of 1-goal matches all season long, so we knew if we could stay organized, keep our shape and put a lot of pressure on their back (three) we could minimize (their) chances and maybe frustrate them long enough to grab the lead and hold on, said Adler, who led East to a 3-2 victory in 2 OT over Willowbrook last Saturday in its regional quarterfinal match.
Although obvious in the early stages the Grens' had not brought the same level of urgency and pace from which they showed for 80 minutes last Thursday in its championship match with Fremd in the MSL Cup.
Plenty of credit had to go to the visiting Rams, who would win most of the 50-50 and second balls in the middle of the park, while their backline of Gio Guerrero, Ian Leifheit and Stephen Plotke kept the Grens in front of them, and away from keeper Brad Sustek.
Sustek's counterpart, Frankie Ortiz, was fantastic with a kick-save at nine minutes to stop Senovio Sarabia, who had touched past a pair of markers to get in on the senior. However, Ortiz was unable to do anything about the Rams' Hugo Aguilar, when the Grens' failure to clear the area led to the first goal of the match when the freshman striker smashed one home from inside the box.
“I really thought we were in trouble leading up to (that) goal, and especially afterwards because we just weren't playing very sharp and with a lot of patience or composure, Bush said.
The homeside would end the first half on a high note, and would start even brighter after intermission when it would draw even just two minutes into the second half.
Ernesto Rodriguez, hoping to make something out of nothing, crossed a looping ball from just inside the near touchline to the center channel. From 25 yards, Cesar Rodriguez would strike a header with enough pace that it would go off of Sustek's glove and hit the underside of the bar before falling over the endline.
The match would open up after the Grens goal appeared to take much of the pressure off of both sides. But it was the Grens who would enjoy the run of play for the next half hour of action.
It forced Sustek to challenge off his line to intercept a well-aimed crossfield serve from Carlos Cisneros to Connor Murphy, then later, when the Rams keeper forced Cesar Rodriguez to shoot quicker than he would have liked from in close.
However, the season-long magic of Nick Jordan and Rodriguez came through when the Grens most needed it. Jordan found his mate at the tail end of a back-post run, where his sublime finish saved the day.
“I didn't want this (day) to be my last game of soccer for Elk Grove, and it didn't matter if it was me that scored, or someone else, began Cesar Rodriguez. “We have to play every game from here on out as if it could be our last, or it will be.
“Elk Grove is a very good team, and this game (today) and its result kind of typifies the kind of season a very young and inexperienced team will and can have, said Adler. “The first 15 minutes of the second half might have been our undoing, but the guys did everything they could, and almost surprised one of the top seeds in our regional.