Barrington shuts out Palatine

Barrington's 2-0 defeat of Palatine's boys soccer team Wednesday night on the Broncos' home turf, coupled with a hard-fought 3-1 victory a day earlier against Hoffman Estates, means that coach Scott Steib's team opens the first week of play in the Mid-Suburban League with 6 points.

That puts Barrington atop the league standings, alongside division rival Schaumburg.

Efficiency proved to be the difference Wednesday. The Broncos used a goal in each half plus some airtight defending, as well as superior ball-winning, to stop the Pirates (4-2-1, 1-2-0). A day earlier, the Pirates had upended high-flying Wheeling 1-0.

"It was our lack of communication and organization, and the work rate of Barrington which led to a disappointing loss tonight," said Palatine's Liam Obernesser, who'd hoped the victory against Wheeling would carry over one night later. "We had a great start against Wheeling, but it wasn't there tonight, and when you're chasing a lead against a team like Barrington, the result is not going to be a good one."

Pirates coach Willie Filian was in full agreement with his captain after the match.

"Liam is spot-on with his assessment of tonight," Filian said. "We addressed the guys at the break on those same things, but as you saw, the lack of organization cost us that second goal, and for that matter, the first. Barrington just outworked us from almost the very beginning."

Just moments after being brought on, Kyle Owen made his presence felt when he strolled into the box unmarked to direct his header off a Hans Pallan corner into the back of the net to give the Broncos (6-1-1, 2-0-0) their first goal.

Barrington nearly doubled its advantage following Owen's 20th-minute finish, only to be denied on a point-blank chance by first-half keeper Michael Jensen. He turned away a wicked blast from Luke Sellers, who was put in a position to score with the help of Owen and Zach Carbonara.

Obernesser had a go on frame in the 37th minute, forcing keeper Alex Ruffolo to save, and just before intermission, Obernesser whipped a well-aimed freekick into the box, only to have sophomore Klaus Pallan clear with a header.

Klaus Pallan later delivered a goal at 44 minutes on a lovely bit of soccer initiated by his brother Hans, who

drove his serve from the near touchline clear across the pitch to Nash Pirie. The junior found Klaus Pallan all alone near the spot, and he finished with a header.

"We made it too easy for them on that sequence, but give them credit, they took us apart on that second goal," said Filian.

"Klaus has now scored in back-to-back games for us, and that's important as we need to have secondary scorers behind (Hans), who leads us with four goals thus far," said Steib.

The Pirates began to find their form on the hour and kept keep Ruffolo, who now has 5 shutouts, alert for the last 20 minutes or so.

Martin Sotelo Salinas was stopped from getting in on the Broncos' keeper when the junior came off his line quickly at 61 minutes. Sebastian Fraczek fired wide from 30 yards just afterward, and later, Gustavo Ocampo's looping serve into the box resulted in an aggressive Ruffolo once again coming off his line to clear a very dangerous ball.

"Hoffman was a difficult side last night and made this back-to-back a tough one for us," said Steib. "But I felt we responded fairly well, did the things we needed to and defended in our end very well against a team like Palatine, which plays the opposite style of soccer that we do and makes it so difficult to play the way you want to for 80 minutes.

"It was a good win for us."