Schaumburg steps up against Wheeling
Schaumburg's run of success against the rest of the Mid-Suburban League in boys soccer continued Tuesday night at Gary Scholz Stadium in Schaumburg.
The Saxons defeated Wheeling 3-0, setting up a key match on the road Wednesday with division rival Barrington.
Jason Schoo, Niko Davis and Austin Lara were the difference for the Saxons (9-1-0, 4-0-0). They helped the hosts dominate the middle of the park to slow Ed Uhrik's attack for long stretches, especially in the first half.
"Their midfield won just about every first, second and sometimes third ball, and forced us to play the way they wanted us to instead of our way," Uhrik said. "And when a good team like Schaumburg can do that do you, the result isn't likely going to go your way."
Alexis Flores and Noah Kostkiewicz gave the Saxons a 2-goal advantage just before 20 minutes had been played. Up until that point, Schoo, Davis and Lara more than made up for the absence of all-state midfielder Jessie Lopez, who was forced out of action after a red card last weekend.
"With Jessie out, we all had to pick our play up, and for Jason and I, it was important that we play tight and direct while winning as many 50-50 balls as we could to control things in the middle," said Davis, who can usually be found in the Saxons' back line.
"Niko was terrific in the middle tonight knocking balls down and winning just about everything with (Schoo)," said Schaumburg coach Hamid Mehreioskouei. "And the play of (Michael) Marino in the back was key for us, as was (Lara), who made a lot of good things happen for us throughout the night."
Flores drove in his seventh goal of the season when the big senior ran onto Lara's corner and redirected past Cats keeper Jose Castillo at 17 minutes.
Just two minutes later, the visitors gave Kostkiewicz too much time and space to turn after collecting a nicely played ball from Marino, and the senior made the Wildcats (8-3-1, 2-2-0) pay.
There were some signs of life from the Wildcats as intermission neared. Dennis Gavrilla was put through by Vicente Castro, but an offsides flag ended the hope of the visitors pulling one back before the break.
Gavrilla grazed the bar with his attempt off a well-aimed serve by Allen Mantilla in the 57th minute, and before Lara ended the scoring at 71 minutes, the Wildcats created a half-chance and a pair of quality chances only to see Saxons keeper Edgar Avila deny them all.
"It was a frustrating night because of the way they controlled the middle in the first half, and later with us not having our finishing boots on when a couple of chances fell our way," said Uhrik.
A sensational run and carry up the center channel by Elias Cisneros nearly saw the senior get the visitors on the scoreboard, but again Avila made a strong callenge off his line.
"Two very good goals in the first half gave us a nice advantage at the break," said Mehreioskouei. "Then the second half, we had to just weather a few storms as we knew they would go up top as often as they could, trying to find (Gavrilla) and (Nick Janulis). But Austin's last goal was a great one, with Eddie (Gomez) setting it all up with some great work to play the ball to the 6."