Highland Park surprises No. 2 seed Barrington

Barrington's boys soccer season was generally going the right way after a strong 9-1-1 start to the season, which helped get the Broncos the No. 2 seed in the Class 3A Stevenson sectional.

Down the stretch, though, the results didn't measure up for Barrington.

The second-seeded Broncos were surprised 1-0 by No. 15 seed Highland Park 1-0 at Highland Park on Tuesday afternoon.

The match endured a 90-minute lightning delay at halftime. They were able to complete the game, as the Giants' Ethan Ochoa scored the winning goal in the final two minutes on a header off service from Tommy Quirk.

Barrington ended its season with a 13-6-4 record.

"This was a season that I didn't think that we reached our potential," Barrington coach Scott Steib said. "Some of that is that we are young, maybe. These kids have played for a couple of years at the JV level and they know what's expected."

The Broncos were positioned several times to generate offense. But whether it was on a near miss on a header, or seeing a shot go off the post, Barrington couldn't solve Highland Park keeper Juan Chavez (7 stops).

"I thought (Barrington) played direct, and a lot of long ball," Highland Park coach Blake Novotny said. "When (Hans Pallan) was in, they adjusted their game to that. I think they pulled away from their game on the carpet more. I thought we had good opportunities and hit the bar once and sailed the ball over."

Though it was a surprise result based on the teams' seeds, Highland Park (6-10-5) wasn't all that worked up about it. The Giants played a difficult schedule featuring many of the better teams in the Lake County, along with a trip to St. Louis.

"All year, we knew that we were a better team than what our results have turned out," Novotny said. "I saw them play, and for 80 minutes you can pick apart what they do well and what they are susceptible to. I knew we could play with them. We put a hard schedule ahead of ourselves this season, to play teams like Barrington - or better. Not to take anything away from Barrington, but down in St. Louis we played three returning state champions in a row. We're not afraid, and I think we're starting to figure it out - how to put things together and get a win."

Highland Park advances to its own regional final at 3 p.m. Saturday. They await the winner of No. 7 Round Lake (16-3) vs. No. 10 Stevenson (8-7-3), which was postponed Tuesday night and will be played at 6 p.m. Wednesday at Highland Park.