Boys soccer: St. Charles East edges Streamwood
They may not be conference rivals any longer but the boys soccer teams from Streamwood and St. Charles East still share some things in common.
A year ago, both teams captured regional championships - Streamwood also won a sectional title - and watched their postseasons come to an end at the hands of eventual 4th-place state finisher Lake Park.
Both squads are expecting big things again this season but the Saints (2-0) capped their first week of regular season play with a 1-0 nonconference victory over the Sabres (0-1-1) Wednesday night at Norris Stadium in St. Charles.
After a scoreless opening half, the Saints notched the game's only goal just 5 minutes into the second half.
Sophomore forward Sebastian Carranza was the beneficiary of a solid attacking play by junior teammate Sam Wade, who got tackled by a Streamwood defender on a play that also upended Sabres goalkeeper Antonio Herrera.
With Herrera still on the ground, the ball squirted through to Carranza, who delivered the ball into an open net for a 1-0 Saints lead.
"That's beautiful work in the midfield to win that and then the counter," said Wade. "All I did was feed it off for Carranza."
Sprawled out on the field, Wade had a picture-perfect view of the empty net.
"It was very relieving - I'm not going to lie," said Wade, who has missed the majority of the last 2 seasons with injuries.
"You haven't seen the best of Sam Wade - not even close," DiNuzzo said of the 6-foot-2, 185-pound Wade. "He made our (varsity) team as a freshman. He has just been injured the last couple years and now he's healthy."
The Saints also received their second consecutive flawless performance from senior goalkeeper Jack Settle.
The 6-4 Settle used his reach to get his right hand on a point-blank shot from Streamwood junior Jose Banuelos with 8:30 remaining and thwarted the Sabres' Josh Taboada just 2 minutes later to preserve his second shutout.
"If you think that was good, you should have seen him on Monday (in a 2-0 win over South Elgin)," said DiNuzzo. "There were two saves in particular - I haven't seen any other goalkeeper in the last couple years that would have made them.
"He's playing lights out - and we have two other keepers who are capable."
Settle finished with 8 saves while frustrating the Sabres.
"Some nights the better team doesn't win," said Streamwood coach Matt Polovin. "St. Charles East is a real good team but tonight we did every single thing we could possibly do except put the ball in the back of the net.
"We had many, many opportunities inside and around the box. Their goalie made some nice saves at the end there."
With a starting lineup that included 2 freshmen, a pair of sophomores and 4 juniors, Polovin sees a bright future.
"It's early in the season and we're the type of team that is going to keep growing and keep getting better," said Polovin.