Boys soccer: Glenbard West strikes twice to oust Bartlett
Glenbard West struggled offensively when it played on Bartlett's natural surface when the two teams battled to a scoreless draw during the regular season.
The Hilltoppers were much more at home on the artificial surface in Hoffman Estates on Tuesday as they blanked the Hawks, 2-0, during a Class 3A Conant regional semifinal.
With the victory, Glenbard West advances to Saturday afternoon's regional title game against Geneva.
"We played well," Hilltoppers senior Owen Schiff said. "We controlled possession and our defense did a really nice job of holding it down in the back."
Glenbard West (11-6-2) led 1-0 at halftime after senior Oscar Berrun came off the bench and scored off a set piece from Kyle Irwin with 9:28 remaining in the first half.
"Kyle had it right there in the corner so I just located the ball and tried to aim it," Berrun said. "I tried not to put too much power on it and overdo it. I didn't and luckily it went in."
Bartlett (8-6-8) entered play struggling and its woes continued. It didn't help that the Hawks didn't score against the Hilltoppers when they had the advantage of playing on their own field. Losing Amine Medmoun to an injury and having another senior playing hurt, Kamil Jarzabek, certainly didn't help either. The Hawks scored just one goal in their final four games.
"We were deflated by the end of the season in terms of personnel and we really just had a bad string to end the season," Bartlett coach Vince Revak said. "Our momentum kind of left us. Tired bodies and tired minds got the best of us. Full credit to these boys though. They fought to the very end."
The Hilltoppers extended their lead with 32:58 left to play when Berrun set up Schiff for the insurance goal.
"That was a great layoff," Schiff said. "I took my shot and just hoped for the best. It got a little deflection, but I still got the back of the net."
As for postseason butterflies, if there were any fluttering around in the bellies of the Hilltoppers, it wasn't apparent.
"Playing under pressure you just have to get settled in," Berrun said. "Once we got settled we controlled the ball and made smart decisions. You don't play dirty and then you've got control of the game like you need and that's what we did tonight."
Olivier Holowinski earned the shutout in goal for the Hilltoppers while not being overly tested.
Holowinski punched out the Hawks' best chance, a missile off the foot of Cesar Palomares in the 50th minute.
Marco Vigil had a solid open look in the 64th minute for the Hawks but he misfired wide right.
"Our attack wasn't helping out much and defensively we've held a lot of teams but we just couldn't figure it out tonight," Revak said. "We never looked organized, never looked confident. We couldn't string together passes for the life of us. I could feel from the beginning it wasn't going to go our way. I don't fault the boys. They were out there working their butts off."
The Hawks will lose 14 seniors.