Boys soccer: In impressive fashion, Prospect takes down Buffalo Grove
Three sensational goals from Prospect, a double from Alejandro Martinez and one more from Declan Flanagan, capped an impressive 80-minute performance as Prospect beat host Buffalo Grove 3-1 Tuesday night in Mid-Suburban East boys soccer action at Grant Blaney Stadium in Buffalo Grove.
"We've had a couple of rough outings of late, so to see us come and play with energy and effort to beat a very good Buffalo Grove team was great to see," said a pleased Knights head coach, Mike Andrews, whose club claimed its first win in the league.
"We needed this win tonight (and) it was a total team effort to get it," said Martinez, who doubled the Knights' lead at 20 minutes when he ran onto a long ball sent over the top from keeper Cole Connor before driving in angled left-footed blast.
"Cole was very good for us in goal tonight, as was our back line which defended really well as a unit," added Andrews.
The Bison (4-1-0), who were hoping to stay even with MSL East division leading Hersey, fell behind early when Flanagan unloaded his right-footed missile from just outside the box.
The opener inspired the visiting Knights, who won nearly every first and second ball in the middle of the park while playing quick, and with purpose to keep the home side on its heels in the first half.
"We were missing our entire starting back line so that was a makeshift group in their place. We struggled at times with our defending and Prospect took advantage of it," said Bison head coach Darren Llewellyn.
The work rate from the quintet of Gabriel Predescu, Eryk Limanowka, John Wilkins, Flanagan and Martinez was key to the Knights' solid first 40 minutes of play, while their teammates along the back kept the chances on frame to just a few.
Sophomore Mario Torres, one of the bright spots all night long for the Bison where he was deployed as his team's playmaker, went over the bar with his attempt in the first quality chance of the night for the home side in the 20th minute.
Teammate Brian Perez, an all-area performer during the 2019 fall campaign, saw Connor venture far off his line to smother his chance to strike before another Torres attempt forced Connor to save in the final moments of the first half.
There was more urgency from the Bison after the break as they looked to halve the Knights' lead but the visitors all but wrapped up the match in the 65th minute when Martinez had an enterprising run into the box that saw the senior finish a marvelous ball from Wilkins.
Perez pulled back a goal six minutes from time to dash the hopes of a shutout for the Knights.
"We're a much better team than our record shows and hopefully we'll continue playing at this level from here on out," said Martinez.
The Knights host Schaumburg on Saturday, while the Bison welcome division rival Wheeling on Thursday evening.