Boys soccer: Palatine clinches MSL West championship
Palatine put the finishing touches on its MSL West Division championship by beating Prospect, 4-0, Tuesday night at Chic Anderson Stadium.
The title is the first for coach Aaron Morris, who took over for Hall of Famer Willie Filian following his retirement two years ago. Filian led the Pirates (14-0-3, 8-0-2) to their last appearance in the MSL Soccer Cup in 2012.
"It feels good to be back in the league final, and very proud of this team for what they have achieved thus far. But there is a lot of soccer still ahead of us," said Morris, whose club will host the 48th annual MSL Soccer Cup next Thursday at 7 p.m. against the MSL East champ, which is to be determined.
This is the 11th time the Pirates have advanced into the league final.
"(That) is a fantastic soccer team, and very deserving of having the opportunity to play for the conference championship next week," said Prospect coach Mike Andrews.
The Knights (7-10-0, 5-5-0) came into this contest atop its division along with Buffalo Grove, each with 15 points. But now they are chasing three points after the Bison's 4-0 victory over Fremd.
"We knew we would have our hands full tonight. We fought hard, but they can get into their attack quickly, play so well off the ball, and have several players who can, and are very dangerous," added Andrews.
To nobody's surprise, the Pirates were once again led by their superb trio of Karol Noga, Jordan Mok and Sebastian Khoury, who provided the type of pace, purpose and energy needed to get the attack of the home side going at full speed.
The Knights would find themselves defending far more than it would have liked to during the first half, keeping the Pirates off the scoreboard up until the 38th minute.
That's when Khoury bagged the first of two spectacular goals. On the turn, he unloaded an unstoppable left-footed blast into the upper corner from 22 yards.
Moments later, teammate Austin Eckels doubled the Pirates' advantage on a helper from Khoury.
The Pirates would continue their dominance after the intermission when they added a third goal at 53 minutes. This one came from Karan Toor, who, left alone at the back post, would tee-up from 12 yards before steering in his attempt into the far inside netting.
Five minutes later, Khoury made it 4-0 from a near impossible angle on the left side, finishing with a sublime final touch that dipped at the end of flight to nestle into the net at 58 minutes.
Morris would begin to bring all of his starters off but the aforementioned Toor for the last quarter hour.
Dimitriy Hutnyk would dash the hopes of a seventh consecutive shutout for the Pirates with a nice solo effort in the 60th minute.
"The difference with this team from last year is how hard we worked during the offseason, and how close we are as a team," said Toor.
"We all put a lot of time (in) during the offseason, and we continue to push each other during training, and in our games," added Andrew Kania.
Kania forms an airtight central defensive partnership alongside Toor, and with his outside back Damien Drzewiecki, and Jerry Afonrinwo, who are both athletic, and more than willing to join the Pirates attack when called upon.
The Pirates will host Conant on Thursday in their league finale, while the Knights take on Elk Grove at 5 p.m. Friday.