Boys soccer: Streamwood continues surge, advances to sectional championship game
Streamwood is getting healthy at the right time. After a regular season marred by injuries and some inconsistent play early, the Sabres are starting to see what they envisioned all along.
It was on display at Burgess Field Tuesday as the Sabres downed Rockford Boylan, 2-1, in the semifinal of the Class 2A Geneva sectional. Streamwood will play for the sectional title at 10 a.m. Saturday against the Harvard-Wheaton Academy winner.
Josue Lopez free kicks led to both Streamwood goals Tuesday.
Late in the first half, Lopez let loose from about 40 yards out. The Boylan goalkeeper drifted right of the net to make the play but couldn’t corral the rebound, which came right to Chris Cardenas, who banged it home top shelf to put the Sabres on top.
With about 10 minutes to go, the Sabres received another free kick from moderate distance. This time, Lopez put it right on frame. The keeper couldn’t seem to track it and the ball found the back of the net. Lopez heard the Boylan bench expecting him to cross it so he fired it right on the net.
Boylan finally got on the board with about 3 minutes left, but goalkeeper Alex Garcia and the Streamwood defense held.
“It feels good,” said Lopez of being in the sectional championship. “We had a real bad season at the beginning. We had new players. I started on the bench and now I’m one of the starters.”
Streamwood (11-10) dominated play in the opening minutes but couldn’t convert. Boylan had a flurry in the middle of the half, with Garcia making several saves, before the momentum swung back to the Sabres.
Cardenas was in perfect position for the rebound of Lopez’s kick.
“That’s why we have preached all season long about following every shot,” said Streamwood coach Matt Polovin. “Follow every shot offensively, follow every shot defensively, just in case. Here he is as a defender, running in and following the shot. That was awesome.”
Boylan’s late goal made things a little more interesting than Polovin would have liked.
“I wanted to close the game out a little better than what we did. In the end, it’s the playoffs. A win’s a win’s a win, I’ll take it,” he said. But I wanted that clean sheet. That would have been much better, but I’ll take it.
“The season that we’ve had, with the amount of injuries throughout the season, never having literally the same lineup pretty much every single game. Now we’re getting to the final 16 here. We’re getting healthy now and we’re starting to fire on all cylinders here a little bit.”