Boys soccer notes: Round Lake, Wauconda tied for NLCC lead; Buffalo Grove debuts refurbished field
This week coming up, the midway point of the regular season, will be the biggest week of the season for fans of the Northern Lake County Conference.
Prior to this past week, Grayslake North, Round Lake and Wauconda were all atop the league with perfect records. That was until Round Lake beat Grayslake North, 4-1, while Wauconda put 10 goals combined on Lakes Community and Antioch to draw level with Round Lake for the top spot at 4-0-0.
"We're really coming together as a group,“ Wauconda coach Tim Miller said. ”The focus on practicing with determination to be better each day, with all of the players holding each other accountable, has raised our level of play.“
Junior Aiden Werner stands out as one of the premier attacking midfielders in the area based on his dynamic box-to-box play, awareness, vision, passing range, and most important, his clinical finishing.
"Aiden has been a starter since day No. 1 as a freshman, and has continued to grow as a player, person and leader, who plays with a lot of fire but is unselfish at the same time," said Miller one day after Werner's three goals against Antioch moved him to 18 on the season.
On the other side of the ball, the Bulldogs have been about as stingy as possible with senior central defender Ilan Erickson garnering plenty of praise from Miller, as well as keepers Paxton Chartier and Nathan Pakosta.
The Bulldogs are incredibly fortunate to have two first class keepers, each who could start for most clubs, sharing one half of soccer. They have nine shutouts while allowing just three goals this season.
"(They) both want the other to achieve success, and it leads to the success of the team," said Miller. "They push each other like you cannot believe, train hard, and always are there to help the younger keepers in our program."
"Things are going really well for us this year,“ Chartier said. ”(We) have a lot of depth, we play great team defense, and as far as splitting time with Nathan, whatever is best for the team is OK with me.“
"We've been sharing time in goal forever, so it's something we're used to, and we both want the other to be the best they can when playing," added Pakosta, who also shares the captain's armband with Chartier.
The Bulldogs’ 3-0 victory at Lakes Community helped set the tone for their solid week of play, while at the same time extended the Eagles’ losing streak to five games until a 3-0 win over North Chicago gave Kevin Kullby's club their first league win.
Kullby, who was the head coach at Lake Forest (1999-2004) prior to coming over to become the only coach ever to lead both the boys and girls programs at Lakes, has amassed 507 victories during his career.
Kullby was an assistant to Rob Parry at Lake Forest at the same time his son Keegan starred for the Scouts.
"My best team might have been in 2008 when we went 16-8-1 but lost in the sectionals to Marian Central in penalties,“ Kullby said. ”But the COVID year (2020/2021) was easily the most talented team. We were NLCC co-champs at 8-2-0, and had the making of being capable of competing for a 2A state trophy if not for the fall 2020 season being canceled."
"It's great playing for coach Kullby,“ said Eagles captain Brett McCabe. ”He's fair, you always know where he stands on things, he is a great teacher of the sport, and he expects the best effort from all of us."
Buffalo Grove enjoying new digs
Buffal Grove recently completed a major renovation of all of its athletic fields, including Grant Blaney Stadium which now has a new turf field, track, as well as stadium lights. Last Thursday the Bison soccer team tied rival Prospect, 1-1, in their first home contest of the season.
"We were excited to be playing our first home game after the reconstruction, and we want this place to be a real advantage for us against our opponents," said Buffalo Grove senior Jackson Hill, who teams with senior Nicholas Kwiatkowski to form a terrific central defensive pair.
Two great goals from David Tokofuku (Buffalo Grove) and the Knights’ Kamil Myszka would settle this exciting 80-minute contest.
That this match would end in a 1-1 draw should come as no surprise to even the casual observer of a MSL division that has everyone chasing Rolling Meadows (4-0-0, 12 points) and Barrington (2-1-1, 7 points) but finding it difficult to do so thus far.
The reason? An unusual amount of games finishing in a draw, which are good for one point compared to the three points for a victory.
Buffalo Grove, Elk Grove, Prospect and Wheeling, next in the standings, have an amazing nine games that have ended in a draw, with Elk Grove and Prospect both with three each.