Saxons' late magic continues

It was a battle of the bookends Tuesday night as No. 8 seeded Schaumburg took on No. 4 seeded Lake Park in the Class AA Streamwood boys sectional sectional semifinals.

In fact, it was everything that spectators could hope for. With a struggle in the midfield, an array of opportunities up top and 120 minutes, it was the type of match one would expect from two No. 1 teams.

After 80 scoreless minutes of regulation, 4 scoreless overtimes and a 3-3 tie in the shootout, Schaumburg walked away with the 1-0 victory which was decided in a sudden-death shootout at Millennium Field.

It was defender-midfielder Dan Weiss who made the winning goal, and equally as important, it was goalkeeper Jordan Sandberg who knocked down the Mike Andrews' shot that could've tied it -- again.

"Jordan has been doing that all along," said Schaumburg coach Hamid Mehreioskouei. "Any time we go into a shootout, we feel that we have the advantage with him in goal."

Perhaps another Saxons' advantage was the fact the shootout marks the team's third consecutive overtime. Their second won via the shootout puts them in Thursday's 6 p.m. sectional final against No. 3 Larkin, a 2-1 winner over Maine West.

"The boys have played three overtime games in a row," said Mehreioskouei. "Luckily, we've had a no-quit mentality all year."

In regulation, both teams had their opportunities.

Schaumburg had the first half advantage out-shooting the Lancers 7-to-5.

Lake Park keeper Matt Durbin was impenetrable until the shootout, knocking down 11 shots on goal in regulation, 19 after four overtimes.

Among those were diving stops and pushes in the 58th minute, the 60th minute and again with 25 seconds left to play.

"Matt kept us in it," said Lake Park assistant coach John Gouriotis.

The bulk of the first half was played in the midfield with key ballhandling and passing from both sides.

Schaumburg's Josh Beard, Erhan Caglayan, Declan Geraghty, Wesley Hollis and Tim Piotrowski managed to evenly counter Adam Castello, Chris Jahns, James Zinni, Mike Andrews and Chris Gajda of Lake Park (14-6-5).

Fatigue seldom showed in this match as the second half was filled with a barrage of scoring attempts by Schaumburg (15-4-1), who out-shot the Lancers 8-3.

The two seemed to alternate opportunities in overtime as Lake Park dominated the first and Schaumburg the second while the third and fourth rendered an even match.

That even matchup carried over.

In the first shootout, Schaumburg goals from Geraghty, Josh Halter and Hollis were matched by Lake Park's Gajda, Chris Miller and Kevin Hughs.

After two misses in sudden death, Mark Czarny scored for the Saxons but Zinni countered for Lake Park.

Weiss filed one past Durbin into the upper left before Sandberg made the diving stop on a shot from Andrews.

"I give all the credit to the guys on the field," said Sandberg. "They just kept on doing it, kept on going.

"As for the shootout, it is nerve-racking, but the fans were amazing. It felt incredible to make that last stop. I couldn't be more proud of all our guys."

Larkin 2, Maine W. 1: Larkin knew a win would give it the opportunity to avenge a heartbreaking sectional final loss from the 2006 season.

After a scoreless first half, the Royals kicked it into high gear, scoring 2 quick second-half goals to guarantee themselves at least that chance as they held on to defeat Maine West 2-1.

"We were a little off in the first half," said Larkin coach Ken Hall. "We just couldn't connect on the last pass."

Scoring opportunities were hardly a problem for the Royals, who out-shot Maine West 9-3 in the first half, with their first scoring chance coming in the first minute of action.

In fact, the Royals dominated early, not allowing Maine West a scoring opportunity until the 20th minute, a shot which sailed over the Larkin net.

Any first-half chances the Warriors did take were spoiled by either sweeper Fernando Alverez or goalkeeper Raziel Somarriba.

Somarriba (7 saves) picked up anything Alverez missed, collecting huge saves in the 22nd and 28th minutes.

Just nine minutes into the second half, Larkin drew first blood when midfielder Steven Drew found Danny Hinterlong in front of the net.

"Steven delivered a nice cross," said Hinterlong. "I headed it, and kicked it in on the rebound."

The goal gave Larkin (17-5-4) a much-needed 1-0 lead.

"At the half, we just told the guys to relax," said Hall. "I told them to speed up play a bit, but we didn't make any adjustments."

Speed it up the Royals did.

In the blink of an eye, the Royals attacked again. This time, Misael Hernandez fired off a blast from about 30 yards which forward David Rodriguez gave a final touch to put it past charging Maine West goalkeeper Nate Andersen (9 saves).

The goal came three minutes after the first knock to quickly make it 2-0 in favor of the Royals.

Somarriba made a spectacular diving save on a big rip off the foot of Pawel Mirek with 20 minutes to play and two more big saves late in the game.

It wasn't until the final 19 seconds that Maine West (12-7-5) would cut the lead in half. Following a corner, Stewart Turner-Jackson pushed one past Somarriba off of a feed by David Puka.

Time ran out before the Warriors could strike again.

"I thought we played well," said Maine West coach Mike Divincenzo. "We knew that Larkin was good with set piece goals so we tried to defend the corners and I think we did a good job of that."