PKs get Lake Park

p class="News">It was a battle of the bookends Tuesday night as No. 8-seeded Schaumburg took on the No. 4 Lake Park in the Class AA Streamwood sectional semifinals.

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

After a scoreless regulation period, four scoreless overtimes and a 3-3 tie in the shootout, Schaumburg walked away with the 1-0 victory that was decided in a sudden-death shootout.

It was defender-midfielder Dan Weiss who made the winning goal, and equally as important, it was goalkeeper Jordan Sandberg who knocked down the PK 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 that the shootout marks the team's third consecutive overtime, its second won via the shootout.

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

In regulation both teams had their opportunities.

Schaumburg had the first-half advantage, outshooting the Lancers 7-5.

Lake Park goalkeeper 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), which outshot the Lancers 8-3.

The two seemed to alternate opportunities in overtime as Lake Park dominated the first OT 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 Hughes.

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.

Schaumburg will face the No. 3 seed in Larkin at 6 p.m. Thursday for the sectional title.

Lake Park walks away disappointed, but certainly not for lack of effort.

"The guys did everything we wanted them to do," Gouriotis said. "It was a great game. Both teams played hard. Every kid played hard for us."