Late penalty kick lifts LZ by Fremd
Reid Bergstrom's penalty-kick conversion in the waning moments of regulation ended a bizarre and controversial sequence of events to give Lake Zurich a 1-0 victory over Fremd on Wednesday night in a Class AA regional opener at Palatine.
The No. 3-seeded Bears (17-3-2) now meet the host Pirates (14-8-0), a 3-0 winner over Dundee-Crown, at noon Saturday to decide the regional champion.
Bergstrom's spot-kick completed a breathtaking passage for the favored Bears.
They survived the upset bid of the No. 14 Vikings (9-8-1), who slowly built confidence as the match continued and had chances to strike throughout, only to be done in by a questionable hand-ball inside the box with 23.3 seconds remaining to give Bergstrom his opportunity to be a hero.
"I've never seen an ending like tonight," admitted LZ coach Mike Schmitz. "Were we lucky tonight? Maybe.
"But both sides had chances to score, and in the end it was a great battle between two very good teams."
Fremd's back line of Michael Ballschmiede, Cory Degrave and Vinay Goyal kept their composure against Bears' high-scorers Tim Kreutz, Nick Janus and Bergstrom in front of Vikings' keeper Rich Podjasek.
Matt Leonard and Bobby Hurwitz made for a lively duo for the Vikings on consecutive corners as the pair played a nifty 1-2 short combination to create the type of pressure on set-piece opportunities that can be the difference in a hard-fought, highly contested soccer match.
Just before intermission, they nearly stunned the Bears on one such volley as a low blast sent into the 6-yard box was redirected off a defender and directly into ever-ready LZ keeper Taao Scarnato, who positioned himself smartly on the play.
"We didn't really possess the ball as we normally do," said Schmitz, "so we struggled in our attack from time to time."
After the break, Janus had a go at Podjasek from 18 yards and moments later Justin Pennino's freekick went just over the woodwork as the Bears began to find their pace.
Ballschmiede tracked from the back post to head a would-be trouble-making serve to the spot from Janus at the hour mark. Then it was the Vikings senior's turn to cause stress for the Bears' faithful when his long throw required Scarnato to turn the heave around the back post.
With a once slight rain beginning to pick up and as OT neared, a wayward blast off the right boot of Janus surprised Degrave, who was struck in the hand by the shot.
Despite no intent on the part of Degrave to gain an advantage, the center official called the foul and PK, just before a lightning warning scurried all to safer posts in wait.
"Did we agree with the referee's call? No. Obviously there was no advantage when (it) occurred," said Vikings coach Steve Keller. "It's a tough way to lose your final match of the year. But we also had our chances along the way, and we didn't finish."
After a 20-minute delay, Bergstrom drilled his game-winner to Podjasek's right, who guessed the attempt would go the other way.
"I am glad that (Nick) Janus was able to get that shot off in close toward the end, and that our defense stepped up on a night when we didn't play our best soccer," said Bergstrom.