Boys soccer: Smakowski rises to the occasion, helps Hersey advance past Glenbrook North in PKs

Penalty shootouts are the ultimate stage for a goalkeeper to shine.

No keeper is ever blamed for failing to save a penalty kick from 12 yards away, but they are revered when they make a big save.

Patryk Smakowski helped decide the Hersey-Glenbrook North sectional semifinal on Wednesday at Fremd when the Hersey senior made a pair of brilliant saves. His teammates converted four PKs to help send the Huskies into the sectional final at noon Saturday. Regulation and overtime finished scoreless.

The Huskies’ 4-2 advantage in penalty kicks gave Smakowski and his teammates a victory over the No. 5 seed Spartans (17-4-3), who played magnificent soccer for 100 minutes only to see their season come to an abrupt end.

“I always feel confident when we go to penalties — it's something I always look forward to,” said Smakowski, now with 13 shutouts on the season.

“We just did not come out well at all. There was no energy, and (Glenbrook North) really put us on our heels in the first half,” said Huskies senior Johnny Antoniou.

“They were so much better than we were, but we came out in the second half and played closer to the way we always do before turning it over to Patryk, who we really are fortunate to have when we go to penalties.”

The last time the Huskies (19-0-3) suffered a loss was a year ago in a sectional opener against the Spartans, who went on to finish third overall at the state tournament.

“We gave (Hersey) their last loss, and it would have been great to do it again tonight, but we did everything really well except to put on in the net, and their keeper was the difference when we went to pens,” said Spartans senior captain Simon Ferencz.

Even though the Spartans enjoyed much of the play on a gorgeous fall night at Hildebrandt Field, the Huskies had a quality scoring chance that Spartans goalkeeper Quentin De Gregorio stopped. The junior made an incredible reaction point-blank save on Akram Alividinov to send the game to overtime a minute later.

De Gregorio saved a fourth-round penalty attempt, and Smakowski made a decisive save moments later to set the stage for Mateja Dordevic to drive home the game-winner.

The top-seeded Huskies will face No. 2 seed and Central Suburban League champion Glenbrook South (18-3-3), which bagged three second-half goals en route to a 3-1 triumph over No. 3 Stevenson.

“(They) were better individually, with No. 7 Henry Stephan and No. 9 Alex Onysenko the real difference makers tonight, especially in the final 22 minutes, but it was their keeper who helped keep them in the game,” said Stevenson coach PepeJon Chavez, whose club finishes the season with a dazzling 14-3-3 overall record.

The two clubs evenly played a physical, hard-fought and box-to-box first half until Owen Tattersall finished a nice serve to the back post by Stephan at 62 minutes.

The Spartans doubled their advantage seven minutes later on a clever touch from Stephan for his 15th goal of the season.

Patriots senior captain Sashin Kistanna pulled one back in the 75h minute when he steered in a Brady Brunner corner at the near post, but Onysenko dashed the hopes of the Patriots with his 14th goal of the season, coming in the 76th minute.

“It's a tough way to go out, but we lost to a better team tonight, and for me it's been a great pleasure to be a part of the Stevenson soccer program and to play with a great bunch of players, and coach PepeJon Chavez,” said Patriots center back Jacob Goldstein.