Boys soccer: Palatine blanks Elk Grove
Palatine's boys soccer team earned a comfortable 2-0 victory at Elk Grove Thursday night courtesy of goals from Matt Geisel and Omar Marin and another strong 80-minute effort from seniors Connor Aikman and Kevin Reynolds.
Aikman, who along with Geisel took control of the middle of the park by winning most of the aerial battles on the night, as well as 50-50 balls, watched his teammate bag the eventual game-winner in the 35th minute to send the Pirates (4-8-2, 3-5-0) to their second consecutive victory.
"We began the year in a bit of a losing streak but we've been coming around lately, and with a player like Reynolds as a center-back, and Matt and I doing our best in the midfield, I feel like we can be a team to watch from here on out," said Aikman.
"Connor and Matt give us a strong partnership in the middle, and it's their work rate and effort that has made the difference of late," said Pirates coach Willie Filian.
Alex Stavropoulos liked what he saw from his club early on but the Elk Grove coach knew if his team was unable to stay the course on three tactical issues set forth in advance it might be a long night for the Grens (4-8-2, 1-6-1) at Robert Haskell Memorial Stadium.
"We asked the boys to keep the ball on the floor, play 2-3 touch, and to not allow Palatine to create dead-ball opportunities, because that's been their bread-and-butter for years," said Stavropoulos. "I thought we came out and played well in the early going and once again after the break while creating a couple of quality chances.
"But credit Willie's guys - they play hard for 80 minutes, go into the tackle the same way, and I think we struggled with that which led to them winning a high percentage of 50-50 balls all throughout the middle."
The best chance of the first half fell to the home side and Diego Negrete Meza, whose free kick guided missile was pulled out of the air by Pirates keeper Johnathon Moreno who went horizontal to save the day.
Moreno's counterpart, Sean Martinez, could do nothing about the Matt Geisel strike which came at 35 minutes after Arian Mejia and Omar Marin played quickly to free each other up and Geisel who, on the turn, steered in his 18-yard attempt.
Marin, who scored two on Tuesday in the Pirates' 4-1 victory over Conant, doubled the advantage in the 48th minute thanks in part to some terrific work by James Hawran to keep the ball alive inside the Grens' area.
With Aikman delivering several quality balls off free kicks and Reynolds and his back line mates keeping things airtight in front of Moreno, the visitors made it near impossible for the Grens to generate much in the way of an attack until the final whistle.
"The other night our energy was much higher in the first half compared to tonight but we came out to play a strong second half of soccer to get the result we wanted," said Filian, whose club is at Hoffman Estates Saturday.