Boys soccer: Glenbrook North downs Maine West
Miles Wolder and Ian Lee stunned host Maine West with two early second half goals to help visiting Glenbrook North claim a 2-1 victory Thursday night in Des Plaines in Central Suburban League boys soccer action.
The Warriors (1-5-0) began brightly enough - finding themselves defending more than they would have liked - then grabbed the opener on a superb goal from senior captain Kevin Abad in the 29th minute.
The pendulum swung back again in favor of the Spartans (2-3-2) after the break when the Wolder-Lee duo netted twice within two minutes of each other.
"I thought we performed really well tonight, so much better than our last two games, creating some very good chances in the first half, but a couple of mistakes led to their two goals, and after that we just couldn't find that one goal to get back even," said Warriors coach Alan Matan, whose club fell 3-0 on Wednesday evening to Glenbrook South.
"We played good soccer out there tonight. Mistakes hurt us but we played well enough to win," added senior Kacper Woroszylo, who along with teammate Peter Ryt were strong all throughout as the Warriors' central defenders.
"We've dealt with so many injuries, tonight we were without two of our starting defenders so once again that caused a ripple effect as we moved some guys around, and brought three guys up. The guys did well in their new spots against a very good opponent," added Matan.
The Spartans engineered plenty of quality play going forward during a strong 15 minutes of the first half, forcing Warriors keeper Omar Rodea Espinosa into action during this time.
Espinosa stopped a well-struck one timer from Sam Lappin in the 18th minute, then did well with a fearless challenge off his line to turn around Lappin once again, after teammate Tal Yedlin put him through sixty seconds later.
"We were dangerous, and creating some good chances for ourselves for about 15 minutes in the first half, then had to really defend against a short-handed, but talented Maine West team, and their No. 10 (Kevin Abad) right up until the break," admitted Spartans head coach, Paul Vignocchi.
"But we enjoyed most of the play in the second half, played some really good combination soccer, and got ourselves two well-deserved goals to come out with the result we were after."
Abad's goal was a magnificent clinical finish, coming from an angle to the left of keeper Dylan Mankoff, who had little chance to stop the blistering 20-yard right-footed missile.
"We'll get back to work tomorrow, sort things out a bit, and do our best to get healthy and ready for Niles North next Tuesday," said Matan.