Conant pressure wears down depleted Streamwood
One night after its stunning upset win over highly regarded Upstate Eight Conference rival Geneva, Streamwood looked to keep the magic alive when it traveled to Mid-Suburban League power Conant as the Sabres jumped back into tournament play at the Lake Park boys soccer invitational.
With four-year star and goal-scoring machine Ivan Arce resting in a hospital bed, the Sabres (1-5-0) were unable to match the rampant attacking style and constant pressure of the host Cougars, who recorded a 2-0 win Tuesday night.
The first of 2 second-half goals came on a wonderfully constructed set piece that saw Chad Woytus head in the eventual game-winner from Zach Conrad's corner serve. That was later outdone when Nathan Cornell doubled the lead with the help of a superb assist from teammate Thomas Kozlowski.
"That was a gutsy performance out there tonight by Streamwood, who was playing back-to-back matches in the heat, and against our team, which was rested and probably deeper than they appeared to be," said Conant coach Jason Franco.
"We did a lot of things better (tonight) than we did in our loss to Downers (North) the other day," Franco said, "but we created so many more chances than (they) did, but we just didn't do well getting shots on (frame) or enough dangerous opportunities in close."
This lively, and at times highly entertaining match, played at high speed with quick touches and tantalizing technical genious, might have seen even more had Arce been available to be a part of this third-round tournament match.
The senior, after a 50-50 collision the night before with Geneva star Robbie Johnson, later complained of difficulty breathing, sending the Sabres striker to the emergency room late Monday evening. He suffered a lacerated kidney.
"It was such a freaky (thing) because Ivan would go back in after being hurt, but after the match, his complaint sounded as if he had bruised his ribs," said Streamwood coach Matt Polovin. "He might be gone for the year, we'll have to see, but his health is more important than anything else, and we'll have to pull ourselves together and go forward from here on out."
Polovin would find himself leaning heavily on Victor Aguillar, Gilberto Alba, Luis Rodriguez, Jesus Lopez and others, as the Sabres defense was put under pressure for most of the evening, yet still did well to keep the Cougars (2-1-1) from finding the back of the net.
"Conant moves the ball quickly, from side-to-side, and with great speed, and it forced us to chase them, and help wear us down at times, but the guys played really hard, and with a lot of energy as long as they could," Polovin said.
Cornell, and Bobby Iatomasi were particularly troublesome for the Sabres as the Cougars duo on both flanks ran hard, and with terrific pace during the first half to help open up space for themselves and their teammates, while helping break down the Sabres in their own end.
Streamwood keeper Jose Resendiz threw his mates a lifeline with back-to-back spectacular saves in a sequence. Cornell and Joey Bosco were somehow stopped while Resendiz seemed to stay suspended in air long enough to keep both shots from going in.
The junior was unable to do so when Woytus redirected his header at 50 minutes, then again later, with Kozlowski provided a near perfect helper to allow Cornell to finish with a low drive 17 minutes later.
"We defended very well tonight, and finally got our first shutout of the season (Hugo Gonzalez, keeper) - so it was good night on that end, in addition to our work on dead balls, which we were able to get (one) into the back of the net," said Franco.
The Cougars meet tourney host Lake Park at 7 p.m. Thursday while the Sabres host Buffalo Grove.