Guerrero, Larkin down Bartlett, advance to Pepsi semis
Larkin boys soccer coach Ken Hall said goalkeeper Santiago Guerrero had been struggling recently.
A performance like Tuesday's certainly will give the junior some more confidence.
Guerrero finished with 8 saves, including several keys stops, as the Royals shut out Bartlett, 2-0, at Millennium Field in the quarterfinals of the Pepsi Showdown.
"I was confident and secure," Guerrero said. "Just doing the job that I'm supposed to do."
The victory moves the Royals (7-2-1) into a semifinal match against Libertyville at 4:15 p.m. Saturday at Lyons Township High School Libertyville defeated St. Charles North 3-2 Thursday.
Larkin will be without both its starting outside midfielders in that match because of red cards handed out against the Hawks Thursday.
The Royals took the lead Tuesday just 15 seconds into the match. Bartlett (6-2) had the opening kickoff, but quickly gave the ball away. Larkin's Ivan Maldonado found the ball at his feet inside the Bartlett penalty area, dribbled once and fired a low right-footed shot past Hawks goalkeeper Alex Busch, who finished with 5 saves.
"It's definitely not the way we wanted to start the game," Bartlett coach Ben Beary said. "I think we were ready. It was just a little slip, a little mistake.
"I thought we recovered pretty well. We had a lot of chances in both halves."
The Hawks, who have now lost two consecutive matches, had several good opportunities in the first half to tie the match, but Guerrero denied the Hawks every time. Guerrero made a diving save to his right off a shot from the Hawks' Carmelo Abate with 33:37 left and stopped Eric Kennebeck in close with 19:45 to go in the first half.
Guerrero again stopped Kennebeck with 32:35 left in the second half after Kennebeck again found some space in the right side of the Royals' penalty area.
"(Guerrero) played his best game of the year," Hall said. "He was probably the player of the game for us. He came up really big. We needed him definitely."
Erik Rodriguez gave the Royals an insurance goal with 27:37 remaining in the match after corralling a loose ball in the Hawks' penalty area. He dribbled around Busch and scored into an empty net.