Schaumburg tops Lake Park

Hamid Mehreioskouei likes to tell his players that when you can overcome adversity, you are never the same afterward.

The Schaumburg coach and his players were facing plenty on Tuesday night, trailing Lake Park 2-1 with under two minutes left — this after sitting around for 2 hours and 20 minutes due to two lightning delays.

But the top-seeded Saxons rose to the occasion, getting a late goal from Joey Faleni to tie the game up before Jake Savino tallied the game-winner in overtime to beat the fourth-seeded Lancers 3-2 in the Bartlett sectional semifinal at Streamwood High School.

“How do you describe that?” Mehreioskouei said. “Being able to come back from that changes teams. It prepares you for things down the road.”

In the 86th minute, Mike Chase lobbed a ball over Lake Park’s backline that Savino was able to track down and deposit in the back of the net.

“As soon as that ball was served over the top, I knew I was going to put it in,” Savino said.

Trailing 1-0 at halftime, Lake Park emerged from the intermission in attack mode. The Lancers scored in the 42nd minute on a corner kick from Nick Zanghi to Mitch Corsten to tie the game, and they took the lead 2-1 on another Corsten goal in the 65th minute, courtesy of a well-placed throw-in from Brian Fischer.

Mehreioskouei credited Lake Park coach Norm Hillner for a typically smart approach.

“You’re going to get the same thing every time you play them,” he said. “That’s the way Coach Hillner sets his teams up. They play smart soccer, strong defense and wait for their opportunities. That’s what they did tonight.”

But with 15 minutes left in the game, lightning was spotted in the area, creating a 1 hour and 40 minute delay before play resumed. After seven minutes on the field, more lightning was seen, meaning the teams had to wait another 40 minutes to finish the final eight minutes.

Mehreioskouei said that though it may have disrupted the game’s rhythm, it gave the Saxons time to devise a formation to provide them with as many opportunities as possible.

That plan included plenty of Nick Abel, whose ability to throw the ball from the sideline all the way into the box led to the team’s first 2 goals. Savino was the benefactor in the 11th minute and Faleni scored off a ricochet of another one of Abel’s strong throws in the 79th minute that tied the game at 2-2.

“It shows what a weapon a guy that can throw the ball a long way can be,” Hillner said. “They are dangerous with that.”

Schaumburg advances to face the winner of St. Charles North and Bartlett on Saturday while Hillner ends his 31-year run at Lake Park with 17 seniors.

“They played their hearts out,” Hillner said. “To come that close, you can’t ask for anything more than that. We didn’t play very well in the first half but we played well in the second half and well in the overtime.”