Northwest/ Scouting postseason boys soccer
By Mike Garofola
Daily Herald Correspondent
Class 3A sectional outlook
At Barrington
Fab four: Rockford Boylan (21-0), Warren (16-3-3), Crystal Lake South (12-8-0), Cary-Grove (16-2-0).
Outlook: This sectional is among the best of them all this fall, with 3A reigning state champ Boylan, along with the top clubs from the Fox Valley in Cary-Grove and Crystal Lake South, 2010 sectional finalist Round Lake, North Sububan powers Warren and Lake Zurich and Mid-Suburban West runner-up Barrington, which might be the best 11-win side around and gets a chance to prove it when it meets Cary-Grove in a regional opener at Lake Zurich.
“Every team at (Lake Zurich) is capable of winning, it’s that close, and even as the No. 4 seed in our regional, we feel confident that if we can go and defend, and play hard for 80 minutes, good things can happen for us,” said Broncos coach Scott Steib, who will lean heavily on all-MSL stars Craig Zahour and Reid Strain (14 goals).
The top-rated Titans should roll through their regional, but at the Grant regional, a terrific potential final awaits with 16-win Round Lake and its dynamic scoring duo of Jordi Rubio-Mauricio Salgado (48 goals) vs. Warren’s trio of D-I prospects of Brady Walsh, Patrick Schulz and Daniel Sczcepanek.
Plenty of eyes will also focus on Charlie Oliver (Crystal Lake South) and Drew Conner (Cary-Grove), both sparkling talents who are strong candidates for all-state honors and more. The NIU-bound Oliver (27 goals) struck for a hat trick recently in a 4-3 loss to MSL champ Prospect, while Wisconsin-bound senior Connor continues to impress.
“Whoever is fortunate to come out of this sectional has a good chance of making a run into the championship match in November,” said CL South coach Brian Allen. “As for Charlie, he’s put up some great numbers, despite (us) having so little experience around him, and he’s even played 8-plus games as our sweeper, and during that span, we allowed just 2 goals.”
Advancement: Sectional champion advances to play Bartlett sectional champion at Barrington supersectional Nov. 1.
At Bartlett
Fab four: Schaumburg (12-4-1), St. Charles North (11-4-3), Larkin (14-5-5), Lake Park (15-6-2).
Outlook: No. 1 Schaumburg’s template for success has been a no-frills 3-5-2, where the onus is on tactical planning, a raging will-to-win and outworking the opponent. Until its heart-stopping loss in a shoot-out last Thursday in the MSL Cup to Prospect, the formula had been working nearly to perfection.
“It was disappointing to get that close, because in our division like the MSL West, those chances to advance into the MSL Cup don’t come along that often,” said Saxons coach Hamid Mehreioskouei. “But we’ve got a reprieve in that it wasn’t our last game of the season, and luckily for us, we get another chance in the second part of our season, and we look to take full advantage of that opportunity.” With six all-MSL players and a deep roster to back them up, the Saxons — led by captains Jake Savino and Joey Faleni — have proven to be the type of natural leaders a championship club can follow into the postseason.
St. Charles North coach Eric Willson had to be thrilled his team was far enough away from crosstown rival St. Charles East in the early rounds, and the Stars’ rigorous nonconference schedule, coupled with a regular-season-ending 2-1 win at Leyden shows this club is ready to go. No. 4 Lake Park has the extra incentive of knowing legendary coach Norm Hillner’s retirement party can be extended with every victory, but the club will get some strong resistance from a highly skilled West Chicago club, which it would would face in the regional final. It would take a stunning upset of No. 3 Larkin to keep the Royals out of the sectional semifinals.
Advancement: Sectional champion advances to play Barrington sectional champion at Barrington supersectional Nov. 1.
At Evanston
Fab four: Evanston (14-5-2), Leyden (14-4-1), Maine West (14-4-1), Glenbrook South (12-7-2).
Outlook: Two area teams which fell 1 victory short of advancing into the state tournament last fall, and suffered heavy graduation losses, are back among the best this season and appear to in top form heading into the tournament. Leyden, which dropped a heartbreaking 1-0 match to eventual state champion Boylan in the supersectionals, arrives as the No. 2 seed, along with a West Suburban Gold title over long-time rival Morton.
“We had been struggling a little bit, but after we moved Juan Recendez up top to play alongside Krystian Drozdz, following a 1-0 loss to Fenton, and brought up a couple of talented sophomores to push a few others, while adding depth, we’ve since improved with each match,” says Leyden coach Mark Valintis. Drozdz and Recendez have combined for 29 goals, but the real strength of this club is along the backline, where superb two-year star Fernando Camacho anchors a stingy defense, with the help of Arthur Bernaciak in front of underrated GK Marco Granda.
Maine West’s only issue heading into the stretch run is health as it heads to the New Trier regional. “Our biggest challenge is to (not) look past Schurz, and be ready for New Trier,” said West coach Mike Divincenzo, who lost his entire backline from a year ago. “I don’t care that New Trier’s record is around .500 — they are still New Trier, and we’ll have to play them at their place in the final. If we can get through, I really like our chances after that.”
Divincenzo has what every coach wants, a top-flight striker, and in sophomore Nelson Herrera, he owns one of the best. Herrera recently broke the school scoring record and enters with 24 goals this season, but there are plenty of other creative talents on this club, including Xaiver Gomez, Alex Herrera along with acrobatic GK Jecsan Torres, who missed several matches to a neck injury.
No. 1 Evanston recently was overwhelmed in the Central Suburban League title match with Highland Park 6-0, so it will be interesting to see how the Wildkits, who went from last to first this season, respond.
Advancement: Sectional champion advances to play the Palatine sectional champion at Maine South supersectional Nov. 1.
At Palatine
Fab four: Libertyville (14-3-1), Prospect (17-0-2) Highland Park (15-3-1), Fremd (11-5-3).
Outlook: The most impressive campaign in Prosepct history reached another exhilirating height last week when it beat Schaumburg in the MSL Cup for its first-ever conference title in shootout while playing a man down for 65 minutes. “We’d like to think that going into the tournament that our confidence is high, and that we are one of the teams to beat, but when you look at the list of teams in this sectional, it’s obvious that if you take anyone lightly, you’ve got a good chance of going out early,” said Knights coach Kurt Trenkle.
Prospect opens against a team it has already beaten this year (Mundelein), always a dangerous opponent from a revenge factor, and if successful, next up will be either Stevenson, on its home turf, or East Suburban Catholic co-champ St. Viator (13-4-4). The Lions are still riding high after a win over Benet allowed them to earn a piece of the ESCC title with Benet and Carmel (12-5-3), which is part of an impressive group at the Hoffman Estates regional. The No. 11 Corsairs face No. 6 Buffalo Grove tonight, a side which has had to deal with several injuries in the last few matches, but can count on the all-MSL trio of Matt Bloom, Irving Eloyza and Markus Fiordaliso, as well its quality GK Nick Landsberger.
Fremd is one of four regional hosts, and if all goes according to plan, the No. 4 Vikings will have all they can handle in the final Friday with NSC champ Lake Forest (12-4-1), which has a 2-1 victory over No. 1 Libertyville. “I see Lake Forest as the one of the teams to beat right now,” said Hersey coach Darren Llewellyn, who as the No. 16 seed opens with Libertyville on Wednesday afternoon. “They seem to be hitting full stride, and they have plenty of talented players, and for us, we’re all thinking upset against Libertyville.” Llewellyn admits to the big challenge ahead, but his club has played top sides Morton, Prospect and Boylan very close.
No. 7 Palatine (13-7-1) would like nothing more to have a go with Libertyville in the final, but had better not look past No. 9 Waukegan, which would like nothing more than to replicate its 2-1 upset over the Pirates in 2009 at this same location. “I am excited for the tournament to begin, but we’ll have to be stout defensively, and come ready to play from the very start if we want to make a run in this thing,” said Fremd coach Steve Keller, whose club had easily three of the best in the MSL this season at their positions in Brian Hindle, Yusuke Kanada and Eric Leonard. “I still feel Prospect is the team to beat. They seemed unfazed by their record, and they’re experienced and understand what it takes to get wins. It should all be interesting in this sectional, that’s for sure.”
Advancement: Sectional champion advances to play the Evanston sectional champion at Maine South supersectional Nov. 1.
Class 1A Harvard sectional
Tuesday’s semifinals: Stillman Valley vs Harvard, 4:30 p.m.; Christian Liberty vs. Rockford Keith Country Day, 6:30 p.m.
Outlook: As Christian Liberty goes a little further in the postseason with each victory, the intensity and urgency grows as well, and coach Jed Bennett and his Chargers will likely see plenty more of that when they meet Keith Country Day in the semifinal. “We realize the games at this time of the year tend to get more physical, and a little uglier, but the guys understand that, and they have done a very good job of doing what they have to do to win, and keep on advancing,” says Bennett, who sounds more like a veteran coach, than one in just his third year as the tournament progresses.
The Chargers’ opponent would like nothing more to avenge a 3-2 loss in Arlington Heights two weeks ago as it ended Keith’s hopes for a Northeastern Athletic Conference title. In that match, the Chargers exposed the Cougars (15-4-1) backline time after time, thanks in part to a swift counter-attack, meaningful service into the box flank and Kiefer Bennett, and way too much Luke Comerouski (49 goals), Michael Hennek and David Colbert. If Comerouski and his mates would have finished on just a few more chances it created, the final score would have been much less stressful.
The sectional opener features perhaps the favorite to some in Stillman Valley (19-1-0) and its top-flight scoring duo of Leo Lenth and Angel Pineda.
Advancement: The semifinal winners meet for the title at 6 p.m. Saturday. The Harvard champion faces the North Shore Country Day sectional champion in the DePaul supersectional at the at the Lincoln Park Soccer Park on Oct. 25.