Lake Zurich edges WW South for 3rd at Barrington
Who says third-place matches are dull, meanlingless contests?
Nobody told Lake Zurich and Wheaton Warrenville South, who served up 80 minutes of worthy soccer Saturday afternoon with the Bears (4-1-1) edging WW South 1-0 to earn the third-place trophy at the 22nd annual Barrington Classic.
"Not too bad of a way to end a week of soccer," said Bears coach Mike Schmitz, who was without Nate Holicky and Greg Geimer for the match but welcomed back one of his captains, Colin Rathe, who wore the armbands well after striking the game-winner in the 79th minute to send the Tigers (2-2-1) home on the downbeat.
"When you get four games in five days, it gives you a chance to evaluate the good and not so good against a terrific eight-team field," said Tigers coach Guy Callipari. "Unfortunately, we'll have to correct things on the fly, because with another busy week (with three matches at the Pepsi Showdown) there will be little time to train over the next 5-6 days."
The Bears got off to a bright start, showing plenty of quickness from front to back and enjoyed most of the run of play in the early going, with Brenden Seeger dominating the touches for LZ.
"During the first half, I thought that's where we played our best soccer, was (on) the outside," Schmitz said.
Rathe, after being brought on at 25 minutes, combined with Seeger on several healthy exchanges to create consecutive corners for the Bears before Jake Changelon and John Pothast came alive to force Tigers keeper Josh Dix to save a Changelon blast.
"I really believe that we owned the first half, but we just couldn't get into the back of the net," said Seeger.
Just after the break, Seeger drove a blast over the bar off the whistle, but that was it for the Bears for the next 12 minutes as the dynamic duo of Dan Burns and George Doran became permanent residents in the Bears' end, nearly resulting in Burns striking the first goal of the game if not for an excellent challenge off his line by LZ keeper Jeff Kreutz.
Kreutz was at his best near the hour mark, as the sophomore turned around a header from Doran, who'd timed his attempt perfectly to meet Nate Fuster's free kick.
"The game really got stretched out, with both backlines staying back to keep everything in front of them, and it made for less than perfect soccer for the last 15-20 minutes," said Callipari.
The Tigers trio of Will Huesing, Joe Holz and Dan Tomazin worked hard along the back to ensure Pothast, Rathe and Seeger stayed a lengthy distance from Dix, but it was a piercing 50-yard free kick from Callendar and a favorable bounce forward to the onrushing Rathe that made the difference when the senior met the ball a split second before Dix to redirect his header over the line.
"It was a good tournament for us, and except for our loss to St. Charles North on Wednesday, I really thought we improved with each match here this week," said Seeger.