Eloyza, Buffalo Grove stop Schaumburg in OT
Buffalo Grove claimed its first victory in the MSL this season after Alberto Eloyza's 98th-minute strike proved enough to down host Schaumburg on Wednesday night at Gary Scholz Stadium.
The sophomore, who has scored 5 goals in his last four matches for the Bison, got on the end of a long throw from teammate Alex Hughes to shock the Saxons (2-7-0, 2-4-0-6 points), who led 2-0 at 73 minutes only to watch the visitors fight back and draw even with just two minutes remaining in regulation.
"Buffalo Grove worked hard tonight, and when you work hard, you deserve to win - and they deserved this win," said Schaumburg coach Hamid Mehreioskouei, who knew that even when his team led 2-0 after a Jake Savino goal that the match was far from over. "We've been in a lot of matches like this one and haven't protected leads like we should. And when you see a game get away from you, we're obviously not getting the type of leadership needed in order to put games away when the opportunity is there for us to do so.
"When we lost Bobby (Khalili) in the back for the night to an injury and had to move Nelson (back), our offense struggled. But that's no excuse for our result tonight."
Buffalo Grove (5-6-2, 1-3-0-1) defended more than it attacked in the first half.
"Hamid does such a good job with his kids, and they really put a lot of pressure in that first half," said BG coach Rick Schoffstall. "We needed Nick Landsberger to make some big plays for us in goal for us to stay (in) it, and had to keep our heads up, especially when we went down 2 goals."
Blake Nelson, Savino and Mark Bielanski with his trademark long throws helped keep the Bison under pressure in the first 40 minutes of play. Landsberger pulled several well-aimed serves into the box out of the air and saved a redirected header from Joey Faleni just before the Saxons went ahead when Nelson finished the tail-end of a ball from Savino.
Eloyza, along with Hughes, Joey Madio and Ryan Bedingfield helped jump-start what had been a stagnant BG attack. But after a spirited beginning following intermission, including a save by Saxons keeper Ben Beard on Hughes, it appeared the match would be played between both 18-yard lines.
"We just played with a lot of heart, and never gave up until the very end," said Bison captain Markus Fiordaliso, whose midfield work rate along with Matt Bloom proved to be key figures in the victory.
The Bison's inability to clear a troublesome ball led to the Saxons' second goal with Savino collecting a short ball, cutting between a pair of defenders to get free on Landsberger from 16 yards.
Schaumburg experienced some trouble of its own just seconds later, as the opportunistic Eloyza brought his club within one to signal a frantic final six minutes.
Beard raced off his line to stop a Hughes point-blank blast, but there was no stopping Madio, who ran onto the ball and scored the equalizer in the 78th minute.
The first 10-minute extra period was wide open, with the Bison having the run of play for most of the time, yet failing to find the game-winner.
Eloyza nearly did so at 96 minutes when he snuck behind the last man to take a long punt from Landsberger only to go wide of the post. But the talented rookie found himself in the perfect position near the spot to give his club its victory.
"Alberto has picked up the slack for us, which has been big ever since we lost Alex (Masciopinto, the team's scoring leader last season) to a broken tibia last week, and other guys have stepped us as well during that time which has been a big boost for us," said Fiordaliso.