Highland Park ousts Fremd
Second-seeded Fremd became the final Mid-Suburban League team to say goodbye to the boys soccer season Wednesday night in Libertyville.
The Vikings (17-3-2) were eliminated after suffering a 3-1 defeat to No. 7 Highland Park (14-5-4), which struck for 3 unanswered goals in a seven-minute span to extend a memorable postseason run for retiring head coach Dave Bene.
Highland Park meets host and No. 1 seed Libertyville for a sectional championship on Saturday morning.
“I guess I have to continue pinching myself because of this team,” said a humble Bene, who will step aside following the season after 33 years at the helm. “We appeared to be in trouble after a very good start by Fremd, and later, when they scored so quickly after the break. But we had that stretch in the second half when we scored those three quick goals, one of them a highlight goal from Eoin Moore, which really got us going.”
The Vikings began by putting the pressure on the Giants, and spurred by the speed and pace of front-runners Lorenzo Savino, Matt Burkhardt and Yusuke Kanada, along with a strong wind at its back, the MSL champs appeared to be just a touch or two away from getting into the back of the net during the first quarter-hour.
“We didn't manage the wind very well tonight, and we let it affect how we played and Highland Park didn't,” said Fremd coach Steve Keller.
A long, well-struck free kick from Alex Bochat forced Giants keeper Aaron White into a save at 10 minutes. Later, Spencer Filosa and Savino worked a nice 1-2 combination to allow Savino to get free in close, only to watch talented sweeper Konrad Kucharski track back and clear off the end line.
“That No. 2 (Kucharski) is a load back there, and easily one of the most impressive players along the back that I've seen all year long,” said Keller.
Moments after the break, the Vikings took lead, courtesy a well-played corner sent low on the floor by Brian Hindle from the near flag to Filosa, who on the turn, fired a smash off of White and into the net.
Disaster struck for Fremd seven minutes later when an innocent looking corner serve from Noah Bloch appeared to knuckle on Fremd keeper Scott Sutarik and slip through the senior's gloves and into the 6-yard box, where Kucharski slotted the equalizer.
What happened two minutes later might have been the beginning of the end for the Vikings.
That's when Eoin Moore unleashed a blast from 30 yards that buried itself into the back of the net to give the Giants the lead for good.
“That was an amazing goal from Eoin, and one that a senior player like he came through to score for us,” said Bene.
Playing from behind for the first time in weeks, the Vikings conceded a costly third goal when they failed to clear a loose ball. Freshman Francesco Moore was only to happy to steer in a shot from 20 yards.
“I'll give our guys credit for not giving up when we went down 2 goals, but we were chasing a Highland Park team which was energized and feeling very good about things after that third goal,” Keller said.
The Vikings stepped up the tempo in search of cutting into the Giants' lead, and nearly did so if not for a brilliant save by White, who in full stretch to his left somehow stopped a shot by Hindle at point-blank range.
The Giants dropped numbers, while Fremd added another striker up top. And although it was one-way traffic heading in the direction of White and company, the Vikings were not able to score again.
“Highland Park was a very good team, with a terrific player in the back, and several creative people in the middle and up top, and they deserved their result tonight,” said Keller. “I told the guys that I know it hurts to lose tonight, but there's a lot to proud of from this season.”