Leyden outlasts St. Charles East
One shot, one goal sometimes that's all it takes.
Fernando Camacho's played a perfect ball into the path of teammate David Wisniewski, and Leyden's premier striker shot across the face of the goal and beat keeper Eric Meesenburg to give the No. 1 seed a dramatic 1-0 victory and regional title to end its marathon match with St. Charles East 1-0 late Saturday evening at Glenbard North.
The No. 1 seed Eagles (16-3-2) advance to Tuesdays' Schaumburg sectional, where they will meet meet Geneva at 5:30 p.m. in its first sectional appearance since 2006.
“It was a back-and-forth match out there tonight, and a real war between two very good teams, where a bit of luck proved to be the difference,” said Leyden coach Mark Valintis, whose first 11 was missing three starters, including talented co-captain Arnoldo Reyes. He gave his teammates 15-20 minutes on a badly injured right foot, but was unable to play any more after two long weather delays due to lightning.
“The morale of our team took a real hit when Arnoldo wasn't able to be at 100 percent and eventually not play at all tonight, so we all pulled together and played for him, not ourselves,” said senior co-captain Juan Carlos Duarte, who stood tall at midfield all night.
The match was a contrast in styles the hard charging, and physically dominating Saints, versus the technically skilled and quick Eagles.
“I felt we dominated the run of the play in the way that we normally do, but we lost because of ourselves, and for no other reason,” said Saints coach Paul Jennison.
The Saints' back line of Eric Russell, Frank DiNatale and Michael Macek matched the work rate of their counterparts, with Jose Soto, Arthur Bernaciak and Camancho all giving 75 minutes-plus. But it was Duarte and a variety of his mates in the middle who refused to roll over and hide against a big, strong Saints midfield.
“The delays due to the lightning really slowed things down for us, and took away any momentum that we had leading up to both stoppages,” said Saints junior captain Austin Jackman.
Jackman steered his free kick to the back post, where Zach Cramer sent an attempt over the bar at 22 minutes. Moments later, Jonny Bren's looping shot forced Leyden keeper Marco Granda to save at the end line.
Russell tackled a dangerous Cristian Sanchez when he got in close in the 37th minute, and on the other end, Oscar Martinez did the same for the regional champs against Jesse Nagelberg.
The Saints bypassed their midfield after the hour mark to play long balls over the top to its taller forwards. Off a counter, Bren sprayed his shot wide at Granda at 72 minutes before the senior went just over the woodwork on a Dylan Tucker helper.
Wisniewski stunned the Saints when he slipped free in close and redirected a Camacho serve from the midline for his 26th goal of the season.
“We lost a mark, and they scored on their only real chance of the night, and that's a mistake you just don't do at this level,” said Jennison. “We should have been up 2 or 3 nil, and none of that would have mattered.”
“I really thought we were headed to PK's tonight, but this was much better,” said Duarte.