Boys soccer: Sanchez's last-second goal lifts Wheeling at Palatine
With a single decisive strike, Jonathan Sanchez provided a stunning ending at Chic Anderson Stadium on Thursday as the Wheeling senior's last-gasp effort gave his team a 1-0 victory over Palatine in boys soccer.
The Sanchez goal game in the closing seconds of the first overtime period to send former Palatine star Kevin Lennon and current Wheeling coach home with a memorable victory in his first visit to his alma mater as an opponent.
"To say coming back here and coaching against my former head coach and friend (Willie Filian) had a lot of meaning is an understatement," said Lennon, a 1994 Pirates grad. "But he's the guy I've always looked up to, and a person who has helped so many players on and off the field during all the years he's been here . . . I hope I can accomplish just half of what he's done.
"You always know what you're going to get when you play a Palatine soccer team, and tonight wasn't any different. We were up against it during that first 20 minutes tonight as they pressured us all over the place, not allowing us much time and space, and we had to work for everything we got out there tonight."
The 3 points the Wildcats earned with this victory were big in many ways. They provided a nice bounce back from a heartbreaking OT loss to Barrington (3-2) on Tuesday night, which had slowed the Wildcats' pursuit of division-leading Hersey.
"We played well enough to win on Tuesday, but the toughest thing about that game was the fact we were leading in the second half with 20 minutes left to go," said Wheeling's Dennis Gavrila, who provided a terrific helper to Sanchez to help start the bizarre ending to this MSL match.
"It was a tough way to end on several levels," said Filian, "the first being we weren't sure whether it was our ball or Wheeling's - the referee wasn't very clear when the ball went out. Then our hesitation caught us with some bad numbers behind the ball, and all of a sudden No. 7 (Sanchez) put his shot into the back of the net with just a few seconds left on the clock."
The ending was tough for the Pirates (4-5-0, 1-4-0) because at times they performed well in nearly all departments, with a high work rate and some wonderful work along the back to take the steam out of the Wildcats' attack featuring a trio of talented attacking players - Konrad Malinowski, Vicente Castro and Gavrila.
"That was a quality team that we played tonight," said Filian, "but I thought for the most part we limited their chances, and did well winning most of the first and second balls. But as we have now in our last three games, we haven't been able to find the back of the net."
Not for a lack of trying.
The hosts built through both Sebastian Fraczek and Jonathan Inez-Rodriguez, who tested the Wildcats' back line. But Wheeling kept its shape and stayed organized in the final third to keep the Pirates from getting anything too dangerous on keeper Juan Castillo.
Both Castillo and his counterpart, Dylan Ruzbasan, were key figures in this hard-fought contest, as each helped keep the other side under pressure with their 60-plus yard punts and free kicks, with both seniors also coming forward to take a handful of dead-ball attempts.
The Wildcats showed more energy in the last 8-10 minutes of the first half, and that carried over into the second period.
Palatine's Johan Ballasco forced Castillo into a save at 56 minutes before Wheeling's Jose Aguilar, Gavrila and Malinowski nearly combined for the opening goal in the 58th minute.
As both sides prepared themselves for a second ten-minute extra period, Gavrila roared down the right side and put his teammate Sanchez free just long enough for the Cats' captain to send his angled shot beyond the reach of Ruzbasan.
"Just before I took that shot I looked back to check the clock, and I did so after it went in just to make sure, and all I saw were zeros up there," said Sanchez.