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Boys soccer: Burk's strike lifts Fremd past Schaumburg

Bobby Burk's 66th-minute goal rescued 3 points for Fremd in the Mid-Suburban League boys soccer standings on Saturday afternoon, at the same time denying host Schaumburg another chance at its first victory of the season in league play following a 1-0 Vikings win.

Burk would find a way to slot home the game-winner after Shintaro Hidaka started the sequence with a well-paced corner. Several players helped keep the ball alive long enough for the senior defender to score from inside the 6-yard box.

"After our rough outing earlier in the week against Hersey, Bobby came through for us when we really needed it to get a big win for us today," said Fremd's Max Mayer, a key figure in a strong second half when the visitors enjoyed the run of play after a sluggish first half.

"It was a pretty dull first half all the way around," said Vikings coach Steve Keller. "We created maybe a couple of good chances in the first half, but we were much sharper with our play after the break, which helped us scrape one out. After three games in five days, I was pleased to get the result that we did, but we've still got a lot of work to do in order to be better."

The reigning MSL champs, winless in four league matches, were coming off their first victory of the season after defeating Bartlett 2-0 in a nonconference contest last Thursday.

"The Bartlett win helped give all of us some much-needed confidence, but we're so young and inexperienced, and in a hard-fought game like this, that lack of varsity experience can really make a big difference," said Saxons senior Andrew Bird, who joins forward Edward Gomez are the only full-time starters back from last year's league championship club.

Bird watched teammates Nick Marino and Edwin Zuniga go close in the first 20 minutes. Marino headed wide at the back post a lovely cross from Andrew Gomez, and Zuniga had back-to-back chances to finish after a pair of blocked shots in the area spilled freely to the sophomore.

Max Clark provided plenty of energy and inspiration in the Vikings' strong final 10 minutes of the first half with plenty of pace, and a quality chance of his own when his left-footed angled blast missed an open net.

Schaumburg's Matthew D'Amelio nearly made something out of nothing when his snap-shot strike called Vikings senior keeper Josh Kasser into action, with the senior turning around D'Amelio's nasty attempt on frame.

That was it for the home side, which was unable to generate much from its attack. Fremd's front seven led by Michael LaBarge, James Lefevre, Joe Beaupre, Clark and Mayer kept the Saxons (1-4-1, 0-2-2) under pressure leading up to the Burk goal. After that point, Schaumburg coach Hamid Mehreioskouei went with three up top while pushing numbers forward in hopes of tying it up.

Kasser was fearless on two occasions when Adrian Estrada tested him with free kicks from the mid-line which sailed into the box, but that was it for the home side during the last few minutes of regulation.

"We needed someone to do some special today - an individual who would step-up and do something to change the course of the game for us," said Mehreioskouei. "We never had anyone do that, unfortunately. During our last three games we've really tightened things up along the back, but we have been unable to get anything going on the other end, and in this sport, you still have to score in order to win."

Fremd (4-6-2, 2-3-0) will have nearly a week off before returning next Friday to host Elk Grove for homecoming, while Schaumburg is at Wheeling on Tuesday.

"We're getting better each time out, and our training sessions are more competitive, and I see us being dangerous during the last half of the season," suggested Mayer.

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