Boys soccer: Duwal's dandy in shutout for Leyden; Fremd tops Lake Forest

Francisco Toral was the goal-scoring hero.

But it was David Duwal's brilliance which earned the Leyden keeper man-of-the-match honors in the Eagles' 1-0 victory over St. Ignatius on Saturday afternoon at Fornelli Field in Chicago.

Coach Mark Valintis' team found itself paired up against the 2016 Chicago Catholic League Blue Division champs, who not only entered this contest with a sparkling 15-3-2 overall record but also a perfect record at its gorgeous West side home park for the past two seasons.

"A lot of the guys are having a hard time right now, knowing this is our first loss here in two years," said Wolfpack coach Ryan Kearns, whose team will open up at home on Wednesday against Juarez in a first-round 3A regional match. "But I told them there's so many more positive things to take away from here, beginning with the great 80-minute effort against a quality opponent such as Leyden.

"That was a terrific game out there. It was one which easily could have gone 1 or 2-0 for either side, but we didn't finish our chances. And some of that had to do with the work of their keeper in the second half."

Leyden (13-5-0) first struggled with the waves of furiously paced attacks from the home side. The Wolfpack was impressive with the attacking duo of its outside midfielders, Owen Allen and Troy Quinn, who threatened to run the visitors out of the park during a high-intensity performance during the first half-hour of play.

"I don't know what our problem was in that first half, but we obviously didn't come to play," said the captain of the Eagles' back line, senior Damian Kosakowski. "And they immediately put us under, and kept it up for most of the half. But we rebounded really well and played so much better after the break."

"We were without our all-state midfielder (Angel Lopez), our leading scorer (Krystian Havran) and another starter (Eduardo Hernandez), but that's no excuse," Valintis said. "And that's not meant to take anything away from Ignatius, who gave us all sorts of trouble in that first half until we woke up and played the way I expect our guys to play."

St. Ignatius manufactured three quality chances in the first 40 minutes.

The first came when Nico Rinella was put through to beat the offsides trap, only to fire over the bar. The next came on an Allen header sent wide in the 23rd minute, and later, the best of all which saw Jason Andrade stop Berhane Berhane point blank.

"Coach told us at the half we were just going through the motions, and to come out and play with more urgency and heart, and that's what we all did," Kosakowski said.

Leyden enjoyed the better of the opening exchanges, thanks in part to a revved-up attack powered by Esteban Hernandez, Jose Sanchez, Marco Villalobos and Toral.

But the Eagles' faithful had to wait to until the 59th minute to witness the lone goal of the game.

Daniel Kulawiak created all sorts of trouble in the Wolfpack' area with his well-driven 40-yard free kick before Toral's nonstop engine found the junior in close with the ball, and a composed finish past Bryant Hales.

It was now Duwal's turn to shine, and the Leyden sophomore was up to the task.

He turned away Rinella and Patrick Breslin in succession, each in spectacular fashion in the 65th minute to dash the Wolfpack hopes of equalizing.

Later, Duwal rescued his teammates again when Breslin stormed inside the box.

Toral had an opportunity to double the Leyden advantage in the 74th minute but his penalty kick attempt rattled the bar.

"That was the first time this season we were able to score from a free-kick, so maybe that's a good omen looking ahead to regionals next week," Valintis said.

The No. 5 Eagles will host Niles West next week in Northlake. They are one win away from a regional final rematch with No. 4 Lane Tech Academy on Friday, Oct. 21.

Fremd 5, Lake Forest 1: Fremd's boys soccer team seems to have found new life in the postseason. The No. 14 seed Vikings put together one of their best scoring outputs of the season in rolling past No. 18 seed Lake Forest 5-1 in a Class 3A regional quarterfinal at Fremd on Saturday afternoon.

Shintaro Hidaka and Anthony Tambellini each had a goal and 2 assists in leading the Vikings, while Max Clark, Ryan Cox and Michael Labarge also scored.

"In terms of putting balls in the back of the net, we haven't been able to do that this season," Fremd coach Steve Keller said. "I think the guys were ready to play and I think we're playing a little bit better. We're coming into form a little bit, settling down and playing with a little more purpose in the final third creating some good chances."

The Vikings (8-9-3) advance to meet third-seeded Wheeling (15-2-1) on Wednesday in a Lake Forest regional semifinal at 5:30 p.m.

"Obviously, were the underdog and that's a good thing," Keller said. "We've got nothing to lose. Were definitely going to have to contain their attack. Put one in on them, and hopefully hang on from there. It's our strategy going in."

Fremd scored 3 goals in a six-minute span in the first half, during which the Vikings had the wind at their backs.

Hidaka started the scoring in the 18th minute, taking a service from Tambellini and finding the back of the net on a volley kick.

"I was making a run to the inside," Hidaka said. "The ball was able to find me and I was able to tap it in."

Just four minutes later, Hidaka set the second goal up on a corner kick; Clark was able to finish unmarked in the middle of the penalty area for a 2-0 advantage.

Lebarge tallied another Fremd goal in the 24th minute off Tambellini's pass, while Cox made it 4-0 in the 39th minute with a rebound goal.

Tambellini scored off a pass from Hidaka in the 58th minute to put the Viking up 4-0.

Lake Forest (3-14-2) scored its only goal in the 73rd minute. After a trip in the penalty area, Carlos Von Borcke converted a penalty kick.

"We knew (Fremd) was going to play direct," Lake Forest coach Rob Parry said. "We thought we could defend the long ball better than we did, but we were ball-watching the first couple of goals.

"We just didn't do the little things. I thought we defended well, except for the five opportunities that (Fremd) had. It was just some individual errors."

- Rusty Silber