Boys soccer: Schaumburg shuts out Hoffman Estates

Schaumburg's boys soccer team followed up its disappointing midweek loss at Rolling Meadows with a 3-0 victory over Hoffman Estates at rain-soaked Gary Scholz Stadium Friday night to open Homecoming weekend on a high note.

The Saxons (6-5-0, 4-3-0 Mid-Suburban West) made it look easy by scoring all three of their goals before the quarter hour, then found themselves defending the rest of the game until lightning ended the contest four minutes before time.

"We came out very strong today, playing well on both sides of the ball, and putting a lot of pressure on Hoffman," said Saxons coach Eric Sorby. "But it's a good thing we put in those three goals because most of the play was in our end the rest of the game."

Jared Schoo would provide the inspiration in the Saxons' first-half explosion when he ran onto Michael Cooper's deep throw and redirected the long toss high into the net when he was the first one in the air inside the Hawks' (4-9-1, 0-5-0) box.

Jake Piro doubled the advantage at 10 minutes with a brilliant left-footed angled effort when Sam Bognar provided a nice early ball to his teammate.

Four minutes later, Arnav Karnik sealed the 3 points for the home side when he charged up the middle of the park and was left alone long enough to beat Hawks keeper Adrian Huerta, who had no chance on Karnik's short-range effort.

"That was not the start we were looking for today," said Hawks coach Sean Armstrong, who was without two of his starters, Georgi Kyosev and Simeon Georgiev.

"After conceding those three early goals, I can honestly say we had most of the play for the next 55-60 minutes but we just were not sharp enough in the final third to get anything into the back of their net."

Despite that, junior Manny Amezcua sparkled in the middle for the visitors as the creative and crafty player the Hawks would need while two of their best players were inactive.

Junior Kaden Eberman would compliment Amezcua as did Juan Figueroa, whose run through the Saxons' defense forced keeper Denys Lyashko into action for the first time in the 36th minute.

"They were very good in the midfield today. They impressed with the way they possessed and attacked, which made them tough to deal with when they had the ball," said Sorby.

It could have been 4-0 when Schoo rattled the bar with his thunderous header off a corner from Simon Niku, but that would be as close as either side would get the rest of the way.