Boys soccer: Cox scores twice late to send Bartlett past Streamwood

Streamwood was far more dominant than Bartlett during Tuesday's Upstate Eight Conference game.

But that didn't make a difference in the outcome as the Hawks avoided another tie, rallying late in the second half for a thrilling 2-1 victory.

"We could've been at 7 ties if we didn't finish that," Bartlett coach Vince Revak said. "All things considered, we were completely outplayed today. If you were to count possession today, I would guess 75 percent to 25 percent and that's optimistic for us."

Making the outcome more exciting was that the game was played at Millennium Field because the natural surface at Bartlett was still recuperating from last weekend's rain. So technically the Hawks beat their rival on the road as the home team.

Streamwood (6-6-4, 2-2-1) finally broke through with 17:06 remaining after missing numerous chances earlier.

Junior defender Jose Ibarra fired a 30-yard missile just under the crossbar to give the Sabres a 1-0 lead.

A few minutes later Aldo Jiminez nearly gave the Sabres an insurance goal, and shortly thereafter, fellow freshman Angel Diaz blasted a shot off the crossbar with 12:45 remaining.

It was that kind of afternoon for the Sabres, which unfortunately has become a tendency.

"We have chance after chance so it's frustrating," Streamwood coach Matt Polovin said. "It's been the epitome of how our season has been. We hit the pole twice. It seemed like the goal couldn't be any smaller tonight, and then they get two chances and that was pretty much it."

As the calendar turns over to October, the Sabres are running out of time in figuring out how to finish more consistently.

"We move the ball so beautifully most of the time, but the thing that has been hurting us all season is our finishing in the final third," Polovin said. "Now we're getting to the point of the season where we're getting close to regionals and if we're still hitting the pole and we're missing all our good opportunities inside the box, it's going to be a quick postseason."

Bartlett sophomore Sean Cox scored with 7:39 to draw the Hawks even.

"When I received the ball I turned and saw daylight," he said. "So just took my opportunity."

Ibarra nearly pulled the Sabres ahead when he blasted a shot off the near post with 3:02 remaining, but the Hawks countered just 24 seconds later when sophomore Marco Zamora got the ball to Cox who sent in the game-winner with just 2:38 left to play.

"I just had to hit it clean and get it in the net," Cox said. "That's all you've got to think about when it's this high intensity."

Talk about making the most of your opportunities.

"All season we've been more of a second half team," Cox said. "We started thinking that we've got to win this here or go home. It feels good. We haven't been doing too well in conference so this really helps us going forward, especially against one of our rivals."

Bartlett (6-3-6, 2-1-2) seemingly came alive offensively after finally having to look up at a 1-0 deficit.

"We were finally aggressive on the attack," Revak said. "Mauricio Vigil had a lot of chances and was taking off. Kamil Jarzabek was making great runs and Sean Cox was obviously flying through. And we started to make those right passes instead of booting it long. We had purpose behind it so we were able to keep the ball and build up the attack more."

And when a team like Bartlett has six ties to its name, it's going to play all the way to the buzzer to try to win.

"It was another situation where these boys played until the last minute," Revak said. "I couldn't be prouder of this effort to pull out a win against all odds."