Boys soccer: Buffalo Grove downs Barrington to win regional crown
Seventh-seeded Buffalo Grove continued its giant killer ways with a hard-fought 2-1 victory over Barrington Saturday night at BG's Grant Blaney Stadium in a torrential rainstorm to capture its own Class 3A boys soccer regional championship.
The Bison, who have now sent off Mid-Suburban East champion Wheeling, then No. 2 seed Barrington in consecutive postseason matches, have advanced into Tuesday's Libertyville sectional to play Warren (16-3-3).
"We got beat by Mother Nature and Buffalo Grove tonight," admitted Barrington coach Scott Steib, whose 16-5-1 club had defeated the Bison in its two previous regular-season games.
"The conditions were dreadful, and I know they benefited the style of Buffalo Grove over the way we play. We never really found any rhythm tonight. We were not able to connect and possess like we have during the year, and when you chase the game into the wind, and again when you go down 2-0 against a defensive-minded team like Buffalo Grove, usually the result is not the one you're after."
BG coach Darren Llewellyn had mentioned in the days leading up to this regional final that wind and rain wouldn't be the worse thing for his team but he would have never expected he would get both - and plenty of it.
"We had the wind at our backs at the start and we did our best to take full advantage of it in order to take control of the game and hopefully frustrate them as much as we could," said Llewellyn.
Tactically it was a terrific plan and when Charlie Mancilla drove his 24-yard free kick in for the Bison (12-7-2) in the 27th minute, all was well for the big crowd, which did all it could to save their umbrellas from landing in another area code.
The home side could have had one or two more goals in the first period - both from senior Sasha Tylnyy - the first in the opening minute on a sitter inside the box - and another just afterward that Broncos keeper Daniel Hesselbein pushed up and over the bar.
"Getting that first goal was big for us - but it was our defense that really came through for us tonight," offered Escobar.
"We came out in a 4-3-3, but the work by our three forwards, especially on the outside where we were able to take away their ability to play from the outside in then switch the ball was really key to our victory tonight," added Llewellyn.
Even with the wind at their backs after the intermission, the Broncos struggled to put much of anything that was dangerous on Bison keeper Adam Sempoch.
Escobar doubled the advantage when he went over Hesselbein with a lovely touch at 59 minutes, but the Broncos halved the lead after Sempoch saved a spot kick from Henry Wachsman only to see his effort allow Efrem Vega to send in the rebound.
Buffalo Grove would defend a trio of well-placed free kicks into the box after the Vega goal, with a Nico Argyros free kick attempt from the edge held onto nicely by Sempoch in the closing moments.
"It was difficult to play out there tonight with the wind and rain and so many spots under water on the field but we fought hard and played really well defensively all night to get a big win to move on," said Escobar.