Borst, Fremd spoil
Barrington's Homecoming
Win puts Vikings atop Mid-Suburban League standings
By Mike Garofola
BARRINGTON -- Fremd took one giant step forward yesterday afternoon with perhaps its most important result of the regular season after defeating host Barrington 1-0 on the turf of Barrington Community Stadium.
The win pushed the Vikings (9-5-1, 5-1-1 for 16 points) to the top of the MSL table, one point clear of MSL East leader Rolling Meadows, and three of both Schaumburg and Palatine, each with 13 points.
"Three games in a week, ending with back-to-backs (a 1-1 tie with Hersey on Friday) are never my favorites, but the boys came out and did what they had to do to earn themselves a hard-fought win over a tough opponent," said Vikings manager, Steve Keller.
"Both sides looked a little tired and ragged at the start, but I thought our guys began to find their legs midway through the first half, and, although it was never pretty, we did a good job of keeping their chances to just a few, making ours count when we had them.
(Broncos assistant coach) Tony (Kees) said to me afterwards it was a game of opoortunities, and we took advantage of ours, and his club didn't. I guess that kind of sums up today, and how this game goes most of the time."
Barrington (11-5-0, 4-2-0 for 12 points) rode into this contest on a six-match tear, outscoring its opponents 23-2 and recording important wins over MSL rivals Wheeling and Schaumburg. That brought Barrington back into the fray in the championship race and made its Homecoming match one of its biggest of the season.
"Given the importance of this match, and how, with the chance to go on top of the division, I thought we'd come out with more urgency and purpose in us," said a disappointed Scott Steib, Barrington's longtime manager.
"While it's true this was our sixth game in seven days, and a second match in (almost) 12 hours, there's a reason we didn't have much at the start - but Fremd played last night also, and after a slow start, they found that extra step."
Steib was able to overlook the lack of pace and energy during his post-match interview, but he was none too happy about the gaffe along the back which led to the Vikings opener in the 24th minute.
"We played a high, tight line for their free kick, but there was no communication, no leadership back there to react when the ball was put into play," he said. "We allowed their guy to basically walk in and put a ball away, and that's something you cannot allow, regardless of who your playing, and when."
The first of two strikes from Ben Borst broke a spell of fairly even play, which didn't have much quality, but did have plenty of action from box-to-box.
"It's a big deal to get that first goal, and especially today when nobody was doing a whole lot out there," said Borst, Chicagoland Soccer's Man of the Match. "I feel that goal kind of got us going, which was exactly what we needed in a game as important as this one."
Borst ran freely to Zach Schoffstall's free kick attempt past the Broncos four-man wall to easily slot his shot past Alex Ruffalo, who had no chance against the Vikings senior.
Their were several half chances after the Borst goal. The first came when Zach Schoffstall managed to get loose down the left side, before sending a dangerous serve to the back post - where an alert Nash Pirie marshalled the ball safely from the area. As intermission approached, Rohan Menon found himself alone at the back post, but his attempt went wide.
Barrington's Hans Pallan, the hero in the Broncos victory over Schaumburg on Friday, nearly beat Vikings keeper Will Lefevre to a 50-50 ball, but just missed to dash any hopes of a potential equalizer at 35 minutes.
"There just wasn't much life in our game today," said Broncos captain Tyler Anderson.
"I could come up with plenty of excuses: too many games in a week; Homecoming is this week; three-four guys have been sick and some still are. But that's not fair to Fremd. They were better than us today."
The Vikings controlled the first quarter of the second half, and when Borst drove in his left-footed smash six minutes in, you could feel the air slowly coming out of the Barrington balloon.
"That gave us some room, and after that, I felt like our defense really began to tighten up, while our midfield seemed to win a lot of balls to keep the pressure on Barrington," said Tomas Peleckas.
The hosts moved their big midfielder Giles Phillips up top to add some strength and power alongside Pallan in the 50th minute. But once again, Peleckas, and his backline mates, Jacob Cuthbert and Danny Burton kept the aforementioned duo, plus the Broncos leading scorers, Austin Grzebieniak and Peyton Mohr, far enough away from Lefevre on this day.
"It was a big game for us, all of us knew it, so it was good to see everyone step up when we really needed it today," said Borst.
Despite chasing the two goals, the home side knew if it could pull one back - it would suddenly become a game. In the 61st minute, Ian Ford challenged Lefevre near the edge, and later, Pirie had a go at Lefevre, and did Mohr, but neither was dangerous enough to force the keeper into a difficult save situation.
"We cannot expect anything less than 100%, despite the various reasons I gave you before, it's just not the way we do things around here. But today we weren't anywhere near 100%, and have no reason for it," said a dejected Anderson.
"We'll all get some much needed rest during the next day or two, then we've got to turn our attention towards another big week, beginning with Rolling Meadows on Tuesday here."
Luke Schoffstall ended Fremd's scoring in the 71st minute. Barrington crumpled the Vikings' clean sheet with a Luke Sellers goal in the 80th minute.
Fremd faces Prospect and Elk Grove at home this week.
"It's a week that I like. Just two matches, and plenty of time to train and recover," said Keller."Now we have to take advantage of it."
Starting lineups
Fremd
GK: Will Lefevre
D: Tomas Peleckas
D: Danny Burton
D: Jacob Cuthbert
MF: Ben Poder
MF: Gavin McCarty
MF: Luke Kosacz
MF: Luke Schoffstall
MF: Ben Borst
MF: Jake Arbour
F: Zach Schoffstall
Barrington
GK: Alex Ruffalo
D: Tyler Anderson
D: Jason Frenk
D: Casey Slingo
D: Nash Pirie
MF: Jack Carbonara
MF: Austin Grzebieniak
MF: Giles Phillips
F: Peyton Mohr
F: Kyle Owen
F: Hans Pallan
Man of the Match: Ben Borst, Fremd.
Official: Eli Sanchez (center).
Barrington's Homecoming
Win puts Vikings atop Mid-Suburban League standings
By Mike Garofola
BARRINGTON -- Fremd took one giant step forward yesterday afternoon with perhaps its most important result of the regular season after defeating host Barrington 1-0 on the turf of Barrington Community Stadium.
The win pushed the Vikings (9-5-1, 5-1-1 for 16 points) to the top of the MSL table, one point clear of MSL East leader Rolling Meadows, and three of both Schaumburg and Palatine, each with 13 points.
"Three games in a week, ending with back-to-backs (a 1-1 tie with Hersey on Friday) are never my favorites, but the boys came out and did what they had to do to earn themselves a hard-fought win over a tough opponent," said Vikings manager, Steve Keller.
"Both sides looked a little tired and ragged at the start, but I thought our guys began to find their legs midway through the first half, and, although it was never pretty, we did a good job of keeping their chances to just a few, making ours count when we had them.
(Broncos assistant coach) Tony (Kees) said to me afterwards it was a game of opoortunities, and we took advantage of ours, and his club didn't. I guess that kind of sums up today, and how this game goes most of the time."
Barrington (11-5-0, 4-2-0 for 12 points) rode into this contest on a six-match tear, outscoring its opponents 23-2 and recording important wins over MSL rivals Wheeling and Schaumburg. That brought Barrington back into the fray in the championship race and made its Homecoming match one of its biggest of the season.
"Given the importance of this match, and how, with the chance to go on top of the division, I thought we'd come out with more urgency and purpose in us," said a disappointed Scott Steib, Barrington's longtime manager.
"While it's true this was our sixth game in seven days, and a second match in (almost) 12 hours, there's a reason we didn't have much at the start - but Fremd played last night also, and after a slow start, they found that extra step."
Steib was able to overlook the lack of pace and energy during his post-match interview, but he was none too happy about the gaffe along the back which led to the Vikings opener in the 24th minute.
"We played a high, tight line for their free kick, but there was no communication, no leadership back there to react when the ball was put into play," he said. "We allowed their guy to basically walk in and put a ball away, and that's something you cannot allow, regardless of who your playing, and when."
The first of two strikes from Ben Borst broke a spell of fairly even play, which didn't have much quality, but did have plenty of action from box-to-box.
"It's a big deal to get that first goal, and especially today when nobody was doing a whole lot out there," said Borst, Chicagoland Soccer's Man of the Match. "I feel that goal kind of got us going, which was exactly what we needed in a game as important as this one."
Borst ran freely to Zach Schoffstall's free kick attempt past the Broncos four-man wall to easily slot his shot past Alex Ruffalo, who had no chance against the Vikings senior.
Their were several half chances after the Borst goal. The first came when Zach Schoffstall managed to get loose down the left side, before sending a dangerous serve to the back post - where an alert Nash Pirie marshalled the ball safely from the area. As intermission approached, Rohan Menon found himself alone at the back post, but his attempt went wide.
Barrington's Hans Pallan, the hero in the Broncos victory over Schaumburg on Friday, nearly beat Vikings keeper Will Lefevre to a 50-50 ball, but just missed to dash any hopes of a potential equalizer at 35 minutes.
"There just wasn't much life in our game today," said Broncos captain Tyler Anderson.
"I could come up with plenty of excuses: too many games in a week; Homecoming is this week; three-four guys have been sick and some still are. But that's not fair to Fremd. They were better than us today."
The Vikings controlled the first quarter of the second half, and when Borst drove in his left-footed smash six minutes in, you could feel the air slowly coming out of the Barrington balloon.
"That gave us some room, and after that, I felt like our defense really began to tighten up, while our midfield seemed to win a lot of balls to keep the pressure on Barrington," said Tomas Peleckas.
The hosts moved their big midfielder Giles Phillips up top to add some strength and power alongside Pallan in the 50th minute. But once again, Peleckas, and his backline mates, Jacob Cuthbert and Danny Burton kept the aforementioned duo, plus the Broncos leading scorers, Austin Grzebieniak and Peyton Mohr, far enough away from Lefevre on this day.
"It was a big game for us, all of us knew it, so it was good to see everyone step up when we really needed it today," said Borst.
Despite chasing the two goals, the home side knew if it could pull one back - it would suddenly become a game. In the 61st minute, Ian Ford challenged Lefevre near the edge, and later, Pirie had a go at Lefevre, and did Mohr, but neither was dangerous enough to force the keeper into a difficult save situation.
"We cannot expect anything less than 100%, despite the various reasons I gave you before, it's just not the way we do things around here. But today we weren't anywhere near 100%, and have no reason for it," said a dejected Anderson.
"We'll all get some much needed rest during the next day or two, then we've got to turn our attention towards another big week, beginning with Rolling Meadows on Tuesday here."
Luke Schoffstall ended Fremd's scoring in the 71st minute. Barrington crumpled the Vikings' clean sheet with a Luke Sellers goal in the 80th minute.
Fremd faces Prospect and Elk Grove at home this week.
"It's a week that I like. Just two matches, and plenty of time to train and recover," said Keller."Now we have to take advantage of it."
Starting lineups
Fremd
GK: Will Lefevre
D: Tomas Peleckas
D: Danny Burton
D: Jacob Cuthbert
MF: Ben Poder
MF: Gavin McCarty
MF: Luke Kosacz
MF: Luke Schoffstall
MF: Ben Borst
MF: Jake Arbour
F: Zach Schoffstall
Barrington
GK: Alex Ruffalo
D: Tyler Anderson
D: Jason Frenk
D: Casey Slingo
D: Nash Pirie
MF: Jack Carbonara
MF: Austin Grzebieniak
MF: Giles Phillips
F: Peyton Mohr
F: Kyle Owen
F: Hans Pallan
Man of the Match: Ben Borst, Fremd.
Official: Eli Sanchez (center).