Fremd ends scoring drought,
surprises Naperville North
'Greasy goal' is all Vikings need to prevail 1-0
By Matt Le Cren
NAPERVILLE -- Naperville North coach Jim Konrad grew up in Naperville playing soccer with Steve Keller and considers the Fremd coach a good friend.
So that’s why Konrad wasn’t too heartbroken to see Keller smiling after the Vikings upset his Huskies 1-0 on Thursday at Best of the West tournament at Naperville North.
“As I told the boys, we didn’t deserve to win but we didn’t deserve to lose, either,” Konrad said.
Indeed, there wasn’t much offense on offer at either end of the field. Fremd outshot the Huskies 5-3 and scored what hockey players would refer to as a “greasy goal” at the 29:15 mark of the second half when the Schoffstall brothers teamed up on a heave-and-hope play.
Senior Zach Schoffstall began the play by unfurling a throw-in that went over the head of Naperville North goalie Christian Robert and bounced off a defender in the crease.
Robert dove forward in an attempt to smother the ball but sophomore Luke Schoffstall beat him to it and slid a short shot underneath Robert. The Vikings (2-3) who had been shut out in their previous three matches, didn’t exactly have a plan on the play.
“We haven’t really talked about that much,” Keller said. “It was pretty much to get a long throw, get it in there and mix it up, win a ball and hope that something comes out of it.
“We’ll take it. It’s just nice to win and to score and keep up a shutout.”
The Vikings have mustered just two goals thus far, and Luke Schoffstall, a varsity rookie, has both of them. Each one was a game winner for Chicagoland Soccer's Man of the Match on Thursday.
“We’re just moving the ball around so we get more guys open,” said Luke Schoffstall, whose first career goal beat Maine South 1-0 in the season opener. “It just happened to bounce my way, and I got one in. It was actually a good throw because it got over the keeper, but then I got a lucky bounce off a defender and it came back to me.”
Ironically, Zach Schoffstall, a senior forward who was Fremd’s second-leading scorer in 2013, has yet to find the net even though he’s expected to lead the Vikings in scoring. But he’s not worried.
“I feel like we’re playing better every game,” Zach Schoffstall said. “We just needed to possess more and finish in the final third when we have possession. If we can just do all those things, we’ll be more attack-minded and get more numbers forward and the goals will come.”
The Vikings were even better in their own end, allowing just two shots on frame, neither of which was particularly dangerous. Fremd goalie William LeFevre made two saves to record the blank sheet, including one on a 56-yard free kick by William Wong that bounced through the box midway through the first half.
“I think our defense and midfield are the reason we won that game today,” Keller said. “We’ve still got a long ways to go but I thought we played fairly sound defensively and our work rate was pretty good.”
Naperville North (3-2) was blanked for the first time this year but the Huskies played well defensively. Robert made three saves, including a diving effort to deflect a turnaround shot from Luke Schoffstall around the post in the 15th minute. He also denied Zach Schoffstall on a one-hopper from 25 yards out.
“I think we played pretty good defensively,” Naperville North central defender Brandon Hipp said. “We could have touched things up a little bit, but overall we didn’t play that badly. We’re going to give our best effort on Saturday and hopefully we can get through to Saturday night.”
The Huskies need to beat Benet on Saturday morning in order to advance to the tournament championship match at 6 p.m. at Naperville Central. The pool title could come down to a three-way tie if Fremd beats Neuqua Valley on Saturday.
“We’re going to pick our heads up and tomorrow we’re going to come back and watch some film, see what we can touch up and try to come back on Saturday and play a good Benet team really hard,” Hipp said.
Starting lineups
Fremd
GK William LeFevre
D Daniel Burton
D Benjamin Borst
D Tomas Peleckas
D Luke Kosacz
M Benjamin Poder
M Rohan Menon
M Jacob Cuthbert
M Luke Schoffstall
F Zach Schoffstall
F Ivan Martin
Naperville North
GK Christian Robert
D Matty Sylvester
D Kevin Keane
D Wesley Wong
D Brandon Hipp
M Chris Sullivan
M Connor McBride
M Grant Borg
F Carl Zaba
F Chris Ensign
F Adonay Hammond
Man of the Match: Luke Schoffstall, Fremd
Referees: Peter Maher, Tony Martinez, Francisco Damien
surprises Naperville North
'Greasy goal' is all Vikings need to prevail 1-0
By Matt Le Cren
NAPERVILLE -- Naperville North coach Jim Konrad grew up in Naperville playing soccer with Steve Keller and considers the Fremd coach a good friend.
So that’s why Konrad wasn’t too heartbroken to see Keller smiling after the Vikings upset his Huskies 1-0 on Thursday at Best of the West tournament at Naperville North.
“As I told the boys, we didn’t deserve to win but we didn’t deserve to lose, either,” Konrad said.
Indeed, there wasn’t much offense on offer at either end of the field. Fremd outshot the Huskies 5-3 and scored what hockey players would refer to as a “greasy goal” at the 29:15 mark of the second half when the Schoffstall brothers teamed up on a heave-and-hope play.
Senior Zach Schoffstall began the play by unfurling a throw-in that went over the head of Naperville North goalie Christian Robert and bounced off a defender in the crease.
Robert dove forward in an attempt to smother the ball but sophomore Luke Schoffstall beat him to it and slid a short shot underneath Robert. The Vikings (2-3) who had been shut out in their previous three matches, didn’t exactly have a plan on the play.
“We haven’t really talked about that much,” Keller said. “It was pretty much to get a long throw, get it in there and mix it up, win a ball and hope that something comes out of it.
“We’ll take it. It’s just nice to win and to score and keep up a shutout.”
The Vikings have mustered just two goals thus far, and Luke Schoffstall, a varsity rookie, has both of them. Each one was a game winner for Chicagoland Soccer's Man of the Match on Thursday.
“We’re just moving the ball around so we get more guys open,” said Luke Schoffstall, whose first career goal beat Maine South 1-0 in the season opener. “It just happened to bounce my way, and I got one in. It was actually a good throw because it got over the keeper, but then I got a lucky bounce off a defender and it came back to me.”
Ironically, Zach Schoffstall, a senior forward who was Fremd’s second-leading scorer in 2013, has yet to find the net even though he’s expected to lead the Vikings in scoring. But he’s not worried.
“I feel like we’re playing better every game,” Zach Schoffstall said. “We just needed to possess more and finish in the final third when we have possession. If we can just do all those things, we’ll be more attack-minded and get more numbers forward and the goals will come.”
The Vikings were even better in their own end, allowing just two shots on frame, neither of which was particularly dangerous. Fremd goalie William LeFevre made two saves to record the blank sheet, including one on a 56-yard free kick by William Wong that bounced through the box midway through the first half.
“I think our defense and midfield are the reason we won that game today,” Keller said. “We’ve still got a long ways to go but I thought we played fairly sound defensively and our work rate was pretty good.”
Naperville North (3-2) was blanked for the first time this year but the Huskies played well defensively. Robert made three saves, including a diving effort to deflect a turnaround shot from Luke Schoffstall around the post in the 15th minute. He also denied Zach Schoffstall on a one-hopper from 25 yards out.
“I think we played pretty good defensively,” Naperville North central defender Brandon Hipp said. “We could have touched things up a little bit, but overall we didn’t play that badly. We’re going to give our best effort on Saturday and hopefully we can get through to Saturday night.”
The Huskies need to beat Benet on Saturday morning in order to advance to the tournament championship match at 6 p.m. at Naperville Central. The pool title could come down to a three-way tie if Fremd beats Neuqua Valley on Saturday.
“We’re going to pick our heads up and tomorrow we’re going to come back and watch some film, see what we can touch up and try to come back on Saturday and play a good Benet team really hard,” Hipp said.
Starting lineups
Fremd
GK William LeFevre
D Daniel Burton
D Benjamin Borst
D Tomas Peleckas
D Luke Kosacz
M Benjamin Poder
M Rohan Menon
M Jacob Cuthbert
M Luke Schoffstall
F Zach Schoffstall
F Ivan Martin
Naperville North
GK Christian Robert
D Matty Sylvester
D Kevin Keane
D Wesley Wong
D Brandon Hipp
M Chris Sullivan
M Connor McBride
M Grant Borg
F Carl Zaba
F Chris Ensign
F Adonay Hammond
Man of the Match: Luke Schoffstall, Fremd
Referees: Peter Maher, Tony Martinez, Francisco Damien