West Chicago rallies for draw
Late goal allows Wildcats to earn 1-1 tie at Streamwood
By Chris Walker
STREAMWOOD – Sometimes a late game-tying goal can feel like a game winner.
West Chicago was on the verge of dropping a 1-0 decision at Streamwood on Wednesday afternoon, but mustered the equalizer with less than five minutes remaining to squeeze out a 1-1 draw in Upstate Eight River action.
“We’re thankful for the tie. It’s a good feeling that we can salvage a point,” Wildcats coach Jose Villa said. “It was a good matchup of two teams with a very similar style. It’s a good thing to come out of here with a tie.”
Streamwood (4-1-1, 0-0-1) opened the scoring with 34:15 remaining in the second half when Rafael Gil scored.
Gil, who was selected as the Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match, also scored twice on Tuesday in an 8-1 win over Westminster Christian.
“Guys are learning fast, but doing it on the fly since a lot of them are new,” Sabres coach Matt Polovin said. “They’re still getting used to the speed and physicalness of the game and a new season. We’re seeing a lot of good things though, which should help for the rest of the season.”
West Chicago (2-1-1, 1-0-1) was able to remain within striking distance after the goal because both sides had limited scoring opportunities. The teams matched up well, especially since most of the players were similar in size and speed.
“They’re a nice team,” Polovin said. “They’ve got good size and work hard and No. 21 (Oswaldo Estrada) is especially a nice player in the middle.”
The Sabres have been able to outhustle most opponents and have taken advantage of an extensive offseason training regimen to battle for a full 80 minutes each night. For the most part, the Wildcats were able to match that intensity Wednesday, something that opposing teams were unable to do against Streamwood in the Jacobs Tournament.
“Hats off to Streamwood. They worked hard and are extremely fast,” Villa said. “We were able to create some opportunities, and they did too. I thought we were able to move the ball at times, but we just didn’t finish. Then there were moments where they were running at us for quite some time. Their speed at the outside mids made for a good matchup.”
West Chicago had three corner kicks over the final 20 minutes of the second half but was unable to convert any of those set pieces to draw even. The Wildcats would eventually stun the Sabres with just 4:55 remaining when sophomore Jorge Duran found a seam and delivered a pass to senior Freddy Flores, who deposited a shot in the back of the net.
“We’re upset about that, but we can’t do anything about it now,” Streamwood keeper Sergio Blanco said. “We just have to put this game behind us and focus on our next game against Batavia next week. Hopefully we can take that one and forget about what happened today.”
On the flip side, the Wildcats should be able to use the late tally as a positive -- it kept them undefeated in their last three games.
“We came back and wanted to win, but we’ll take the draw,” West Chicago senior defender Jesus Fernandez said. “We had two teams battling hard for a win today, and they were tough. We were able to come back late even though we were down which says a lot about our guys working hard all game.”
After losing its season opener at West Aurora, the Wildcats have been able to string together a pair of victories before the comeback tie tonight.
“Things continue to get better for us,” Villa said. “We had quite a few mistakes in the first game that cost us, but we’ve minimized those mistakes. We’re working on being mentally focused and playing a full 80 minutes.”
Streamwood was unable to use the momentum of its three-game sweep and tournament title at Jacobs and the rout of Westminster Christian on Tuesday to take care of the Wildcats.
“You know, we had our chances and we had that offsides call on that header,” Polovin said. “We just didn’t close the game out, and when you’ve only got five minutes left in the game, everyone has got to work together as a unit in back and close it out. It was one little mistake, which happens, but they jumped on it, put it in and tied it up.”
Starting lineups
Streamwood
G Sergio Blanco
D Erie Ortiz
D Christian Balbinio
D Mike Delaney
D Aaron Villegas
M Edwin Rueda
M Jasminko Dizdarevic
M Marcos Rojo
F Rafael Gil
F Alan Camarena
F Donnie Sosa
West Chicago
G John Garcia
D Jesus Fernandez
D Josh Guercio
D Sean Sweeney
D Eduardo Suarez
D Antonio Velazquez
M Hajhar Agha
M Misael Duran
M Oswaldo Estrada
F Luis Correa
F Ulises Rios
Man of the Match: Rafael Gil, Streamwood
Officials: Chuck Raksinh, Bret Richter, Jim Spangler.
Late goal allows Wildcats to earn 1-1 tie at Streamwood
By Chris Walker
STREAMWOOD – Sometimes a late game-tying goal can feel like a game winner.
West Chicago was on the verge of dropping a 1-0 decision at Streamwood on Wednesday afternoon, but mustered the equalizer with less than five minutes remaining to squeeze out a 1-1 draw in Upstate Eight River action.
“We’re thankful for the tie. It’s a good feeling that we can salvage a point,” Wildcats coach Jose Villa said. “It was a good matchup of two teams with a very similar style. It’s a good thing to come out of here with a tie.”
Streamwood (4-1-1, 0-0-1) opened the scoring with 34:15 remaining in the second half when Rafael Gil scored.
Gil, who was selected as the Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match, also scored twice on Tuesday in an 8-1 win over Westminster Christian.
“Guys are learning fast, but doing it on the fly since a lot of them are new,” Sabres coach Matt Polovin said. “They’re still getting used to the speed and physicalness of the game and a new season. We’re seeing a lot of good things though, which should help for the rest of the season.”
West Chicago (2-1-1, 1-0-1) was able to remain within striking distance after the goal because both sides had limited scoring opportunities. The teams matched up well, especially since most of the players were similar in size and speed.
“They’re a nice team,” Polovin said. “They’ve got good size and work hard and No. 21 (Oswaldo Estrada) is especially a nice player in the middle.”
The Sabres have been able to outhustle most opponents and have taken advantage of an extensive offseason training regimen to battle for a full 80 minutes each night. For the most part, the Wildcats were able to match that intensity Wednesday, something that opposing teams were unable to do against Streamwood in the Jacobs Tournament.
“Hats off to Streamwood. They worked hard and are extremely fast,” Villa said. “We were able to create some opportunities, and they did too. I thought we were able to move the ball at times, but we just didn’t finish. Then there were moments where they were running at us for quite some time. Their speed at the outside mids made for a good matchup.”
West Chicago had three corner kicks over the final 20 minutes of the second half but was unable to convert any of those set pieces to draw even. The Wildcats would eventually stun the Sabres with just 4:55 remaining when sophomore Jorge Duran found a seam and delivered a pass to senior Freddy Flores, who deposited a shot in the back of the net.
“We’re upset about that, but we can’t do anything about it now,” Streamwood keeper Sergio Blanco said. “We just have to put this game behind us and focus on our next game against Batavia next week. Hopefully we can take that one and forget about what happened today.”
On the flip side, the Wildcats should be able to use the late tally as a positive -- it kept them undefeated in their last three games.
“We came back and wanted to win, but we’ll take the draw,” West Chicago senior defender Jesus Fernandez said. “We had two teams battling hard for a win today, and they were tough. We were able to come back late even though we were down which says a lot about our guys working hard all game.”
After losing its season opener at West Aurora, the Wildcats have been able to string together a pair of victories before the comeback tie tonight.
“Things continue to get better for us,” Villa said. “We had quite a few mistakes in the first game that cost us, but we’ve minimized those mistakes. We’re working on being mentally focused and playing a full 80 minutes.”
Streamwood was unable to use the momentum of its three-game sweep and tournament title at Jacobs and the rout of Westminster Christian on Tuesday to take care of the Wildcats.
“You know, we had our chances and we had that offsides call on that header,” Polovin said. “We just didn’t close the game out, and when you’ve only got five minutes left in the game, everyone has got to work together as a unit in back and close it out. It was one little mistake, which happens, but they jumped on it, put it in and tied it up.”
Starting lineups
Streamwood
G Sergio Blanco
D Erie Ortiz
D Christian Balbinio
D Mike Delaney
D Aaron Villegas
M Edwin Rueda
M Jasminko Dizdarevic
M Marcos Rojo
F Rafael Gil
F Alan Camarena
F Donnie Sosa
West Chicago
G John Garcia
D Jesus Fernandez
D Josh Guercio
D Sean Sweeney
D Eduardo Suarez
D Antonio Velazquez
M Hajhar Agha
M Misael Duran
M Oswaldo Estrada
F Luis Correa
F Ulises Rios
Man of the Match: Rafael Gil, Streamwood
Officials: Chuck Raksinh, Bret Richter, Jim Spangler.