Zion-Benton zips
past Glenbrook South for title
Zee-Bees hand Titans their 1st loss in North Shore finale
By Bill McLean
LAKE FOREST — Moments after making two spectacular
punch-away saves in a span of about five seconds in the second half of Saturday morning’s North Shore invitational championship match, Glenbrook South senior goalkeeper Yash Ghai returned to his feet. The next thing he had to field on a sun-splashed day was an opponent’s extended right hand.
It belonged to impressed Zion-Benton senior forward Denny Matute. The combatants shook hands. Sportsmanship at its best.
Ghai soared to make those stops after a scoreless first half, but Zion-Benton had the upper hand for most of the second half in the Zee-Bees’ 3-1 victory at Lake Forest’s West campus. The North Suburban Conference school finished runnerup in each of the previous two North Shore editions.
“I have a great staff,” Zee-Bees coach Cliff Pontillo gushed
afterward, referring to assistant coaches Rommel Guzman and Marco Matute. “They do the bulk of the training with our players. We’re a senior-heavy (14) team, and we’re more mature, a year better than the mentally tough team we had last year.”
Pontillo’s crew struck quickly in the second half, needing less than a minute to bust a 0-0 stalemate. Senior midfielder David Cortes gathered a corner kick tap and then immediately boomed a gorgeous 20-yard cross to junior back and Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match Booker Brown, whose header zipped past Ghai from about six yards.
The Zee-Bees (3-0-0) doubled their advantage via a PK 10 minutes later against the Titans’ emergency backup keeper, senior defender and quint-captain Jimmy Aglikin. A fiery, tenacious back, Aglikin had to throw on a bright-yellow jersey because Ghai (five saves) had received a yellow card for the foul he committed in the box, and
senior backup keeper Jack Danby was taking the SAT.
Ghai and Matute had collided violently, upending the latter and setting up a PK attempt from Zee-Bees senior midfielder Ramiro Diaz.
Ghai out, Aglikin in.
Briefly.
Aglikin last played in goal right around the time he had
memorized the multiplication table and when recess was a
precious period. But the best youth goalkeeper in the world wouldn’t have been able to get any part of a mitt on Diaz’s blast to the lower-left corner of the cage.
Glenbrook South (2-1-1) — ranked no. 28 in the Chicagoland Soccer First 50 poll — got on the imaginary board (scoreboards don’t exist at Lake Forest’s non-stadium pitches) when junior midfielder/center-back Anthony Kifarkis beat goalkeeper Brandon Ayala-Gonzalez (two saves) with a header off a fine cross from senior forward Kevin Perez in the 63rd minute.
Zion-Benton restored its two-goal advantage four minutes
later, thanks to a snappy 15-yarder from senior forward
Damonte Mason off a slick feed from Matute. A textbook pass from sophomore reserve midfielder David Mendoza initiated the scoring sequence.
“We didn’t have it today, didn’t have the energy,” said
Glenbrook South assistant coach D.J. Franson, filling in for sixth-year head coach Reggie Lara, who attended a family event Saturday morning. “Today was our fourth game in six days. You know what? We looked like a team playing its fourth game in six days.”
It wasn’t an excuse; it was reality.
Reality, Part II: Glenbrook South plays its next four games in … six days.
“That wasn’t us today,” Aglikin said. “This tournament, we
played a couple of games (wins vs. Lakes and Carmel)
with a lot of energy, with a lot of excitement. Today, though, our energy was low, and Zion-Benton’s wasn’t.
“We’re glad in a way,” he added, “that we got a game like this out of the way. We’re not going to play like this again.”
Titans defender Chris Sanchez, another quint-captain, praised the Zee-Bees’ kickoff-to-final-whistle vim, too.
“They’re also fast and physical,” Sanchez noted. “We needed more intensity, much more, than we showed in order to have a chance against a team like that.”
Glenbrook South created the first significant scoring chance of the match in the 15th minute, with reserve junior forward Nathan Halpern dishing a pass to senior defender John Economy.
Economy’s ensuing cross got picked off by a leaping Ayala-Gonzalez.
Zion-Benton came close to scoring on a Cortes-Mason
connection in the 34th minute; Mason’s shot sailed high and wide.
Ghai made a high, two-handed save shortly thereafter.
The Zee-Bee’s super-early tally in the second half set quite a tone as the weather conditions crept toward steamy. The run of play virtually stayed on the leaders side from there.
Franson, for one, isn’t worried about the Titans’ chances to recover from such a setback.
“Reggie and I talked about this group,” Franson said. “It’s a group that’s one of the most talented we’ve had in terms of ball possession.
“What we’re looking for is consistency.”
Next up, Zion-Benton plays Crystal Lake South — ranked no. 22 in the First 50 — in a Sanchez Memorial opener at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday at Wauconda. Glenbrook South meets visiting Mundelein on Monday at 4:15 p.m. in a 36th-annual Jim Wolter Titan Invitational opener.
Footnotes
Glenbrook South’s other 2022 quint-captains are senior
forward Adrian Potoniec, senior back Teddy Sturiale and
senior midfielder Luca Piekarski. … Glenbrook South’s Sanchez, on what opponents should do against the Titans the rest of the season: “Stay on their toes.” … Aglikin, on Sanchez’s leadership style: “Chris doesn’t need to talk to lead. He leads by the way he plays. And when he’s on the ball, there’s trust there from all of us.” …. Sanchez, on Aglikin’s leadership style: “He’s on top of you, on top of you to stay on the right track.” … It’s a joy to watch Glenbrook South’s Perez with the ball at his feet. It’s akin
to magic — minus the top hat, wand and rabbit. The smooth forward doesn’t panic in traffic. What he does instead, nine times out of 10, is extricate himself — and the ball — from pitch congestion with ease and aplomb.
Starting lineups
Zion-Benton
GK Brandon Ayala-Gonzalez
D Booker Brown
D Johan DeLaO
D Jared Sanchez
D Javy Gonzalez
D Ivan Andrade
M Akcel Guadarrama
M Ramiro Diaz
M David Cortes
F Denny Matute
F Damonte Mason
Glenbrook South
GK Yash Ghai
D Jimmy Aglikin
D Chris Sanchez
D John Economy
D Jacob Ciszyk
M Jacob Cramer
M Ben Baczewski
M Anthony Kifarkis
F Adrian Potoniec
F Jacob Pawlusiewicz
F Kevin Perez
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match:
Booker Brown, jr., D, Zion-Benton
Scoring summary
First half
No scoring
Second half
Zion-Benton — Brown (Cortes), 41’
Zion-Benton — Diaz (PK), 51’
Glenbrook South — Kifarkis (Perez), 63’
Zion-Benton — Mason (Matute, David Mendoza), 67’
past Glenbrook South for title
Zee-Bees hand Titans their 1st loss in North Shore finale
By Bill McLean
LAKE FOREST — Moments after making two spectacular
punch-away saves in a span of about five seconds in the second half of Saturday morning’s North Shore invitational championship match, Glenbrook South senior goalkeeper Yash Ghai returned to his feet. The next thing he had to field on a sun-splashed day was an opponent’s extended right hand.
It belonged to impressed Zion-Benton senior forward Denny Matute. The combatants shook hands. Sportsmanship at its best.
Ghai soared to make those stops after a scoreless first half, but Zion-Benton had the upper hand for most of the second half in the Zee-Bees’ 3-1 victory at Lake Forest’s West campus. The North Suburban Conference school finished runnerup in each of the previous two North Shore editions.
“I have a great staff,” Zee-Bees coach Cliff Pontillo gushed
afterward, referring to assistant coaches Rommel Guzman and Marco Matute. “They do the bulk of the training with our players. We’re a senior-heavy (14) team, and we’re more mature, a year better than the mentally tough team we had last year.”
Pontillo’s crew struck quickly in the second half, needing less than a minute to bust a 0-0 stalemate. Senior midfielder David Cortes gathered a corner kick tap and then immediately boomed a gorgeous 20-yard cross to junior back and Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match Booker Brown, whose header zipped past Ghai from about six yards.
The Zee-Bees (3-0-0) doubled their advantage via a PK 10 minutes later against the Titans’ emergency backup keeper, senior defender and quint-captain Jimmy Aglikin. A fiery, tenacious back, Aglikin had to throw on a bright-yellow jersey because Ghai (five saves) had received a yellow card for the foul he committed in the box, and
senior backup keeper Jack Danby was taking the SAT.
Ghai and Matute had collided violently, upending the latter and setting up a PK attempt from Zee-Bees senior midfielder Ramiro Diaz.
Ghai out, Aglikin in.
Briefly.
Aglikin last played in goal right around the time he had
memorized the multiplication table and when recess was a
precious period. But the best youth goalkeeper in the world wouldn’t have been able to get any part of a mitt on Diaz’s blast to the lower-left corner of the cage.
Glenbrook South (2-1-1) — ranked no. 28 in the Chicagoland Soccer First 50 poll — got on the imaginary board (scoreboards don’t exist at Lake Forest’s non-stadium pitches) when junior midfielder/center-back Anthony Kifarkis beat goalkeeper Brandon Ayala-Gonzalez (two saves) with a header off a fine cross from senior forward Kevin Perez in the 63rd minute.
Zion-Benton restored its two-goal advantage four minutes
later, thanks to a snappy 15-yarder from senior forward
Damonte Mason off a slick feed from Matute. A textbook pass from sophomore reserve midfielder David Mendoza initiated the scoring sequence.
“We didn’t have it today, didn’t have the energy,” said
Glenbrook South assistant coach D.J. Franson, filling in for sixth-year head coach Reggie Lara, who attended a family event Saturday morning. “Today was our fourth game in six days. You know what? We looked like a team playing its fourth game in six days.”
It wasn’t an excuse; it was reality.
Reality, Part II: Glenbrook South plays its next four games in … six days.
“That wasn’t us today,” Aglikin said. “This tournament, we
played a couple of games (wins vs. Lakes and Carmel)
with a lot of energy, with a lot of excitement. Today, though, our energy was low, and Zion-Benton’s wasn’t.
“We’re glad in a way,” he added, “that we got a game like this out of the way. We’re not going to play like this again.”
Titans defender Chris Sanchez, another quint-captain, praised the Zee-Bees’ kickoff-to-final-whistle vim, too.
“They’re also fast and physical,” Sanchez noted. “We needed more intensity, much more, than we showed in order to have a chance against a team like that.”
Glenbrook South created the first significant scoring chance of the match in the 15th minute, with reserve junior forward Nathan Halpern dishing a pass to senior defender John Economy.
Economy’s ensuing cross got picked off by a leaping Ayala-Gonzalez.
Zion-Benton came close to scoring on a Cortes-Mason
connection in the 34th minute; Mason’s shot sailed high and wide.
Ghai made a high, two-handed save shortly thereafter.
The Zee-Bee’s super-early tally in the second half set quite a tone as the weather conditions crept toward steamy. The run of play virtually stayed on the leaders side from there.
Franson, for one, isn’t worried about the Titans’ chances to recover from such a setback.
“Reggie and I talked about this group,” Franson said. “It’s a group that’s one of the most talented we’ve had in terms of ball possession.
“What we’re looking for is consistency.”
Next up, Zion-Benton plays Crystal Lake South — ranked no. 22 in the First 50 — in a Sanchez Memorial opener at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday at Wauconda. Glenbrook South meets visiting Mundelein on Monday at 4:15 p.m. in a 36th-annual Jim Wolter Titan Invitational opener.
Footnotes
Glenbrook South’s other 2022 quint-captains are senior
forward Adrian Potoniec, senior back Teddy Sturiale and
senior midfielder Luca Piekarski. … Glenbrook South’s Sanchez, on what opponents should do against the Titans the rest of the season: “Stay on their toes.” … Aglikin, on Sanchez’s leadership style: “Chris doesn’t need to talk to lead. He leads by the way he plays. And when he’s on the ball, there’s trust there from all of us.” …. Sanchez, on Aglikin’s leadership style: “He’s on top of you, on top of you to stay on the right track.” … It’s a joy to watch Glenbrook South’s Perez with the ball at his feet. It’s akin
to magic — minus the top hat, wand and rabbit. The smooth forward doesn’t panic in traffic. What he does instead, nine times out of 10, is extricate himself — and the ball — from pitch congestion with ease and aplomb.
Starting lineups
Zion-Benton
GK Brandon Ayala-Gonzalez
D Booker Brown
D Johan DeLaO
D Jared Sanchez
D Javy Gonzalez
D Ivan Andrade
M Akcel Guadarrama
M Ramiro Diaz
M David Cortes
F Denny Matute
F Damonte Mason
Glenbrook South
GK Yash Ghai
D Jimmy Aglikin
D Chris Sanchez
D John Economy
D Jacob Ciszyk
M Jacob Cramer
M Ben Baczewski
M Anthony Kifarkis
F Adrian Potoniec
F Jacob Pawlusiewicz
F Kevin Perez
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match:
Booker Brown, jr., D, Zion-Benton
Scoring summary
First half
No scoring
Second half
Zion-Benton — Brown (Cortes), 41’
Zion-Benton — Diaz (PK), 51’
Glenbrook South — Kifarkis (Perez), 63’
Zion-Benton — Mason (Matute, David Mendoza), 67’