McPheron bounce-back springs
Geneva over upset-minded Conant
Soph's 79th-minute header the difference in 2-1 Vikings win
By Dave Owen
HOFFMAN ESTATES – Two more weeks of playoff soccer assures many dramatic finishes. But the last six minutes of Tuesday’s Conant Regional semifinal might be hard to top.
After the host and 15th-seeded Cougars turned a close-up throw-in into a header goal with 5:27 left to pull into a 1-1 tie with Geneva, overtime seemed assured.
The third-seeded Vikings had other ideas.
Off a seemingly harmless 57-yard free kick by Shun Yonehara, with 1:12 to go, Christian Diaz’s header deflection flicked forward in the box to Braeden McPheron.
McPheron did the rest, tucking a 6-yard header inside the right post to give Geneva (12-4-4) a dramatic 2-1 win over Conant (6-11-2).
The Vikings advance to face sixth-seeded Glenbard West at 3 p.m. Saturday at Conant in pursuit of their first regional championship since 2010.
“Frustrating we gave one up at the end,” Geneva coach Jason Bhatta said, “but a good response to get one back to finish the game. If we go to overtime and then PKs, then really who knows.”
McPheron’s very timely second goal of 2019 made that question a moot point – and turned the sophomore’s rather drab late afternoon on the pitch into a memory to savor.
“I was just in the right place at the right time,” McPheron said. “I wasn’t having a very good game to start. But I had to stay in the game and not let that bother me. I missed one before, and I had to finish this one to send us through.”
Yonehara’s corner kick send set up Diaz’s header goal 15 minutes into the match and gave Geneva a 1-0 lead. He was incredibly just as effective setting the table from long distance on the game-winner.
“Shun is obviously amazing on set plays,” Diaz said, “and I was there trying to get the header off. Braeden was right there in the right place, right time to put it in on the rebound.”
Said Bhatta: “Shun all year has been good at delivery. Braeden, the one before (a running missed header try on a Yonehara 50-yard free kick with 8:35 left), he was almost on the end of one in the box, and he kind of whiffed it.
“He got that one back. I was happy for him.”
Perserverance paid off in an unlikely way for McPheron.
“He was frustrated with himself in the first half,” Bhatta said, “because a lot of his passes weren’t coming off, and he wasn’t connecting well.
“I’m glad he stuck with it and got the goal at the end to redeem earlier in the game. That was good for him.”
Not so good for the Vikings was Conant’s strong response to its 1-0 deficit.
Geneva had control of play, the majority of chances in the match and the lead. But a Dan Takemoto throw-in from 5-yards off the end line changed all that in a flash.
Takemoto’s near-post toss found Maciej Matusiak, whose header tied the game 1-1.
“Our forward who scored, Maciej, was playing center back to start the game,” Conant coach Jason Franco said, “and then we threw him up-top (in the second half). We went after it.”
But Geneva would impress after the Conant goal. The Cougars would not have another offensive chance the rest of the way, while the Vikings generated a 25-yard shot by Joshua Eiss with 4:50 left before the the dramatic game-winner.
“I thought we could grab momentum from that (tying goal),” Franco said, “and then when I could tell we didn’t I was like ‘Just hang on for overtime.’
“We get it to overtime and we can kind of regroup, and even penalties might have been a nice situation for us with a big keeper and guys who hit them in practice.”
But instead of that scenario, it was Geneva’s collective mindset after surrendering the tying goal that would pay off.
“We had to keep our heads up and don’t let that (tying goal) get in our heads,” McPheron said. “We had to fight for the win. We’ve had a good season. We can’t let that end our season.
“We knew we could get one back. It was just a matter of when and how we were going to do it. We’ve been practicing those set plays all season. Most of our goals have been off those. We just had to finish one and end the game.”
The match began with 49 degree temperatures and 16 mile per hour winds, but Geneva took no time warming to the win-or-go-home regional challenge.
Just 55 seconds into the game, Evan Horvath’s send sprung Ethan Hipp on a 1-v.-1 dash into the box. But Hipp’s 10-yard shot was denied by sliding Conant goalkeeper Sean Beckman.
Geneva stormed the gates again in the 14th minute, when Jack Cannon’s right-side run and shot off a Joe Carli pass was blocked by Beckman at the near post.
But one minute later, a tricky Geneva corner kick produced a 1-0 Vikings lead.
Yonehara’s initial corner restart was a short pass to Dominick Peri. After receiving a touch pass back, Yonehara lasered a cross to Diaz for a back post header into the upper right corner with 25:15 left until halftime.
“Me and Shun have been having these chemistry plays for a long time,” Diaz said. “Last season and this season, we’ve had amazing connections on corners, set plays and all that. And it just continued in this postseason.”
The Yonehara-Diaz connection has been a familiar theme for Geneva.
“Christian is our leading scorer with nine (goals),” Bhatta said, “but he probably hasn’t scored in four or five games. And obviously Shun is everywhere. He’s the heartbeat of our team pretty much.”
Geneva had to endure two Conant threats after the Diaz goal. Just 35 seconds later, Conant’s Carson Belcher had a shot deflected just wide of the net.
Then in the 37th minute, Geneva goalkeeper Osten Lockner nicely stepped in front of Conant’s Adrian Panocha to grab a corner kick send.
“He (Lockner) commands his area,” Bhatta said. “He’s strong; he’s athletic. A lot of the balls they brought in, he was jumping up and getting those.”
Geneva also continued its offensive push into the half with shots just wide of frame by Dominik Barwiolek (33rd minute) and Alexander Marquardt (a run up the wing and 8-yard shot just wide left 1:05 before halftime).
Then early in the second half, great chances that produced no results foretold a nervous finish.
“Luckily we got the goal at the end,” Bhatta said, “but I wasn’t too happy overall with how we played. It was kind of open in the middle, and we didn’t do too well with that.
“For the majority of the game we had the ball I felt like. But if you let teams stay alive, then you’re going to get punished.”
With 35:30 left, Diaz appeared to have found the mark for his second goal of the night. But his left-side drive seemingly destined for the net deflected off the back of Conant midfielder Ted Jang and wide.
A loose ball off the ensuing corner kick produced a running 10-yard drive by Diaz, but Beckman’s diving save kept the score 1-0.
After Lockner punched away a Conant throw-in from two yards off the end line with 30:35 to play, Geneva’s Yonehara had two set piece sends (a corner kick cross and a 25-yard free kick headed just over by Carli) that nearly missed paying off in the next 10 minutes.
Then as a prelude to the wild finish, a Geneva scoring chance with 11:02 left came as close as possible to an insurance score.
Beckman’s diving deflection wide on a Peri 20-yard shot set up a Vikings corner kick. Carli’s initial shot off the corner send was blocked, and an apparent Geneva rebound goal on the loose ball at the doorstep was nullified by a foul call. But would it have stood with VAR?
“It bounced off the goalkeeper,” Diaz said, “and as the striker I need to be ready for that rebound of any shot. I was there, but he (Beckman) kind of got on the ground, and I was sliding to get the ball.
“I removed my foot, because I knew I’d get a foul having my foot out, but the goalie’s teammate came to slide tackle. He kicked it, the goalie didn’t have it in his hand, and it went in. But they were ruling I touched the goalkeeper when I didn’t.”
If that play sounded complicated, it was nothing compared to the twists and turns that closed the match.
“We kind of just started falling off,” Diaz said. “Coach was saying for the last 20 minutes that we weren’t playing our game that we usually play. We weren’t connecting a lot of passes.
“But we still had the better of the game until the last five minutes when they equalized.”
Said Bhatta: “It’s a good lesson. A lot of these kids haven’t been in the postseason, and last year we lost in the regional semifinals. So it’s good experience for them to understand that any mistake in postseason, you’ll get punished.”
The Vikings received that message loud, clear, and quickly.
“None of us put our heads down,” Diaz said. “We picked up our heads and tried to score another one, and that’s what happened.”
Franco coached Conant to fourth place in state in 2016 after an eight-loss regular season. The Cougars showed similar grit Tuesday, with a squad that has just two seniors.
“We knew they (Geneva) had some offensive firepower, and they had a good record with some nice wins,” Franco said. “We kind of weathered it early and felt them out, and as soon as they scored I said ‘OK, let’s go.’
“I was happy that our guys gave us a shot to win the game. We just fell one minute short. It’s kind of the story of our season. We’re right on the edge of winning a game, and we can’t make that last play.”
For Geneva, turning the momentum with a 79th-minute game-winning goal in September would be impressive but making it happen in the playoffs made it even sweeter.
“This is probably one of the most dramatic ones we’ve had,” McPheron said. “We really haven’t had that many close games except Naperville North, where it was another last-minute goal off a set piece (for a 2-1 Geneva win). So this is crazy for us.”
Geneva hopes for less craziness in Saturday’s regional final showdown with Glenbard West.
“Coach was a little upset with how we moved the ball,” Diaz said, “so he probably will keep practicing that. Depending on how opponents play and their formations, he wants to break down teams. That’s one thing he’s probably going to have us do a lot in training.”
And in this case, Geneva hopes practice makes perfect – and more goals.
“We just need a final product ,” Bhatta said. “Our final pass isn’t good enough; our decision in shooting isn’t good enough. Hopefully that comes together.”
Starting lineups
Geneva
GK Osten Lockner
D Jack Cannon
D Evan Horvath
D Clayton Williams
D Braeden McPheron
M Joe Carli
M Ethan Hipp
M Shun Yonehara
M Dominick Peri
F Christian Diaz
F Matthew Fuller
Conant
GK Sean Beckman
D Dan Takemoto
D John Kokkinas
D Maciej Matusiak
D Ethan Angelos
M Gabe Labay
M Connor Conte
M Griffin Ryan
M Ted Jang
F Adrian Panocha
F Carson Belcher
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: Christian Diaz, so. F, Geneva
Scoring summary
First half
Gen- Christian Diaz (Shun Yonehara assist), 15’
Second half
Con- Maciej Matusiak (Dan Takemoto), 76’
Gen- Braeden McPheron (Diaz), ‘79
Geneva over upset-minded Conant
Soph's 79th-minute header the difference in 2-1 Vikings win
By Dave Owen
HOFFMAN ESTATES – Two more weeks of playoff soccer assures many dramatic finishes. But the last six minutes of Tuesday’s Conant Regional semifinal might be hard to top.
After the host and 15th-seeded Cougars turned a close-up throw-in into a header goal with 5:27 left to pull into a 1-1 tie with Geneva, overtime seemed assured.
The third-seeded Vikings had other ideas.
Off a seemingly harmless 57-yard free kick by Shun Yonehara, with 1:12 to go, Christian Diaz’s header deflection flicked forward in the box to Braeden McPheron.
McPheron did the rest, tucking a 6-yard header inside the right post to give Geneva (12-4-4) a dramatic 2-1 win over Conant (6-11-2).
The Vikings advance to face sixth-seeded Glenbard West at 3 p.m. Saturday at Conant in pursuit of their first regional championship since 2010.
“Frustrating we gave one up at the end,” Geneva coach Jason Bhatta said, “but a good response to get one back to finish the game. If we go to overtime and then PKs, then really who knows.”
McPheron’s very timely second goal of 2019 made that question a moot point – and turned the sophomore’s rather drab late afternoon on the pitch into a memory to savor.
“I was just in the right place at the right time,” McPheron said. “I wasn’t having a very good game to start. But I had to stay in the game and not let that bother me. I missed one before, and I had to finish this one to send us through.”
Yonehara’s corner kick send set up Diaz’s header goal 15 minutes into the match and gave Geneva a 1-0 lead. He was incredibly just as effective setting the table from long distance on the game-winner.
“Shun is obviously amazing on set plays,” Diaz said, “and I was there trying to get the header off. Braeden was right there in the right place, right time to put it in on the rebound.”
Said Bhatta: “Shun all year has been good at delivery. Braeden, the one before (a running missed header try on a Yonehara 50-yard free kick with 8:35 left), he was almost on the end of one in the box, and he kind of whiffed it.
“He got that one back. I was happy for him.”
Perserverance paid off in an unlikely way for McPheron.
“He was frustrated with himself in the first half,” Bhatta said, “because a lot of his passes weren’t coming off, and he wasn’t connecting well.
“I’m glad he stuck with it and got the goal at the end to redeem earlier in the game. That was good for him.”
Not so good for the Vikings was Conant’s strong response to its 1-0 deficit.
Geneva had control of play, the majority of chances in the match and the lead. But a Dan Takemoto throw-in from 5-yards off the end line changed all that in a flash.
Takemoto’s near-post toss found Maciej Matusiak, whose header tied the game 1-1.
“Our forward who scored, Maciej, was playing center back to start the game,” Conant coach Jason Franco said, “and then we threw him up-top (in the second half). We went after it.”
But Geneva would impress after the Conant goal. The Cougars would not have another offensive chance the rest of the way, while the Vikings generated a 25-yard shot by Joshua Eiss with 4:50 left before the the dramatic game-winner.
“I thought we could grab momentum from that (tying goal),” Franco said, “and then when I could tell we didn’t I was like ‘Just hang on for overtime.’
“We get it to overtime and we can kind of regroup, and even penalties might have been a nice situation for us with a big keeper and guys who hit them in practice.”
But instead of that scenario, it was Geneva’s collective mindset after surrendering the tying goal that would pay off.
“We had to keep our heads up and don’t let that (tying goal) get in our heads,” McPheron said. “We had to fight for the win. We’ve had a good season. We can’t let that end our season.
“We knew we could get one back. It was just a matter of when and how we were going to do it. We’ve been practicing those set plays all season. Most of our goals have been off those. We just had to finish one and end the game.”
The match began with 49 degree temperatures and 16 mile per hour winds, but Geneva took no time warming to the win-or-go-home regional challenge.
Just 55 seconds into the game, Evan Horvath’s send sprung Ethan Hipp on a 1-v.-1 dash into the box. But Hipp’s 10-yard shot was denied by sliding Conant goalkeeper Sean Beckman.
Geneva stormed the gates again in the 14th minute, when Jack Cannon’s right-side run and shot off a Joe Carli pass was blocked by Beckman at the near post.
But one minute later, a tricky Geneva corner kick produced a 1-0 Vikings lead.
Yonehara’s initial corner restart was a short pass to Dominick Peri. After receiving a touch pass back, Yonehara lasered a cross to Diaz for a back post header into the upper right corner with 25:15 left until halftime.
“Me and Shun have been having these chemistry plays for a long time,” Diaz said. “Last season and this season, we’ve had amazing connections on corners, set plays and all that. And it just continued in this postseason.”
The Yonehara-Diaz connection has been a familiar theme for Geneva.
“Christian is our leading scorer with nine (goals),” Bhatta said, “but he probably hasn’t scored in four or five games. And obviously Shun is everywhere. He’s the heartbeat of our team pretty much.”
Geneva had to endure two Conant threats after the Diaz goal. Just 35 seconds later, Conant’s Carson Belcher had a shot deflected just wide of the net.
Then in the 37th minute, Geneva goalkeeper Osten Lockner nicely stepped in front of Conant’s Adrian Panocha to grab a corner kick send.
“He (Lockner) commands his area,” Bhatta said. “He’s strong; he’s athletic. A lot of the balls they brought in, he was jumping up and getting those.”
Geneva also continued its offensive push into the half with shots just wide of frame by Dominik Barwiolek (33rd minute) and Alexander Marquardt (a run up the wing and 8-yard shot just wide left 1:05 before halftime).
Then early in the second half, great chances that produced no results foretold a nervous finish.
“Luckily we got the goal at the end,” Bhatta said, “but I wasn’t too happy overall with how we played. It was kind of open in the middle, and we didn’t do too well with that.
“For the majority of the game we had the ball I felt like. But if you let teams stay alive, then you’re going to get punished.”
With 35:30 left, Diaz appeared to have found the mark for his second goal of the night. But his left-side drive seemingly destined for the net deflected off the back of Conant midfielder Ted Jang and wide.
A loose ball off the ensuing corner kick produced a running 10-yard drive by Diaz, but Beckman’s diving save kept the score 1-0.
After Lockner punched away a Conant throw-in from two yards off the end line with 30:35 to play, Geneva’s Yonehara had two set piece sends (a corner kick cross and a 25-yard free kick headed just over by Carli) that nearly missed paying off in the next 10 minutes.
Then as a prelude to the wild finish, a Geneva scoring chance with 11:02 left came as close as possible to an insurance score.
Beckman’s diving deflection wide on a Peri 20-yard shot set up a Vikings corner kick. Carli’s initial shot off the corner send was blocked, and an apparent Geneva rebound goal on the loose ball at the doorstep was nullified by a foul call. But would it have stood with VAR?
“It bounced off the goalkeeper,” Diaz said, “and as the striker I need to be ready for that rebound of any shot. I was there, but he (Beckman) kind of got on the ground, and I was sliding to get the ball.
“I removed my foot, because I knew I’d get a foul having my foot out, but the goalie’s teammate came to slide tackle. He kicked it, the goalie didn’t have it in his hand, and it went in. But they were ruling I touched the goalkeeper when I didn’t.”
If that play sounded complicated, it was nothing compared to the twists and turns that closed the match.
“We kind of just started falling off,” Diaz said. “Coach was saying for the last 20 minutes that we weren’t playing our game that we usually play. We weren’t connecting a lot of passes.
“But we still had the better of the game until the last five minutes when they equalized.”
Said Bhatta: “It’s a good lesson. A lot of these kids haven’t been in the postseason, and last year we lost in the regional semifinals. So it’s good experience for them to understand that any mistake in postseason, you’ll get punished.”
The Vikings received that message loud, clear, and quickly.
“None of us put our heads down,” Diaz said. “We picked up our heads and tried to score another one, and that’s what happened.”
Franco coached Conant to fourth place in state in 2016 after an eight-loss regular season. The Cougars showed similar grit Tuesday, with a squad that has just two seniors.
“We knew they (Geneva) had some offensive firepower, and they had a good record with some nice wins,” Franco said. “We kind of weathered it early and felt them out, and as soon as they scored I said ‘OK, let’s go.’
“I was happy that our guys gave us a shot to win the game. We just fell one minute short. It’s kind of the story of our season. We’re right on the edge of winning a game, and we can’t make that last play.”
For Geneva, turning the momentum with a 79th-minute game-winning goal in September would be impressive but making it happen in the playoffs made it even sweeter.
“This is probably one of the most dramatic ones we’ve had,” McPheron said. “We really haven’t had that many close games except Naperville North, where it was another last-minute goal off a set piece (for a 2-1 Geneva win). So this is crazy for us.”
Geneva hopes for less craziness in Saturday’s regional final showdown with Glenbard West.
“Coach was a little upset with how we moved the ball,” Diaz said, “so he probably will keep practicing that. Depending on how opponents play and their formations, he wants to break down teams. That’s one thing he’s probably going to have us do a lot in training.”
And in this case, Geneva hopes practice makes perfect – and more goals.
“We just need a final product ,” Bhatta said. “Our final pass isn’t good enough; our decision in shooting isn’t good enough. Hopefully that comes together.”
Starting lineups
Geneva
GK Osten Lockner
D Jack Cannon
D Evan Horvath
D Clayton Williams
D Braeden McPheron
M Joe Carli
M Ethan Hipp
M Shun Yonehara
M Dominick Peri
F Christian Diaz
F Matthew Fuller
Conant
GK Sean Beckman
D Dan Takemoto
D John Kokkinas
D Maciej Matusiak
D Ethan Angelos
M Gabe Labay
M Connor Conte
M Griffin Ryan
M Ted Jang
F Adrian Panocha
F Carson Belcher
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: Christian Diaz, so. F, Geneva
Scoring summary
First half
Gen- Christian Diaz (Shun Yonehara assist), 15’
Second half
Con- Maciej Matusiak (Dan Takemoto), 76’
Gen- Braeden McPheron (Diaz), ‘79