Hersey finishes regular season on high note
Huskies take down Hoffman Estates 2-0 in MSL cross-over
By Mike Garofola
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS -- With the 2018 season just about ready to get really serious, it appears Hersey is in form.
The Huskies won their fourth-consecutive game and third straight via clean-sheet in a 2-0 victory over visiting Hoffman Estates on Tuesday at Roland Goins Stadium.
After having some nasty weather come through to delay the start of this MSL crossover, the home side stunned a Hawks club which was looking to continue its wonderful regular season. Manager Sean Armstrong's men finished in the middle of the MSL table after years of ending on the bottom half of the standings.
"It's been a team that's played with that never say die attitude, and one that has came together after the PepsiCo Showdown tournament (and) has really not stopped," said Armstrong, who's has worked in the Hawks program for years before taking over this fall for Matt Sriver. "To have us come out with no energy or urgency today ends the regular season on a down note."
It was impossible not to notice Hoffman Estates turnaround this year.
"Regardless of the result, Sean has done an outstanding job in turning things around," said Hersey manager Mike Rusniak. "He has his guys playing hard, and when you look at how tough they've played the top teams in the MSL, you can see how solid they have been.
"Our goal, especially of late, has been to 'win the half' from each whistle, and I thought with how aggressive our outside backs were as well as how fundamentally sound and simple we played, it equaled a nice win against a quality program to give us some momentum heading into regionals."
The Hawks (8-14-1) can be directly tied to a midfield which includes the senior and sophomore standouts: Alex Gonzalez and Georgi Kyosev, with Edson Orantes. They've made the 4-1-4-1 formation Armstrong installed and used it to push reigning Class AA state champion Solorio and AA fourth-place trophy winner St. Patrick to the brink in 1-0 losses. Hoffman Estates also took MSL regular season champion Buffalo Grove to overtime.
"Those games gave this team a real boost with its confidence, especially our defense which was able to keep some high powered attacks under control," said Armstrong, whose lads dropped a 2-1 contest to Buffalo Grove when the MSL East champs scored the game-winner with less than 30 seconds remaining.
Against Hersey (8-3-3) things were different for the upstart Hawks.
Patryk Bujak got the Huskies off and running in the first minute and left a dazed and confused Hawks defense in his wake before steering in his angled shot from the right side into the left lower corner of Tyler Kelly's net.
The sophomore bagged the eventual game-winner on a marvelous helper from Ronan Wilcox, who gained a second assist on Major Hassan's second half strike, to give the Huskies talented sophomore midfielder now owns a team-high seven assists on the season to go along with his six goals.
"We did a great job moving the ball around, especially with (Ronan) and Trey Schmidt, and we kept our shape so that our forwards Bujak and Major would be available to make their runs," offered Rusniak.
The Huskies frontrunners have come into their own of late and have made life miserable for the Huskies last four opponents, whom they've outscored 10-1.
"We're getting more and more comfortable with each other from our training sessions, which have helped us prepare for games," said Bujak, who now has six goals to go with Hassan's five.
"I think it's coming together really well for me and Patryk up-top (and) for our team also," added Hassan, whose long-distance voyage to America began in Ghana. The Huskies are glad the affable scoring threat found a home in Arlington Heights.
Hassan, who came to this country via Peru, with a stops along the way in Mexico, California and finally in Chicago's Logan Square neighborhood, later landed at Hersey after playing for Rusniak while living at Maryville Academy in Des Plaines.
"Major is a great kid, and terrific player and teammate," said Rusniak.
Hassan is a big, strong, fast striker, who can play off of Bujak. He's a dangerous 1-v.-1 player who can pry open an opponent at a moment's notice.
"Those two have grown confident in each other and themselves," said Rusniak. "With Major, after struggling with forcing passes or holding onto the ball too long, his decision-making is really good, as is his movement off the ball. That's made him so much more dangerous."
Of Bujak the coach said: "Patryk was tasked with maturing as a varsity player very quickly.
"His biggest improvement has been creating opportunities for his teammates, while becoming a multi-dimensional player who can create for himself or go to goal."
While the Bujak-Hassan connection confounded the Hawks, the aforementioned Schmidt-Wilcox partnership in the middle of the park continued to run the attack on the other side of the ball and tackled, won balls and slowed the play of their opponents.
Outside men Eddie Marin and Kostadin Stoyanov supplied plenty of pressure and pace, while the Huskies backline of Cade Milligan, Thomas Steger, Jacob Tolwinski and Nicholas Bell continued to be water-tight in front of Nick Clarizio, who recorded his eight clean-sheet of the season.
Milligan sprung three of his mates free in the first half with pin-point service from out of the back -- his best effort nearly allowed Schmidt to double the Huskies advantage in the 20th minute.
Just before intermission, Schmidt put Bujak through but saw a glorious chance go for naught when Hawks keeper Tyler Kelly came to the rescue.
The visitors came close to getting even in the 28th minute when their best build-up of play ended with Georgiev getting to the endline. He whipped a wicked ball to the back post where Jesus Martinez redirected his close-range attempt wide of the post.
Hassan's brilliant individual effort led to the Huskies second goal of the contest. This one came quickly after the whistle which began the second half.
"A bad pass led to a bad turnover, and their no. 8 (Hassan) made us pay badly for that mistake," bemoaned Armstrong after watching Hassan drag his keeper far off his line to give him a wide open net.
Zach Freye was fearless when he blocked a close-range blast by Hassan, before the Hawks (Orantes) put his snap shot on frame.
The Huskies faithful held its collective breathe when sophomore Manuel Amezcua roared up the left side, turned and then flashed a terrific ball along the floor through the six-yard box only to see it go untouched by his teammates in the 50th minute.
Bujak and Hassan, Chicagoland Soccer's Men of the Match, each went close one last time before Rusniak began to pull his first 11 off for good. Eric Worwa, Luke Zettlemeier and Charlie Fredian each showed well in the final quarter hour of action.
Now, things get more serious for the Huskies, who were given the no. 14 seed at the Evanston sectional. The seed produced a play-in game with no. 19 Schurz, from the Chicago Public League.
"When the seeds came out, I didn't mention anything to the guys (planning) to talk with them the following day about the seed, and the mentality we need to have heading into the playoffs," began Rusniak. "They were all surprised with that no. 14 seed, but quickly embraced the fact that they needed to show others that seed wasn't correct.
"If we play at our highest level, as we have at times, and with confidence, we can make waves in the next couple of weeks."
Should the Huskies send off Schurz, next up will be the third-seeded Wildkits from Evanston, who have reached the supersectionals the past two seasons, before falling short to state runners-up Barrington (2016) and Libertyville last year.
Starting lineups
Hoffman Estates (4-1-4-1)
G- Tyler Kelly
D- Siva Nakka
D- Michael Ameen
D- Zach Freye
D- Julian Rios
DM- Tony Cabral
M- Alex Soto
M- Georgi Kyosev
M- Alex Gonzalez
M- Manuel Amezcua
F- Edson Orantes
Hersey (4-4-2)
G- Nick Clarizio
D- Nicholas Bell
D- Thomas Steger
D- Jacob Tolwinski
D- Cade Milligan
M- Kostadin Stoyanov
M- Trey Schmidt
M- Ronan Wilcox
M- Eddie Marin
F- Major Hassan
F- Patryk Bujek
Chicagoland Men of the Match: Patryk Bujak, so. F, Hersey
Major Hassan, sr., F, Hersey
Referee: Orlando Dobrincu
Scoring summary
First half
Hersey: Bujak (Wilcox) 1'
Second half
Hersey: Hassan (Wilcox) 41'
Huskies take down Hoffman Estates 2-0 in MSL cross-over
By Mike Garofola
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS -- With the 2018 season just about ready to get really serious, it appears Hersey is in form.
The Huskies won their fourth-consecutive game and third straight via clean-sheet in a 2-0 victory over visiting Hoffman Estates on Tuesday at Roland Goins Stadium.
After having some nasty weather come through to delay the start of this MSL crossover, the home side stunned a Hawks club which was looking to continue its wonderful regular season. Manager Sean Armstrong's men finished in the middle of the MSL table after years of ending on the bottom half of the standings.
"It's been a team that's played with that never say die attitude, and one that has came together after the PepsiCo Showdown tournament (and) has really not stopped," said Armstrong, who's has worked in the Hawks program for years before taking over this fall for Matt Sriver. "To have us come out with no energy or urgency today ends the regular season on a down note."
It was impossible not to notice Hoffman Estates turnaround this year.
"Regardless of the result, Sean has done an outstanding job in turning things around," said Hersey manager Mike Rusniak. "He has his guys playing hard, and when you look at how tough they've played the top teams in the MSL, you can see how solid they have been.
"Our goal, especially of late, has been to 'win the half' from each whistle, and I thought with how aggressive our outside backs were as well as how fundamentally sound and simple we played, it equaled a nice win against a quality program to give us some momentum heading into regionals."
The Hawks (8-14-1) can be directly tied to a midfield which includes the senior and sophomore standouts: Alex Gonzalez and Georgi Kyosev, with Edson Orantes. They've made the 4-1-4-1 formation Armstrong installed and used it to push reigning Class AA state champion Solorio and AA fourth-place trophy winner St. Patrick to the brink in 1-0 losses. Hoffman Estates also took MSL regular season champion Buffalo Grove to overtime.
"Those games gave this team a real boost with its confidence, especially our defense which was able to keep some high powered attacks under control," said Armstrong, whose lads dropped a 2-1 contest to Buffalo Grove when the MSL East champs scored the game-winner with less than 30 seconds remaining.
Against Hersey (8-3-3) things were different for the upstart Hawks.
Patryk Bujak got the Huskies off and running in the first minute and left a dazed and confused Hawks defense in his wake before steering in his angled shot from the right side into the left lower corner of Tyler Kelly's net.
The sophomore bagged the eventual game-winner on a marvelous helper from Ronan Wilcox, who gained a second assist on Major Hassan's second half strike, to give the Huskies talented sophomore midfielder now owns a team-high seven assists on the season to go along with his six goals.
"We did a great job moving the ball around, especially with (Ronan) and Trey Schmidt, and we kept our shape so that our forwards Bujak and Major would be available to make their runs," offered Rusniak.
The Huskies frontrunners have come into their own of late and have made life miserable for the Huskies last four opponents, whom they've outscored 10-1.
"We're getting more and more comfortable with each other from our training sessions, which have helped us prepare for games," said Bujak, who now has six goals to go with Hassan's five.
"I think it's coming together really well for me and Patryk up-top (and) for our team also," added Hassan, whose long-distance voyage to America began in Ghana. The Huskies are glad the affable scoring threat found a home in Arlington Heights.
Hassan, who came to this country via Peru, with a stops along the way in Mexico, California and finally in Chicago's Logan Square neighborhood, later landed at Hersey after playing for Rusniak while living at Maryville Academy in Des Plaines.
"Major is a great kid, and terrific player and teammate," said Rusniak.
Hassan is a big, strong, fast striker, who can play off of Bujak. He's a dangerous 1-v.-1 player who can pry open an opponent at a moment's notice.
"Those two have grown confident in each other and themselves," said Rusniak. "With Major, after struggling with forcing passes or holding onto the ball too long, his decision-making is really good, as is his movement off the ball. That's made him so much more dangerous."
Of Bujak the coach said: "Patryk was tasked with maturing as a varsity player very quickly.
"His biggest improvement has been creating opportunities for his teammates, while becoming a multi-dimensional player who can create for himself or go to goal."
While the Bujak-Hassan connection confounded the Hawks, the aforementioned Schmidt-Wilcox partnership in the middle of the park continued to run the attack on the other side of the ball and tackled, won balls and slowed the play of their opponents.
Outside men Eddie Marin and Kostadin Stoyanov supplied plenty of pressure and pace, while the Huskies backline of Cade Milligan, Thomas Steger, Jacob Tolwinski and Nicholas Bell continued to be water-tight in front of Nick Clarizio, who recorded his eight clean-sheet of the season.
Milligan sprung three of his mates free in the first half with pin-point service from out of the back -- his best effort nearly allowed Schmidt to double the Huskies advantage in the 20th minute.
Just before intermission, Schmidt put Bujak through but saw a glorious chance go for naught when Hawks keeper Tyler Kelly came to the rescue.
The visitors came close to getting even in the 28th minute when their best build-up of play ended with Georgiev getting to the endline. He whipped a wicked ball to the back post where Jesus Martinez redirected his close-range attempt wide of the post.
Hassan's brilliant individual effort led to the Huskies second goal of the contest. This one came quickly after the whistle which began the second half.
"A bad pass led to a bad turnover, and their no. 8 (Hassan) made us pay badly for that mistake," bemoaned Armstrong after watching Hassan drag his keeper far off his line to give him a wide open net.
Zach Freye was fearless when he blocked a close-range blast by Hassan, before the Hawks (Orantes) put his snap shot on frame.
The Huskies faithful held its collective breathe when sophomore Manuel Amezcua roared up the left side, turned and then flashed a terrific ball along the floor through the six-yard box only to see it go untouched by his teammates in the 50th minute.
Bujak and Hassan, Chicagoland Soccer's Men of the Match, each went close one last time before Rusniak began to pull his first 11 off for good. Eric Worwa, Luke Zettlemeier and Charlie Fredian each showed well in the final quarter hour of action.
Now, things get more serious for the Huskies, who were given the no. 14 seed at the Evanston sectional. The seed produced a play-in game with no. 19 Schurz, from the Chicago Public League.
"When the seeds came out, I didn't mention anything to the guys (planning) to talk with them the following day about the seed, and the mentality we need to have heading into the playoffs," began Rusniak. "They were all surprised with that no. 14 seed, but quickly embraced the fact that they needed to show others that seed wasn't correct.
"If we play at our highest level, as we have at times, and with confidence, we can make waves in the next couple of weeks."
Should the Huskies send off Schurz, next up will be the third-seeded Wildkits from Evanston, who have reached the supersectionals the past two seasons, before falling short to state runners-up Barrington (2016) and Libertyville last year.
Starting lineups
Hoffman Estates (4-1-4-1)
G- Tyler Kelly
D- Siva Nakka
D- Michael Ameen
D- Zach Freye
D- Julian Rios
DM- Tony Cabral
M- Alex Soto
M- Georgi Kyosev
M- Alex Gonzalez
M- Manuel Amezcua
F- Edson Orantes
Hersey (4-4-2)
G- Nick Clarizio
D- Nicholas Bell
D- Thomas Steger
D- Jacob Tolwinski
D- Cade Milligan
M- Kostadin Stoyanov
M- Trey Schmidt
M- Ronan Wilcox
M- Eddie Marin
F- Major Hassan
F- Patryk Bujek
Chicagoland Men of the Match: Patryk Bujak, so. F, Hersey
Major Hassan, sr., F, Hersey
Referee: Orlando Dobrincu
Scoring summary
First half
Hersey: Bujak (Wilcox) 1'
Second half
Hersey: Hassan (Wilcox) 41'