Oak Forest connects on rare chance vs. Lemont, keeps league race tight
Bengals knock home rare chance to force 1-1 tie in SSC Blue
By Steve Millar
OAK FOREST -- If you can keep a soccer game close, sometimes none of the stats matter. A team can spend the majority of the day desperately hanging on defensively and then make something happen on the offensive end.
Oak Forest coach Kieran Byrne saw his team pull it off Saturday.
“We knew it’d be a tight game. If we could just stay in the game, soccer’s that kind of sport,” Byrne said. “You get one opportunity and if you’re lucky enough to take it, you come out with a result like we did. All the stats were against us, but we were patient enough to stay in it, and we got a result.”
Sophomore Ian Evans scored with 15 minutes, 18 seconds left in the game to help the host Bengals escape with an unlikely 1-1 tie with Lemont in a battle between the top two teams in the South Suburban Conference Blue Division. Lemont stands at 12 points, one point better than Oak Forest. T.F. United has a chance to challenge with six points from four matches.
The equalizer came on one of two shots on goal for Oak Forest (7-3-3, 3-1-2).
Lemont (5-2-4, 3-0-3) had seven shots on goal, 14 corner kicks to the Bengals’ zero, and spent the vast majority of the game on the offensive end but had to settle for a draw.
“The game is cruel like that. You can do exactly what we did the whole game but not finish your chances, and a team’s going to punish you for that,” Lemont coach Rick Prangen said. “I’m really disappointed in our lack of finishing. It’s frustrating.”
Evans, Chicagoland Soccer’s Man of the Match, scored his first goal of the season to give Oak Forest the positive result.
He took a pass from Lennon Flores and carried the ball down the left side of the field before slipping a pass to Mohammad Deifallah in the middle. Deifallah immediately played it back to Evans on a nice give-and-go.
Evans ripped a shot from 15 yards that Lemont goalkeeper Amir Biba got a piece of, but not enough of as it tucked inside the right post to tie the game.
“I continued my run down the line,” Evans said. “I saw (Deifallah) open and gave it to him. He gave it back. I saw the far post and shot it. It felt good, especially against Lemont. It was a big game.
“I was kind of nervous, because it wasn’t that good of a shot. It was kind of 50/50. But when it went in, I was excited.”
Evans knew the Bengals were not likely to get many more chances and knew how important it was for him to finish.
“When that opportunity comes, you just have to take it,” he said. “We took it and scored.
“We came into this game knowing it was for first in conference. We had to come in and play better. The first half, we were a little off. But we came back and got the goal and got some confidence.”
The other two players involved in the play, Deifallah and Flores, had come off the bench and found a way to contribute to the equalizer.
“It was great execution,” Byrne said. “We’ve been working on those things in practice. It was great for Mo because we’re normally hollering at him to get rid of the ball earlier and just take one touch. So, to see it go one touch, one touch, one touch all the way down and then the finish like that, that’s what we want to see.”
Deifallah has heard his coach’s pleas for him to move the ball faster, and he was ready to do it.
“When he passed it to me I passed it back to him right away, because I saw he had the shot,” Deifallah said. “I knew right away that I was going to give it back to him. It was exciting seeing him score.”
Lemont took the lead in the 14th minute off a free kick from just outside the box on the left side of the field.
Tyler Chrisman took the free kick and sent a cross toward the middle of the box, where Richard Myalik crashed in and headed it home.
“We had a lot of chances in the first half,” Myalik said. “I had to put one away for my team. Coach gives us our runs, and I just run to the ball and put it away.
“We’re very disappointed as a team to only score one, though. It should have been 3-0 in the first half. It wasn’t going our way, so all we can do is learn from it and get after it the next game.”
It was the third goal in as many games for Myalik.
“Richard’s been very good for us on set pieces,” Prangen said. “He’s had some big goals. He scored against T.F. (United); he scored against Argo; and he scored again today. Other guys need to pick up the slack.
Chrisman, a freshman who Prangen recently moved from forward to center midfielder, continued to impress. In addition to the assist, he set up several more Lemont chances.
“I think if you had to pinpoint a guy that was one of the better guys on the field, that’s Tyler. His work rate and his touch were good, and that’s only going to get better with time.”
Another impressive freshman is Oak Forest goalkeeper Adam Jedrzejczyk, who made six saves and cut down some other Lemont opportunities with his aggressiveness coming out of the net.
Jedrzejczyk was able to punch Peter Borzecki’s free kick from 22 yards wide in the 45th minute.
In the 50th minute, Myalik played a pass ahead to Will Harris, who got behind the defense. Jedrzejczyk, though, came sprinting off his line to cut down Harris’ angle and blocked Harris’ shot with his body.
“I’ll credit their keeper,” Prangen said. “He made a couple big saves for them. He came off his line and put us under pressure. They did what they had to do to stay in the game. We let them hang around, and it’s tough to ask your defenders to be perfect all the time. They were nearly perfect.”
Oak Forest’s defense, meanwhile, managed to fend off 14 Lemont corner kicks without conceding a goal.
“We talked about it before the game, and we know what they’re going to do,” Byrne said. “I think you have to accept what they’re going to do. They might have 20 corners in a game.
“But if you keep worrying about the fact that they’re getting corners, you forget to defend the corner. As long as you stay with your man, challenge in the air and make it difficult, you can get negate that a little bit. That’s a huge strength for them, so we just worked on what we could do to help us stay in the game.”
Byrne hopes the result will be a confidence builder for his team, which has a tough stretch of games ahead, beginning when it hosts Reavis on Tuesday.
“We’ll be ready for that game,” Deifallah said.
Lemont, meanwhile, looks to refocus as it remains on top of the Blue standings in spite of what for them was a frustrating result.
“It’s 100 percent a goal to win conference,” Myalik said. “It’s been 2015 since we won conference, so we’re definitely looking forward and wanting to win it this year.
“We have to come with a positive mindset the next game, be more serious and play the game out the way it should be played.”
Starting lineups
Lemont
GK – Amir Biba
D – Adam Briestensky
D – Peter Borzecki
D – Lukasz Otreba
D – Ben Kittridge
MF – Tyler Chrisman
MF – Marek Skotnecki
MF – Adam Hornik
MF – Richard Myalik
F – Will Harris
F – Lukas Rabianski
Oak Forest
GK – Adam Jedrzejczyk
D – Michael Speaker
D – Cody Evans
D – Kyle Baker
D – Gavin Collery
MF – Brandan Stacy
MF – Alex Stacy
MF – Alexis Hernandez
MF – Ian Evans
F – Ian Plancarte
F – Jose Vega
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: Ian Evans, so. MF, Oak Forest
Scoring summary
First half
Lemont – Myalik (Chrisman), 14th minute
Second half
Oak Forest – Evans (Deifallah), 65th minute
Bengals knock home rare chance to force 1-1 tie in SSC Blue
By Steve Millar
OAK FOREST -- If you can keep a soccer game close, sometimes none of the stats matter. A team can spend the majority of the day desperately hanging on defensively and then make something happen on the offensive end.
Oak Forest coach Kieran Byrne saw his team pull it off Saturday.
“We knew it’d be a tight game. If we could just stay in the game, soccer’s that kind of sport,” Byrne said. “You get one opportunity and if you’re lucky enough to take it, you come out with a result like we did. All the stats were against us, but we were patient enough to stay in it, and we got a result.”
Sophomore Ian Evans scored with 15 minutes, 18 seconds left in the game to help the host Bengals escape with an unlikely 1-1 tie with Lemont in a battle between the top two teams in the South Suburban Conference Blue Division. Lemont stands at 12 points, one point better than Oak Forest. T.F. United has a chance to challenge with six points from four matches.
The equalizer came on one of two shots on goal for Oak Forest (7-3-3, 3-1-2).
Lemont (5-2-4, 3-0-3) had seven shots on goal, 14 corner kicks to the Bengals’ zero, and spent the vast majority of the game on the offensive end but had to settle for a draw.
“The game is cruel like that. You can do exactly what we did the whole game but not finish your chances, and a team’s going to punish you for that,” Lemont coach Rick Prangen said. “I’m really disappointed in our lack of finishing. It’s frustrating.”
Evans, Chicagoland Soccer’s Man of the Match, scored his first goal of the season to give Oak Forest the positive result.
He took a pass from Lennon Flores and carried the ball down the left side of the field before slipping a pass to Mohammad Deifallah in the middle. Deifallah immediately played it back to Evans on a nice give-and-go.
Evans ripped a shot from 15 yards that Lemont goalkeeper Amir Biba got a piece of, but not enough of as it tucked inside the right post to tie the game.
“I continued my run down the line,” Evans said. “I saw (Deifallah) open and gave it to him. He gave it back. I saw the far post and shot it. It felt good, especially against Lemont. It was a big game.
“I was kind of nervous, because it wasn’t that good of a shot. It was kind of 50/50. But when it went in, I was excited.”
Evans knew the Bengals were not likely to get many more chances and knew how important it was for him to finish.
“When that opportunity comes, you just have to take it,” he said. “We took it and scored.
“We came into this game knowing it was for first in conference. We had to come in and play better. The first half, we were a little off. But we came back and got the goal and got some confidence.”
The other two players involved in the play, Deifallah and Flores, had come off the bench and found a way to contribute to the equalizer.
“It was great execution,” Byrne said. “We’ve been working on those things in practice. It was great for Mo because we’re normally hollering at him to get rid of the ball earlier and just take one touch. So, to see it go one touch, one touch, one touch all the way down and then the finish like that, that’s what we want to see.”
Deifallah has heard his coach’s pleas for him to move the ball faster, and he was ready to do it.
“When he passed it to me I passed it back to him right away, because I saw he had the shot,” Deifallah said. “I knew right away that I was going to give it back to him. It was exciting seeing him score.”
Lemont took the lead in the 14th minute off a free kick from just outside the box on the left side of the field.
Tyler Chrisman took the free kick and sent a cross toward the middle of the box, where Richard Myalik crashed in and headed it home.
“We had a lot of chances in the first half,” Myalik said. “I had to put one away for my team. Coach gives us our runs, and I just run to the ball and put it away.
“We’re very disappointed as a team to only score one, though. It should have been 3-0 in the first half. It wasn’t going our way, so all we can do is learn from it and get after it the next game.”
It was the third goal in as many games for Myalik.
“Richard’s been very good for us on set pieces,” Prangen said. “He’s had some big goals. He scored against T.F. (United); he scored against Argo; and he scored again today. Other guys need to pick up the slack.
Chrisman, a freshman who Prangen recently moved from forward to center midfielder, continued to impress. In addition to the assist, he set up several more Lemont chances.
“I think if you had to pinpoint a guy that was one of the better guys on the field, that’s Tyler. His work rate and his touch were good, and that’s only going to get better with time.”
Another impressive freshman is Oak Forest goalkeeper Adam Jedrzejczyk, who made six saves and cut down some other Lemont opportunities with his aggressiveness coming out of the net.
Jedrzejczyk was able to punch Peter Borzecki’s free kick from 22 yards wide in the 45th minute.
In the 50th minute, Myalik played a pass ahead to Will Harris, who got behind the defense. Jedrzejczyk, though, came sprinting off his line to cut down Harris’ angle and blocked Harris’ shot with his body.
“I’ll credit their keeper,” Prangen said. “He made a couple big saves for them. He came off his line and put us under pressure. They did what they had to do to stay in the game. We let them hang around, and it’s tough to ask your defenders to be perfect all the time. They were nearly perfect.”
Oak Forest’s defense, meanwhile, managed to fend off 14 Lemont corner kicks without conceding a goal.
“We talked about it before the game, and we know what they’re going to do,” Byrne said. “I think you have to accept what they’re going to do. They might have 20 corners in a game.
“But if you keep worrying about the fact that they’re getting corners, you forget to defend the corner. As long as you stay with your man, challenge in the air and make it difficult, you can get negate that a little bit. That’s a huge strength for them, so we just worked on what we could do to help us stay in the game.”
Byrne hopes the result will be a confidence builder for his team, which has a tough stretch of games ahead, beginning when it hosts Reavis on Tuesday.
“We’ll be ready for that game,” Deifallah said.
Lemont, meanwhile, looks to refocus as it remains on top of the Blue standings in spite of what for them was a frustrating result.
“It’s 100 percent a goal to win conference,” Myalik said. “It’s been 2015 since we won conference, so we’re definitely looking forward and wanting to win it this year.
“We have to come with a positive mindset the next game, be more serious and play the game out the way it should be played.”
Starting lineups
Lemont
GK – Amir Biba
D – Adam Briestensky
D – Peter Borzecki
D – Lukasz Otreba
D – Ben Kittridge
MF – Tyler Chrisman
MF – Marek Skotnecki
MF – Adam Hornik
MF – Richard Myalik
F – Will Harris
F – Lukas Rabianski
Oak Forest
GK – Adam Jedrzejczyk
D – Michael Speaker
D – Cody Evans
D – Kyle Baker
D – Gavin Collery
MF – Brandan Stacy
MF – Alex Stacy
MF – Alexis Hernandez
MF – Ian Evans
F – Ian Plancarte
F – Jose Vega
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: Ian Evans, so. MF, Oak Forest
Scoring summary
First half
Lemont – Myalik (Chrisman), 14th minute
Second half
Oak Forest – Evans (Deifallah), 65th minute