Gutierrez, Streamwood rise
to Fall Classic win vs. Loyola
Host Sabres secure wildcard semifinal berth with 2-1 pool victory
By Bill McLean
STREAMWOOD — Thank goodness for Streamwood junior center back Marcos Gutierrez’s father, Miguel.
That’s what Matt Polovin must have been thinking. The Streamwood coach mised his club's first goal in its 2-1 defeat of visiting Loyola on Thursday night in the final round Pool A play at the Streamwood Fall Classic. Without the elder Gutierrez, he would never see it.
Miguel Gutierrez, you see, films every Streamwood match. Polovin had his back to the action consoling a player behind the bench at Millennium Field when his team broke the ice.
“What’d I miss?” a grinning Polovin said to nobody in particular upon his return to a patch near the sideline. Something significant, that’s what. Gutierrez, the videographer’s son, had tapped a quick restart four yards to senior center midfielder Michael Garcia, who then beat Ramblers goalkeeper Jason Brunger (seven saves) inside the near-post from about 19 yards.
Gutierrez — the Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match — also notched the assist on sophomore forward A.J. Sabanovic’s game-winning, shorthanded goal in the 78th minute.
“So hard-nosed, so tough,” Polovin said of Gutierrez, one of four Sabres captains.
The victory against a highly competitive Loyola side clinched the Classic’s lone wild card bid. That set up a semifinal berth Saturday at 10 a.m. against host Elgin, ranked no. 14 in the Chicagoland Soccer Top 25 poll. No. 22 St. Charles North, the Class A pool winner, will face 24th-ranked Class C group-winner Lockport in the other semifinal at 10 a.m. at Streamwood.
Loyola (2-4-3) will face reigning Class 3A state champ and top-ranked York at noon in a consolation test at Elgin.
The title match will be staged at Streamwood at 2 p.m.
“I told my team afterward, ‘This is the kind of game I wish I could have watched from the stands,’” said Polovin, who is in his 22nd season at Streamwood. The Sabres improved to 5-3-2 with the win.
“It was a good game, an exciting game,” he continued. “Loyola has big players, and it’s a really good group, one of the program’s best that I’ve seen in some time.”
Loyola ‘won’ the 0-0 first half, controlling the ball for lengthy stretches and creating gobs of dangerous sequences near Streamwood junior keeper Jason Ramirez, who finished with seven saves.
However at halftime, Ramirez’s counterpart Brunger could have donned a jersey top with a big ‘S’ (for spectacular) on the front of his chest and everybody would have applauded him for being … modest. On Streamwood’s semi-rare possessions in the first half, the senior made several impressive saves.
The Ramblers drew even 12 minutes after the opener after Loyola senior forward Joseph Vehovsky made a steal. The team captain displayed his varsity skills from there, touching the ball twice, not far from his team’s bench, before unleashing a 16-yard liner inside the near-post in the 66th minute.
“Joseph’s work rate is second to none,” Loyola coach Dan Riskind said.
The deciding goal could have won a beauty contest.
Streamwood senior Trey Yi got things rolling with an impressive display of mad-dash dribbling, and stops and starts near the host school’s sideline. The co-captain then pivoted to deliver an elegant cross to an ever-ready Gutierrez, whose shot from near the top of the box rebounded off Brunger’s mitts and bounded toward Sabanovic.
Sabanovic blasted a 5-yarder past Brunger a nanosecond later.
What made the clincher even more splendid?
It came eight minutes after Streamwood started to play a man down because of a red card.
“Determination,” Yi said of what Thursday’s result came down to in a nutshell. “We never gave up. We kept pushing.”
Two of Yi’s teammates were pressed to come up with a name for Yi’s crucial 1-v-1 rush in the waning moments.
“Let’s call it, ‘The Flash,’” Gutierrez said.
“How about ‘The Li Special?’” chimed in Sabanovic.
“Trey,” Polovin said, “is coachable and a great kid. He’s a very smart, technically sound player. And he listens well, incredibly well; he’s like a sponge.
“You have to love a player with traits like those,” he added.
Nobody would mind entering battle with the bulk of Loyola’s booters. Senior outside midfielder Guillermo Echevarria-Robinson owns a motor that could pull a university’s waterski team across Lake Michigan and back. Ramblers junior midfielder Townes Robertson plays with the covetous combination of ruggedness and smoothness, and the far post he battered with a shot in the 42nd minute continues to quiver. Senior center midfielder Andrew Newton disrupted Streamwood’s speedy ball handling gurus too many times to count, especially in the first half.
The loss left more than a few Ramblers stunned. But Vehovsky, all class, kept his head up moments after the final horn blared.
“We played well,” he said. “I’m proud of the team, proud of how we played. No regrets.”
“Our intensity was there,” said an intense Robertson, who appeared ready for a rematch with Streamwood right after the interview. “That first goal we allowed tonight … we can’t give up a goal like that. We have to be more alert.”
The loss looked awfully familiar to Riskind.
“This is the way our season has been going,” Loyola's coach said, alluding to his team’s penchant for dictating the flow of action for much of a game but falling just short on the scoreboard. “We have to be composed, and we have to finish more of our chances.
“It’s there (the talent level to capitalize on opportunities),” he continued. “I’m sure of it.”
A gorgeous service from Robertson to a hustling Echevarria-Robinson had ‘goal’ written all over in the 47th minute. But Echevarria-Robinson’s far-post header scooted a skosh wide.
Footnotes
Polovin graduated from Fremd in 1994. As an outside back for then-coach Gerardo Pagnani, he helped the Vikings’ 1993 edition take runner-up honors at the state tournament when Illinois held a one-class postseason. Sandburg (29-0-0) edged
Fremd (24-4-0) 1-0 in the final. Polovin teaches PE and health education at Streamwood … Speaking of Fremd, visiting Streamwood earned a 2-2 tie with the perennially strong Mid-Suburban League squad on Aug. 26. Sabanovic tallied the last goal with 18 ticks left in regulation. Sabanovic’s jersey no. you ask? Eighteen. How fitting. … Sabanovic, on where Thursday night’s Fall Classic win ranks, satisfaction-wise, this fall: “Definitely
somewhere near the top.”
Starting lineups
Loyola
GK Jason Brunger
D Clinton Birchard
D Daniel Birmingham
MF Andrew Newton
MF Luke Ojala
MF Towner Robertson
MF Guillermo Echevarria-Robinson
MF William Drehkoff
F Olivier Szorc
F Joseph Vehovsky
F Jeremiah Gyorgy
Streamwood
GK Jason Ramirez
D Marcos Gutierrez
D Diogo Magana
D Andy Mendoza
D Alex Alcala
MF Andy Benitez
MF Hugo Marquez
MF Trey Yi
MF Jairo Sanchez
MF Michael Garcia
F A.J. Sabanovic
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match:
Marcos Gutierrez, jr., D, Streamwood
Scoring summary
First half
No scoring
Second half
Streamwood — Garcia (Gutierrez), 54’
Loyola — Vehovsky (UA), 66’
Streamwood — Sabanovic (Yi, Gutierrez), 78’
to Fall Classic win vs. Loyola
Host Sabres secure wildcard semifinal berth with 2-1 pool victory
By Bill McLean
STREAMWOOD — Thank goodness for Streamwood junior center back Marcos Gutierrez’s father, Miguel.
That’s what Matt Polovin must have been thinking. The Streamwood coach mised his club's first goal in its 2-1 defeat of visiting Loyola on Thursday night in the final round Pool A play at the Streamwood Fall Classic. Without the elder Gutierrez, he would never see it.
Miguel Gutierrez, you see, films every Streamwood match. Polovin had his back to the action consoling a player behind the bench at Millennium Field when his team broke the ice.
“What’d I miss?” a grinning Polovin said to nobody in particular upon his return to a patch near the sideline. Something significant, that’s what. Gutierrez, the videographer’s son, had tapped a quick restart four yards to senior center midfielder Michael Garcia, who then beat Ramblers goalkeeper Jason Brunger (seven saves) inside the near-post from about 19 yards.
Gutierrez — the Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match — also notched the assist on sophomore forward A.J. Sabanovic’s game-winning, shorthanded goal in the 78th minute.
“So hard-nosed, so tough,” Polovin said of Gutierrez, one of four Sabres captains.
The victory against a highly competitive Loyola side clinched the Classic’s lone wild card bid. That set up a semifinal berth Saturday at 10 a.m. against host Elgin, ranked no. 14 in the Chicagoland Soccer Top 25 poll. No. 22 St. Charles North, the Class A pool winner, will face 24th-ranked Class C group-winner Lockport in the other semifinal at 10 a.m. at Streamwood.
Loyola (2-4-3) will face reigning Class 3A state champ and top-ranked York at noon in a consolation test at Elgin.
The title match will be staged at Streamwood at 2 p.m.
“I told my team afterward, ‘This is the kind of game I wish I could have watched from the stands,’” said Polovin, who is in his 22nd season at Streamwood. The Sabres improved to 5-3-2 with the win.
“It was a good game, an exciting game,” he continued. “Loyola has big players, and it’s a really good group, one of the program’s best that I’ve seen in some time.”
Loyola ‘won’ the 0-0 first half, controlling the ball for lengthy stretches and creating gobs of dangerous sequences near Streamwood junior keeper Jason Ramirez, who finished with seven saves.
However at halftime, Ramirez’s counterpart Brunger could have donned a jersey top with a big ‘S’ (for spectacular) on the front of his chest and everybody would have applauded him for being … modest. On Streamwood’s semi-rare possessions in the first half, the senior made several impressive saves.
The Ramblers drew even 12 minutes after the opener after Loyola senior forward Joseph Vehovsky made a steal. The team captain displayed his varsity skills from there, touching the ball twice, not far from his team’s bench, before unleashing a 16-yard liner inside the near-post in the 66th minute.
“Joseph’s work rate is second to none,” Loyola coach Dan Riskind said.
The deciding goal could have won a beauty contest.
Streamwood senior Trey Yi got things rolling with an impressive display of mad-dash dribbling, and stops and starts near the host school’s sideline. The co-captain then pivoted to deliver an elegant cross to an ever-ready Gutierrez, whose shot from near the top of the box rebounded off Brunger’s mitts and bounded toward Sabanovic.
Sabanovic blasted a 5-yarder past Brunger a nanosecond later.
What made the clincher even more splendid?
It came eight minutes after Streamwood started to play a man down because of a red card.
“Determination,” Yi said of what Thursday’s result came down to in a nutshell. “We never gave up. We kept pushing.”
Two of Yi’s teammates were pressed to come up with a name for Yi’s crucial 1-v-1 rush in the waning moments.
“Let’s call it, ‘The Flash,’” Gutierrez said.
“How about ‘The Li Special?’” chimed in Sabanovic.
“Trey,” Polovin said, “is coachable and a great kid. He’s a very smart, technically sound player. And he listens well, incredibly well; he’s like a sponge.
“You have to love a player with traits like those,” he added.
Nobody would mind entering battle with the bulk of Loyola’s booters. Senior outside midfielder Guillermo Echevarria-Robinson owns a motor that could pull a university’s waterski team across Lake Michigan and back. Ramblers junior midfielder Townes Robertson plays with the covetous combination of ruggedness and smoothness, and the far post he battered with a shot in the 42nd minute continues to quiver. Senior center midfielder Andrew Newton disrupted Streamwood’s speedy ball handling gurus too many times to count, especially in the first half.
The loss left more than a few Ramblers stunned. But Vehovsky, all class, kept his head up moments after the final horn blared.
“We played well,” he said. “I’m proud of the team, proud of how we played. No regrets.”
“Our intensity was there,” said an intense Robertson, who appeared ready for a rematch with Streamwood right after the interview. “That first goal we allowed tonight … we can’t give up a goal like that. We have to be more alert.”
The loss looked awfully familiar to Riskind.
“This is the way our season has been going,” Loyola's coach said, alluding to his team’s penchant for dictating the flow of action for much of a game but falling just short on the scoreboard. “We have to be composed, and we have to finish more of our chances.
“It’s there (the talent level to capitalize on opportunities),” he continued. “I’m sure of it.”
A gorgeous service from Robertson to a hustling Echevarria-Robinson had ‘goal’ written all over in the 47th minute. But Echevarria-Robinson’s far-post header scooted a skosh wide.
Footnotes
Polovin graduated from Fremd in 1994. As an outside back for then-coach Gerardo Pagnani, he helped the Vikings’ 1993 edition take runner-up honors at the state tournament when Illinois held a one-class postseason. Sandburg (29-0-0) edged
Fremd (24-4-0) 1-0 in the final. Polovin teaches PE and health education at Streamwood … Speaking of Fremd, visiting Streamwood earned a 2-2 tie with the perennially strong Mid-Suburban League squad on Aug. 26. Sabanovic tallied the last goal with 18 ticks left in regulation. Sabanovic’s jersey no. you ask? Eighteen. How fitting. … Sabanovic, on where Thursday night’s Fall Classic win ranks, satisfaction-wise, this fall: “Definitely
somewhere near the top.”
Starting lineups
Loyola
GK Jason Brunger
D Clinton Birchard
D Daniel Birmingham
MF Andrew Newton
MF Luke Ojala
MF Towner Robertson
MF Guillermo Echevarria-Robinson
MF William Drehkoff
F Olivier Szorc
F Joseph Vehovsky
F Jeremiah Gyorgy
Streamwood
GK Jason Ramirez
D Marcos Gutierrez
D Diogo Magana
D Andy Mendoza
D Alex Alcala
MF Andy Benitez
MF Hugo Marquez
MF Trey Yi
MF Jairo Sanchez
MF Michael Garcia
F A.J. Sabanovic
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match:
Marcos Gutierrez, jr., D, Streamwood
Scoring summary
First half
No scoring
Second half
Streamwood — Garcia (Gutierrez), 54’
Loyola — Vehovsky (UA), 66’
Streamwood — Sabanovic (Yi, Gutierrez), 78’