Payton finds Taft GK Ocampo unsolvable
Senior stops feisty visitors in scoreless Premier North draw
By Kaleb Carter
CHICAGO -- Taft coach Jeff Lucco will sing the praises of keeper Sean Ocampo as long as anyone will listen.
And it's for good reason. The senior turned away an array of shots from an attack-minded Payton squad in a scoreless draw Wednesday at Taft.
“We’ve conceded a fair amount of goals, but without him, it’s way more,” Lucco said. “The kid is amazing. He makes foot saves. He makes reaction saves 1-on-1. He’s good in the air.
“I think he’s the best goalie in Chicago clearly, and I don’t really have to watch anyone else. I think he’s one of the best goalies in the state.”
Repeatedly, the Eagles goalkeeper put himself in position to reject shots. Payton stayed aggressive despite being down a man. Lucas Cozuc received a pair of yellow cards that added up to a soft red card in the first half.
“The guy who went out was one of our top players, so it was tough to deal with that,” Payton coach Paul Escobar said. “Then I think our guys responded really well. We still played, stuck to our game plan.
“We got unfortunate, We hit the post; we missed that wide-open rebound. I still think this game could have been ours, but a 0-0 tie playing a man down for 60 minutes, I’ll take it.”
Ocampo helped turn away a golden Payton opportunity in the box in the 66th minute. The visitors let a crucial opportunity slip by that included missing an open shot on a bouncing free ball.
Alongside a bevy of acrobatic saves and well-rounded positioning coming off his line, Ocampo was in the right spot seemingly all evening.
“I wanted to get a shot on to build my momentum basically. That’s what they did, and I’m happy about that,” Ocampo said.
After a shortened spring season that saw Ocampo battle illness, he’s now relishing his chance to lead young Taft (0-5-2).
“It’s a different feeling, no masks, it’s good to be back playing more teams, harder teams,” Ocampo said. “It’s just a different feeling overall.”
The Eagles have yielded 12 goals in seven games against solid competition. Three of the losses and seven of the goals came against ranked teams Barrington, Loyola and Lake Zurich.
The offense has yet to awaken and has only made its presence felt in two 2-1 losses.
The result Wednesday in Taft’s Premier Division North opener was the Eagles second scoreless tie of the season.
With the two big tournaments still ahead – the Chicago Public League tournament and the state tourney – Ocampo is optimistic.
“I believe we’re going to do really good,” Ocampo said. “We have a solid plan. I still think we need to work on the offense a bit more, and I think we’ll be solid. We’re going to be really good.”
Taft junior midfielder Matej Sokola said his team needed to press opponents better to produce more scoring chances, something the Eagles were better about in the second half.
“(We need to) pass the ball better, take more shots and put it in the back of the net,” he said.
That style led to strong chances for Eagles forward Milton Valenzuela, who found the ball on his foot after a Grizzlies’ giveaway in their own final third. That try, in the 75th minute, produced a powerful kick from distance along the left wing that Payton keeper Alex Freehling turned away from well off his line.
Taft’s Alex Mietka put a shot on goal in the 67th minute. Taft also produced a strong chance in the 57th minute that pinballed around the box before being saved by Freehling and cleared by the Payton backline.
Facilitating Payton opportunities through much of the first half and early portion of the second half was senior midfielder Kai Torres, whose team is now 2-1-2 overall and 1-0-1 in public league play.
“I’ve played varsity three years and for all those years I’ve played the same six (defensive midfielder) role,” Torres said. “I think I’ve grown as a player in terms of mentality. I think I’m a smarter player and gotten more technical on the ball with age.”
Benefitting from plenty of build-up chances was Robert Cupps, a multi-sport senior, who smashed an array of shots in the direction of the Taft goal, but couldn’t get one to go. After firing several shots from within 20 yards in the first half, Cupp put one on goal from 15 yards that Ocampo smothered as well.
Payton had seven shots on goal from and nine total shots in the first half. Escobar thought that chances were there thanks to some chances drawn up beforehand but didn’t see a ball find the back of the net.
“We knew being a man down we’d have to take advantage of set pieces, and we did on that one,” Escobar said about a late-game try. “We just failed to stick it in the net.”
Torres was pleased to see that his unit largely controlled possession while a man down until very late in the game and said that Payton played with good spirit. Though his mind is on bigger things down the line as well.
“I want to win city,” Torres said. “That’s been our goal ever since we became freshmen, these seniors. I’m feeling really good about it. We feel like we have a good chance at it.”
Starting lineups
Payton
GK Alex Freehling
D David McLone
D Sam McIlrath
D Blair Warren
D Carlos Pichardo
MF Robert Cupps
MF Oliver Bruce
MF Marcel Kubik
MF Kai Torres
F Evan Rainville
F Lucas Cozuc
Taft
GK Sean Ocampo
D Roy Molina
D Victor Lewicki
MF Davyd Dubchak
MF Jair Duenas
MF Matej Soloka
MF Michael Sturgelewski
MF Daniel Korniat
F Gabriel Vidaurre
F Mohamed Abbad
F Sebastian Rodriguez
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: Sean Ocampo, sr. GK, Taft
Scoring summary
First half
No scoring
Second half
No scoring
Senior stops feisty visitors in scoreless Premier North draw
By Kaleb Carter
CHICAGO -- Taft coach Jeff Lucco will sing the praises of keeper Sean Ocampo as long as anyone will listen.
And it's for good reason. The senior turned away an array of shots from an attack-minded Payton squad in a scoreless draw Wednesday at Taft.
“We’ve conceded a fair amount of goals, but without him, it’s way more,” Lucco said. “The kid is amazing. He makes foot saves. He makes reaction saves 1-on-1. He’s good in the air.
“I think he’s the best goalie in Chicago clearly, and I don’t really have to watch anyone else. I think he’s one of the best goalies in the state.”
Repeatedly, the Eagles goalkeeper put himself in position to reject shots. Payton stayed aggressive despite being down a man. Lucas Cozuc received a pair of yellow cards that added up to a soft red card in the first half.
“The guy who went out was one of our top players, so it was tough to deal with that,” Payton coach Paul Escobar said. “Then I think our guys responded really well. We still played, stuck to our game plan.
“We got unfortunate, We hit the post; we missed that wide-open rebound. I still think this game could have been ours, but a 0-0 tie playing a man down for 60 minutes, I’ll take it.”
Ocampo helped turn away a golden Payton opportunity in the box in the 66th minute. The visitors let a crucial opportunity slip by that included missing an open shot on a bouncing free ball.
Alongside a bevy of acrobatic saves and well-rounded positioning coming off his line, Ocampo was in the right spot seemingly all evening.
“I wanted to get a shot on to build my momentum basically. That’s what they did, and I’m happy about that,” Ocampo said.
After a shortened spring season that saw Ocampo battle illness, he’s now relishing his chance to lead young Taft (0-5-2).
“It’s a different feeling, no masks, it’s good to be back playing more teams, harder teams,” Ocampo said. “It’s just a different feeling overall.”
The Eagles have yielded 12 goals in seven games against solid competition. Three of the losses and seven of the goals came against ranked teams Barrington, Loyola and Lake Zurich.
The offense has yet to awaken and has only made its presence felt in two 2-1 losses.
The result Wednesday in Taft’s Premier Division North opener was the Eagles second scoreless tie of the season.
With the two big tournaments still ahead – the Chicago Public League tournament and the state tourney – Ocampo is optimistic.
“I believe we’re going to do really good,” Ocampo said. “We have a solid plan. I still think we need to work on the offense a bit more, and I think we’ll be solid. We’re going to be really good.”
Taft junior midfielder Matej Sokola said his team needed to press opponents better to produce more scoring chances, something the Eagles were better about in the second half.
“(We need to) pass the ball better, take more shots and put it in the back of the net,” he said.
That style led to strong chances for Eagles forward Milton Valenzuela, who found the ball on his foot after a Grizzlies’ giveaway in their own final third. That try, in the 75th minute, produced a powerful kick from distance along the left wing that Payton keeper Alex Freehling turned away from well off his line.
Taft’s Alex Mietka put a shot on goal in the 67th minute. Taft also produced a strong chance in the 57th minute that pinballed around the box before being saved by Freehling and cleared by the Payton backline.
Facilitating Payton opportunities through much of the first half and early portion of the second half was senior midfielder Kai Torres, whose team is now 2-1-2 overall and 1-0-1 in public league play.
“I’ve played varsity three years and for all those years I’ve played the same six (defensive midfielder) role,” Torres said. “I think I’ve grown as a player in terms of mentality. I think I’m a smarter player and gotten more technical on the ball with age.”
Benefitting from plenty of build-up chances was Robert Cupps, a multi-sport senior, who smashed an array of shots in the direction of the Taft goal, but couldn’t get one to go. After firing several shots from within 20 yards in the first half, Cupp put one on goal from 15 yards that Ocampo smothered as well.
Payton had seven shots on goal from and nine total shots in the first half. Escobar thought that chances were there thanks to some chances drawn up beforehand but didn’t see a ball find the back of the net.
“We knew being a man down we’d have to take advantage of set pieces, and we did on that one,” Escobar said about a late-game try. “We just failed to stick it in the net.”
Torres was pleased to see that his unit largely controlled possession while a man down until very late in the game and said that Payton played with good spirit. Though his mind is on bigger things down the line as well.
“I want to win city,” Torres said. “That’s been our goal ever since we became freshmen, these seniors. I’m feeling really good about it. We feel like we have a good chance at it.”
Starting lineups
Payton
GK Alex Freehling
D David McLone
D Sam McIlrath
D Blair Warren
D Carlos Pichardo
MF Robert Cupps
MF Oliver Bruce
MF Marcel Kubik
MF Kai Torres
F Evan Rainville
F Lucas Cozuc
Taft
GK Sean Ocampo
D Roy Molina
D Victor Lewicki
MF Davyd Dubchak
MF Jair Duenas
MF Matej Soloka
MF Michael Sturgelewski
MF Daniel Korniat
F Gabriel Vidaurre
F Mohamed Abbad
F Sebastian Rodriguez
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: Sean Ocampo, sr. GK, Taft
Scoring summary
First half
No scoring
Second half
No scoring