Palatine tops Prospect in turnaround game
Pirates rebound from 5-0 loss with 5-0 win, Knights fall to 2-1-0
By Mike Garofola
PALATINE -- It became a tale of two soccer clubs for both Prospect and Palatine after the pair met Friday night in the second annual Mid-Suburban League College Showcase to end the first week of the 2017 campaign.
Prospect opened its season on a high note with a pair of impressive victories over Vernon Hill and Glenbrook South. ON the flip side of the coin, Palatine never had a chance against Chicagoland Soccer preseason no. 12 Glenbrook North in a 5-0 defeat.
It was the Pirates who released some of the stress built up from their loss to turn the tables on Mike Andrews' club with a resounding 5-0 victory.
"It was a real Jekyll and Hyde thing for us this week and tonight," said Andrews after the Knights MSL conference-opening loss at the neutral site of the Palatine Celtic Soccer Club grounds.
"We really didn't do much of anything at all. (Some) of the credit for that, of course, goes to Palatine, but a lot of that has to fall on our shoulders as well."
Added senior, and co-captain, Nico Mho: "Even though we started a little slow tonight, I thought we did some things pretty well in the first 10 minutes or so, but after that (Palatine) seemed to win every ball and tackle to get us out of our game. We lost our focus and did things we didn't do during our first two games of the season."
The game's lone couple of highlights during the early exchanges were a half-chance from the Pirates terrific midfielder Sebastian Fraczek and another on teammate Ricardo Garcia's angled shot from the right. They were sandwiched around a rather harsh booking in the 9th minute on a professional foul from Palatine senior Kevin Filian.
"We made some changes in our lineup, most notably moving our center mid, Conor McGarvey, to center back, plus the return of Marcos (Hurtado) and a few other things here and there. (We) just went out there and played good old Palatine soccer like we (know) we can," offered Pirates assistant Charlie Gries.
"The boys came to play tonight, because they wanted to put that bad loss from the other night behind them."
In the shadow of their high school campus, the Pirates began to build a head of steam. They grabbed the lead, and game, for good on a lovely build-up from Hurtado to Garcia, who craftily put his mate Luke Garrett close enough to steer in his left-footed cracker against helpless Prospect keeper Kevin Shane.
Shane turned in a quality 80 minutes despite the score -- the first four Pirates goals were unstoppable, and the fifth came while the Knights backline struggled to find its form in the closing moments.
"We knew Prospect had played well in their first two games," said Greis. "So the pressure was on the boys to come out and play at a higher level than we did against Glenbrook North. I thought the key was the high pressure we put on them almost from the start."
Andrews agreed.
"We did not respond well to the pressure tonight (we) turned the ball over in some bad places, and their work rate and energy up-top gave our backline a lot of trouble, which we'll address and correct when we train next week."
A dangerous and well-aimed ball sent into the box saw Shane and Jorge Corona challenge simultaneously in the 23rd minute. When the Knights keeper pushed the ball away from the spot, Corona quickly chased down and collected the ball to the right of Shane.
A magnificent touch away from Shane opened up the back post, where Corona made the Pirates advantage 2-0.
The lone chance for the Knights in the first period came around the quarter hour when Aaron Whiteman and Patrick Limanowka produced an opportunity for Joey Boduch, but his attempt was saved with confidence by Ethan Bank.
Unfortunately for the Knights faithful, the game was all but decided in the first 10 minutes of the second half when Hurtado and Filian scored within a three-minute span.
Although the Knights began with a purpose - coming close to something of quality on frame from Mho and then Limanowka, it was Hurtado who made the first impact in the half on a superb turn before unloading his 45th-minute strike.
Then Filian's nonstop run ended with the senior being hauled down and sent the Pirates forward to the spot to the soundtrack of a few howls of displeasure from the Prospect bench.
Filian buried his 48th-minute spot-kick to dash any kind of hopes for a Prospect comeback.
"We just didn't do enough of the basic things on either side of the ball to really challenge Palatine, and to give ourselves at least a chance tonight," said Andrews.
"The guys will pick it up, and we'll recover from this. (They) need to remind themselves this is just the third game of the year, and for all of us, now we have a starting point of things we need to go back and work on and correct."
The Knights hoped they would get good news from the referee when they thought Whiteman had been brought down in the box in the 54th minute, but that never came about. However that particular moment did inspire Mho and his mates, who despite chasing four goals, played hard until the final moments of this contest.
Bank was called into action on an attempt from Limanowka, and later, the Pirates keeper held his breathe when a freekick from the midline to the back post was thumped off the top of the woodwork by Limanowka.
"We didn't give up tonight, and that says a lot about our team. But all us were a little too frantic when we got down in the game, so that's something I think all of us learned a lesson from," said Mho.
Despite the goal scoring outburst by the Pirates, it was center back and senior McGarvey who earned Chicagoland Soccer's Man of the Match honor for his wonderful work along the back and a short stay between the sticks when Bank was forced off after suffering a minor injury during a tussle inside his box.
Starting lineups
Prospect
GK- Kevin Shane
D- Edmund Conroy
D- Tengis Tulga
D- Daniel LaCost
D- Jonny Keane
M- Chris Rubio
M- Nico Mho
M- Aaron Whiteman
M- Joey Boduch
F- Michael Kaczowka
F- Patrick Limanowka
Palatine
GK: Ethan Bank
D- Miguel Barrera
D- Conor McGarvey
D- Jakub Szafraniec
D- Connor Nix
M- Luke Garrett
M- Marcos Hurtado
M- Chris Munoz
M- William Riordan
F- Sebastian Fraczek
F- Kevin Filian
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: Conor McGarvey, Palatine, sr., D
Scoring summary
Palatine
Garrett 16', Corona 23', Hurtado 45', Filian (PK) 48' Prudente 76'.
Referee: Costel Lungin
Pirates rebound from 5-0 loss with 5-0 win, Knights fall to 2-1-0
By Mike Garofola
PALATINE -- It became a tale of two soccer clubs for both Prospect and Palatine after the pair met Friday night in the second annual Mid-Suburban League College Showcase to end the first week of the 2017 campaign.
Prospect opened its season on a high note with a pair of impressive victories over Vernon Hill and Glenbrook South. ON the flip side of the coin, Palatine never had a chance against Chicagoland Soccer preseason no. 12 Glenbrook North in a 5-0 defeat.
It was the Pirates who released some of the stress built up from their loss to turn the tables on Mike Andrews' club with a resounding 5-0 victory.
"It was a real Jekyll and Hyde thing for us this week and tonight," said Andrews after the Knights MSL conference-opening loss at the neutral site of the Palatine Celtic Soccer Club grounds.
"We really didn't do much of anything at all. (Some) of the credit for that, of course, goes to Palatine, but a lot of that has to fall on our shoulders as well."
Added senior, and co-captain, Nico Mho: "Even though we started a little slow tonight, I thought we did some things pretty well in the first 10 minutes or so, but after that (Palatine) seemed to win every ball and tackle to get us out of our game. We lost our focus and did things we didn't do during our first two games of the season."
The game's lone couple of highlights during the early exchanges were a half-chance from the Pirates terrific midfielder Sebastian Fraczek and another on teammate Ricardo Garcia's angled shot from the right. They were sandwiched around a rather harsh booking in the 9th minute on a professional foul from Palatine senior Kevin Filian.
"We made some changes in our lineup, most notably moving our center mid, Conor McGarvey, to center back, plus the return of Marcos (Hurtado) and a few other things here and there. (We) just went out there and played good old Palatine soccer like we (know) we can," offered Pirates assistant Charlie Gries.
"The boys came to play tonight, because they wanted to put that bad loss from the other night behind them."
In the shadow of their high school campus, the Pirates began to build a head of steam. They grabbed the lead, and game, for good on a lovely build-up from Hurtado to Garcia, who craftily put his mate Luke Garrett close enough to steer in his left-footed cracker against helpless Prospect keeper Kevin Shane.
Shane turned in a quality 80 minutes despite the score -- the first four Pirates goals were unstoppable, and the fifth came while the Knights backline struggled to find its form in the closing moments.
"We knew Prospect had played well in their first two games," said Greis. "So the pressure was on the boys to come out and play at a higher level than we did against Glenbrook North. I thought the key was the high pressure we put on them almost from the start."
Andrews agreed.
"We did not respond well to the pressure tonight (we) turned the ball over in some bad places, and their work rate and energy up-top gave our backline a lot of trouble, which we'll address and correct when we train next week."
A dangerous and well-aimed ball sent into the box saw Shane and Jorge Corona challenge simultaneously in the 23rd minute. When the Knights keeper pushed the ball away from the spot, Corona quickly chased down and collected the ball to the right of Shane.
A magnificent touch away from Shane opened up the back post, where Corona made the Pirates advantage 2-0.
The lone chance for the Knights in the first period came around the quarter hour when Aaron Whiteman and Patrick Limanowka produced an opportunity for Joey Boduch, but his attempt was saved with confidence by Ethan Bank.
Unfortunately for the Knights faithful, the game was all but decided in the first 10 minutes of the second half when Hurtado and Filian scored within a three-minute span.
Although the Knights began with a purpose - coming close to something of quality on frame from Mho and then Limanowka, it was Hurtado who made the first impact in the half on a superb turn before unloading his 45th-minute strike.
Then Filian's nonstop run ended with the senior being hauled down and sent the Pirates forward to the spot to the soundtrack of a few howls of displeasure from the Prospect bench.
Filian buried his 48th-minute spot-kick to dash any kind of hopes for a Prospect comeback.
"We just didn't do enough of the basic things on either side of the ball to really challenge Palatine, and to give ourselves at least a chance tonight," said Andrews.
"The guys will pick it up, and we'll recover from this. (They) need to remind themselves this is just the third game of the year, and for all of us, now we have a starting point of things we need to go back and work on and correct."
The Knights hoped they would get good news from the referee when they thought Whiteman had been brought down in the box in the 54th minute, but that never came about. However that particular moment did inspire Mho and his mates, who despite chasing four goals, played hard until the final moments of this contest.
Bank was called into action on an attempt from Limanowka, and later, the Pirates keeper held his breathe when a freekick from the midline to the back post was thumped off the top of the woodwork by Limanowka.
"We didn't give up tonight, and that says a lot about our team. But all us were a little too frantic when we got down in the game, so that's something I think all of us learned a lesson from," said Mho.
Despite the goal scoring outburst by the Pirates, it was center back and senior McGarvey who earned Chicagoland Soccer's Man of the Match honor for his wonderful work along the back and a short stay between the sticks when Bank was forced off after suffering a minor injury during a tussle inside his box.
Starting lineups
Prospect
GK- Kevin Shane
D- Edmund Conroy
D- Tengis Tulga
D- Daniel LaCost
D- Jonny Keane
M- Chris Rubio
M- Nico Mho
M- Aaron Whiteman
M- Joey Boduch
F- Michael Kaczowka
F- Patrick Limanowka
Palatine
GK: Ethan Bank
D- Miguel Barrera
D- Conor McGarvey
D- Jakub Szafraniec
D- Connor Nix
M- Luke Garrett
M- Marcos Hurtado
M- Chris Munoz
M- William Riordan
F- Sebastian Fraczek
F- Kevin Filian
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: Conor McGarvey, Palatine, sr., D
Scoring summary
Palatine
Garrett 16', Corona 23', Hurtado 45', Filian (PK) 48' Prudente 76'.
Referee: Costel Lungin