BG rushes by Meadows at Homecoming
Perez brace, 2 assists lead Bison to impressive 6-1 win
By Mike Garofola
BUFFALO GROVE -Buffalo Grove cruised to a 6-1 victory over Rolling Meadows on Friday afternoon at Grant Blaney Stadium to set up what promises to be an important final week of the regular season for the reigning Mid-Suburban League champions.
Brian Perez scored twice, once on a penalty he earned, and posted two assists to earn Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match honors, but more importantly help his club earn an impressive 6-1 win to stay right behind division rival Wheeling.
"At this point (we) cannot afford to give away any more points. We've lost a few when we should not have; so now we have to win out in order to keep Wheeling and Hersey (from) taking the top spot from us," said Perez, who now has 13 goals and nine helpers on the season.
"This was a big win for us, (we) really wanted it and really needed it," added senior Shane Adams, who once again proved to be the disruptive force in the middle of the park for the Bison. Buffalo Grove (9-5-2, 6-3-0 in the league) sits one point behind Wheeling (19-18) in advance of the final two games of the regular season.
"Our 3-0 loss at Prospect was a tough one to swallow," recounted Bison manager Darren Llewellyn after watching his lads win before a big Homecoming crowd at Grant Blaney Stadium. "We had most of the play. (They) go up on us, then get a great finish on a free kick, and you could sense their confidence rising with each minute until they put one more to finish us off."
Llewellyn's counterpart, Brett Olson, thought he was watching something out of a Halloween movie when his club conceded two in the opening minutes. It happened again, much to his disbelief, just after the intermission.
"We came off the bus flat and not ready to play," bemoaned Olson. "And that's a recipe for disaster at anytime, and especially in the MSL against a team like Darren's.
"They played like they had something to play for. Not exactly sure what we were doing, and they made us pay for every single mistake we made, which made for a tough afternoon here."
The Mustangs (4-7-5, 2-5-2) redeemed themselves 24 hours later with a home nonconference victory against Lake Zurich.
Perez got the Bison off to the perfect start when he was sent through and in on Matt Galvan, who had no other choice but to attempt a tackle of the talented senior. The aggressive play got more of Perez's ankles than the ball and sent him to the spot at three minutes.
Perez buried his penalty kick the other way of Galvan.
Sixty seconds later, it was 2-0 when a quick move to collect to near the midline turned the visitors last man around. He hit the deck and gave Perez another free run at Meadows keeper.
"For a defender, that's the best thing that can happen for a team (seeing) us score two quick ones to take the pressure out of all of us," said Bison central defender Michael Lollino, who impressed with his sharp tackling, organizational awareness and ability to read danger when it was near.
"Lollo (Lollino) and Marcin (Czaplinski) has been steady and strong for us all season long," said Llewellyn.
Olson made a few quick substitions in hopes of stopping the bleeding in the Mustangs own end, but not before Adams had a close-range effort blocked on the way in, and Alex Berk nearly netted another one for the host Bison at 16 minutes when the visitors played a poorly paced ball back to Galvan, who on this day deserved a better fate.
"It took us a long time before we finally got into the game and played some decent soccer, but I can tell you that Ryan Stubitsch continues to play at an all-conference, all-sectional level for us as our lone center back. Without him today, it might have been 8- or 9-1," said Olson.
Rolling Meadows rarely threatened in the first half. Its best chance came in the 25th minute when Tyler Dawson, on the turn, forced Bison keeper Adam Sempoch into action with a save necessary to keep the visitors out of the back of the net.
"It was a well-played first half. We should have put another one or two in - which we need to get better at from here on out," said Llewellyn.
After the break, the Bison bundled two quick goals to improve their advantage to four goals Ryan Kim netted the first in the 43rd minute. He stood alone at the back post before thumping home his header after a lovely serve from Perez.
Stubitsch took a Kim attempt off the line when his header rattled off the bar one minute later, but an opportunistic Sasha Tylnyy steered in the fourth goal with a sweet one-timer.
Rolling Meadows was reeling, and it showed with troubling numbers in 50-50 challenges -- the home side won the first half dozen plus another three second-ball wins.
"We've been so much better in that area of play, and again, when you play a Darren Llewellyn-led team (they) will make you pay for that type of stuff," said Olson.
Jakub Szydlowski increased the Bison lead to 5-0 in the 54th minute The Mustangs pulled one back moments later with a superb upper 90 finish from Arnulfo Mora.
"If you take away those two 10-minute sequences at the start of both halves, we play some decent soccer the rest of the way," Olson said. "But it's an 80-minute game, and you have to be ready to go from the opening whistle."
Patryk Korzatkowski added one more onto the scoreline with a nice side-footed finish of a Perez helper in the 67th minute, which prompted each manager to bring most of their first 11 off for the rest of the day.
"One of our primary goals is to get back into the championship game in two weeks, so to see us come out and play with some urgency today makes me believe we can get there once again," said Perez.
His teammate Lollino firmly agrees.
"We've been a little up and down with some of our results, but I feel like we're all ready for this last week coming up," he said. "But we have to take care of it ourselves, and not expect any help from anyone else."
The Bison played to a 2-2 draw Saturday at Crystal Lake South. Llewellyn promised to play his entire roster in order to give them minutes, while limiting those who he will lean on this week when they travel to Schaumburg on Tuesday, before ending the regular season at home against Wheeling in a game that could decide the MSL East.
Rolling Meadows will finish its league schedule with Conant and Elk Grove this coming Tuesday and Thursday.
Starting lineups
Rolling Meadows (3-4-3)
G- Matt Galvan
D- Cristian Rubio
D- Ryan Stubitsch
D- Nikolay Pavlov
DM- Isaac San Roman
M- Edwin Perez
M- Edwin Fuentes
M- Joao Sanchez
F- Adan Ramirez
F- Erik Martens
F- Tyler Dawson
Buffalo Grove (4-3-3)
G- Adam Sempoch
D- Jack Coughlin
D- Michael Lollino
D- Marcin Czaplinski
D- Anshul Biswas
M- Shane Adams
M- Ryan Kim
M- Kevin Morales
F- Sasha Tylnyy
F- Brian Perez
F- Alex Berk
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: Brian Perez, sr., F-MF, Buffalo Grove
Referee: Gary Jorian
Scoring summary
First half
Buffalo Grove: Perez (PK) 3'
Buffalo Grove: Perez (U/A) 4'
Second half
Buffalo Grove: Kim (Perez) 43'
Buffalo Grove: Tylnyy (Kim) 44'
Buffalo Grove: Szydlowski (Berk) 54'
Rolling Meadows: Mora (U/A) 56'
Buffalo Grove: Korzatkowski (Perez) 67'
Perez brace, 2 assists lead Bison to impressive 6-1 win
By Mike Garofola
BUFFALO GROVE -Buffalo Grove cruised to a 6-1 victory over Rolling Meadows on Friday afternoon at Grant Blaney Stadium to set up what promises to be an important final week of the regular season for the reigning Mid-Suburban League champions.
Brian Perez scored twice, once on a penalty he earned, and posted two assists to earn Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match honors, but more importantly help his club earn an impressive 6-1 win to stay right behind division rival Wheeling.
"At this point (we) cannot afford to give away any more points. We've lost a few when we should not have; so now we have to win out in order to keep Wheeling and Hersey (from) taking the top spot from us," said Perez, who now has 13 goals and nine helpers on the season.
"This was a big win for us, (we) really wanted it and really needed it," added senior Shane Adams, who once again proved to be the disruptive force in the middle of the park for the Bison. Buffalo Grove (9-5-2, 6-3-0 in the league) sits one point behind Wheeling (19-18) in advance of the final two games of the regular season.
"Our 3-0 loss at Prospect was a tough one to swallow," recounted Bison manager Darren Llewellyn after watching his lads win before a big Homecoming crowd at Grant Blaney Stadium. "We had most of the play. (They) go up on us, then get a great finish on a free kick, and you could sense their confidence rising with each minute until they put one more to finish us off."
Llewellyn's counterpart, Brett Olson, thought he was watching something out of a Halloween movie when his club conceded two in the opening minutes. It happened again, much to his disbelief, just after the intermission.
"We came off the bus flat and not ready to play," bemoaned Olson. "And that's a recipe for disaster at anytime, and especially in the MSL against a team like Darren's.
"They played like they had something to play for. Not exactly sure what we were doing, and they made us pay for every single mistake we made, which made for a tough afternoon here."
The Mustangs (4-7-5, 2-5-2) redeemed themselves 24 hours later with a home nonconference victory against Lake Zurich.
Perez got the Bison off to the perfect start when he was sent through and in on Matt Galvan, who had no other choice but to attempt a tackle of the talented senior. The aggressive play got more of Perez's ankles than the ball and sent him to the spot at three minutes.
Perez buried his penalty kick the other way of Galvan.
Sixty seconds later, it was 2-0 when a quick move to collect to near the midline turned the visitors last man around. He hit the deck and gave Perez another free run at Meadows keeper.
"For a defender, that's the best thing that can happen for a team (seeing) us score two quick ones to take the pressure out of all of us," said Bison central defender Michael Lollino, who impressed with his sharp tackling, organizational awareness and ability to read danger when it was near.
"Lollo (Lollino) and Marcin (Czaplinski) has been steady and strong for us all season long," said Llewellyn.
Olson made a few quick substitions in hopes of stopping the bleeding in the Mustangs own end, but not before Adams had a close-range effort blocked on the way in, and Alex Berk nearly netted another one for the host Bison at 16 minutes when the visitors played a poorly paced ball back to Galvan, who on this day deserved a better fate.
"It took us a long time before we finally got into the game and played some decent soccer, but I can tell you that Ryan Stubitsch continues to play at an all-conference, all-sectional level for us as our lone center back. Without him today, it might have been 8- or 9-1," said Olson.
Rolling Meadows rarely threatened in the first half. Its best chance came in the 25th minute when Tyler Dawson, on the turn, forced Bison keeper Adam Sempoch into action with a save necessary to keep the visitors out of the back of the net.
"It was a well-played first half. We should have put another one or two in - which we need to get better at from here on out," said Llewellyn.
After the break, the Bison bundled two quick goals to improve their advantage to four goals Ryan Kim netted the first in the 43rd minute. He stood alone at the back post before thumping home his header after a lovely serve from Perez.
Stubitsch took a Kim attempt off the line when his header rattled off the bar one minute later, but an opportunistic Sasha Tylnyy steered in the fourth goal with a sweet one-timer.
Rolling Meadows was reeling, and it showed with troubling numbers in 50-50 challenges -- the home side won the first half dozen plus another three second-ball wins.
"We've been so much better in that area of play, and again, when you play a Darren Llewellyn-led team (they) will make you pay for that type of stuff," said Olson.
Jakub Szydlowski increased the Bison lead to 5-0 in the 54th minute The Mustangs pulled one back moments later with a superb upper 90 finish from Arnulfo Mora.
"If you take away those two 10-minute sequences at the start of both halves, we play some decent soccer the rest of the way," Olson said. "But it's an 80-minute game, and you have to be ready to go from the opening whistle."
Patryk Korzatkowski added one more onto the scoreline with a nice side-footed finish of a Perez helper in the 67th minute, which prompted each manager to bring most of their first 11 off for the rest of the day.
"One of our primary goals is to get back into the championship game in two weeks, so to see us come out and play with some urgency today makes me believe we can get there once again," said Perez.
His teammate Lollino firmly agrees.
"We've been a little up and down with some of our results, but I feel like we're all ready for this last week coming up," he said. "But we have to take care of it ourselves, and not expect any help from anyone else."
The Bison played to a 2-2 draw Saturday at Crystal Lake South. Llewellyn promised to play his entire roster in order to give them minutes, while limiting those who he will lean on this week when they travel to Schaumburg on Tuesday, before ending the regular season at home against Wheeling in a game that could decide the MSL East.
Rolling Meadows will finish its league schedule with Conant and Elk Grove this coming Tuesday and Thursday.
Starting lineups
Rolling Meadows (3-4-3)
G- Matt Galvan
D- Cristian Rubio
D- Ryan Stubitsch
D- Nikolay Pavlov
DM- Isaac San Roman
M- Edwin Perez
M- Edwin Fuentes
M- Joao Sanchez
F- Adan Ramirez
F- Erik Martens
F- Tyler Dawson
Buffalo Grove (4-3-3)
G- Adam Sempoch
D- Jack Coughlin
D- Michael Lollino
D- Marcin Czaplinski
D- Anshul Biswas
M- Shane Adams
M- Ryan Kim
M- Kevin Morales
F- Sasha Tylnyy
F- Brian Perez
F- Alex Berk
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: Brian Perez, sr., F-MF, Buffalo Grove
Referee: Gary Jorian
Scoring summary
First half
Buffalo Grove: Perez (PK) 3'
Buffalo Grove: Perez (U/A) 4'
Second half
Buffalo Grove: Kim (Perez) 43'
Buffalo Grove: Tylnyy (Kim) 44'
Buffalo Grove: Szydlowski (Berk) 54'
Rolling Meadows: Mora (U/A) 56'
Buffalo Grove: Korzatkowski (Perez) 67'