Tinley Park buzzer beater ties Oak Forest
Bengals lose two-goal lead in dramatic fashion
By Steve Millar
OAK FOREST – If anyone ever needed a reminder that the cliché about the game not being over until the final second expired was true, look no further than Monday’s South Suburban Conference Blue Division clash between District 228 rivals Oak Forest and Tinley Park.
The host Bengals seemed firmly in control of the match, but Tinley Park turned things around. Titans senior Gustavo Chavez scored on a free kick that hit the back of the net just before the clock hit all zeroes.
The true buzzer beater ended the match in a 2-2 tie.
It was a result that elicited much different reactions from the two sides. Oak Forest (1-3-1, 1-3-1) knew it let one slip away.
“At the start of the game and the start of the second half, we played well,” Oak Forest junior forward Bruno Carrillo said. “At the end of the second half, we just let it go. We had them, and we let them back into the game.”
It was elation for Tinley Park (0-4-2, 0-4-2), which played the final 28 minutes, 42 seconds a man down after a soft red card.
The Titans cut the deficit to 2-1 on Hassam Zayyad’s goal with 7:09 to go before Chavez’s last-second stunner.
Chavez took the free kick from 30 yards along the right sideline and ripped a high shot inside the far post.
“I’ve never had anything like that happen,” Chavez said. “I saw there were nine seconds left. I heard the announcer counting down. There was a guy maybe two yards in front of the ball. I said, ‘I can’t call for 10, that’s going to take 10 seconds.’ I just took the shot; the goalie was a little bit out of the net. It went straight to the net and went in. It was exciting.”
And it was a lesson for Oak Forest to learn.
“When we went 2-0 up, instead of pushing and keeping our tempo up and taking it to them, we backed down and let them back into it,” Oak Forest coach Kieran Byrne said. “We have to close games out. This feels like a defeat, even though it was a tie, because of how it happened. It’s a tough one for us to take.”
The match marked the 100th all-time meeting between the rivals and produced the first tie. Oak Forest now holds a 57-42-1 edge in the series.
Early on, the Bengals had their offense clicking but couldn’t quite break through.
Junior midfielder Issa Deifallah tested Tinley Park goalkeeper Brayden Carroll with a pair of shots that Carroll stopped.
Carrillo fired just high off a free kick and Mohammad Deifallah sent a shot just wide.
When they finally broke the deadlock, it took the Bengals just 2:36 of game time – with halftime in between – to go up two.
Carrillo, Chicagoland Soccer’s Man of the Match, was at the center of it all, with a goal and an assist.
In the 39th minute, junior defender Kyle Baker pushed forward and made a nice run down the right side of the field before slipping a pass to Carrillo in the center of the field near the top of the box.
Carrillo ripped a shot to the top left corner to make it 1-0 with 1:23 left in the first half.
“Kyle saw where I was and played the ball up,” Carrillo said. “I just shot it. Kyle was on the run, and he saw the play develop. He put it right where it needed to be.”
The Bengals made sure the momentum from that goal carried over after halftime as they immediately went on the attack.
Carrillo broke down the left side of the field and crossed a ball to the middle, where Gavin Collery ran onto it and ripped a shot into the back of the net to make it 2-0 with 38:47 to play.
“I didn’t see Gavin, but I knew someone was going to be at the top of the box,” Carrillo said. “I put it there and was confident one of my teammates would get there. Luckily, Gavin was there.
“He told me after it happened that he wasn’t sure if he was going to make that run. He made the run, and it worked out for us.”
Byrne applauded the way his team moved the ball and generated chances at the end of the first half and start of the second.
“I liked what we did in patches,” he said. “We had some good, short, fast combinations. We did a good job getting the ball behind their defense. Now, we just have to do that consistently, and we have to do it more clinically.”
Tinley Park’s comeback was an emotional one. Senior captain and defender Tadeo Urquizo went down with an injury near the midway point of the second half and had to be taken in an ambulance to a local hospital.
“When we lost our captain, I think the guys felt they had something they had to do,” Tinley Park coach Pete Sansone said. “They really stepped up and played hard.
“Going into this game, we talked to them about staying focused mentally and playing hard. Coming in here, we had made a lot of defensive mistakes in our past games. We knew we had a good squad, but we haven’t been putting it together. We had to play almost the whole second half down a man. I’m proud of the way our guys responded. That was a crazy way to end it. You live for those moments.”
Oak Forest, meanwhile, had some positives to take away as it continues to build for this season and beyond.
“We’re a very young team,” Byrne said. “With this unique season, we’re playing everybody a lot of minutes. We have three freshmen playing (Mohammad Deifallah, Alex Stacy and Brandan Stacy) who are going to be a huge part of our future. We’re trying to get everyone that experience, and this helps me too with seeing different combinations and what works.
“We just have to keep working hard and keep improving.”
Carrillo is excited about where the Bengals can go if they continue to come together.
“We need to keep jelling as a team,” Carrillo said. “We’re not completely there yet. We’re getting there, but there is a lot of potential that we have as a team that we haven’t tapped into right now.”
Starting lineups
Tinley Park
GK – Brayden Carroll
D – Thore Gloeckner
D – Tadeo Urquizo
D – Juan Beltran
D – Justino Cortez
MF – Davis Brooks
MF – Gustavo Chavez
MF – Ethan Alvarez
MF – Ethan Patrick
MF – Miguel Martin
F – Chris Flores
Oak Forest
GK – Giovanni Cabrera
D – Michael Speaker
D – Gavin Collery
D – Kyle Baker
D – Cody Evans
MF – Declan Collery
MF – Dorian Perez Bacilio
MF – Cirilo Guiza
MF – Omar Plancarte
F – Ian Plancarte
F – Bruno Carrillo
Chicagoland Soccer’s Man of the Match: Bruno Carrillo, jr., F, Oak Forest
Scoring summary
First half
Oak Forest – Carrillo (Baker), 39th minute
Second half
Oak Forest – G. Collery (Carrillo), 42nd minute
Tinley Park – Zayyad (Martin), 73rd minute
Tinley Park – Chavez (unassisted), 80th minute
Bengals lose two-goal lead in dramatic fashion
By Steve Millar
OAK FOREST – If anyone ever needed a reminder that the cliché about the game not being over until the final second expired was true, look no further than Monday’s South Suburban Conference Blue Division clash between District 228 rivals Oak Forest and Tinley Park.
The host Bengals seemed firmly in control of the match, but Tinley Park turned things around. Titans senior Gustavo Chavez scored on a free kick that hit the back of the net just before the clock hit all zeroes.
The true buzzer beater ended the match in a 2-2 tie.
It was a result that elicited much different reactions from the two sides. Oak Forest (1-3-1, 1-3-1) knew it let one slip away.
“At the start of the game and the start of the second half, we played well,” Oak Forest junior forward Bruno Carrillo said. “At the end of the second half, we just let it go. We had them, and we let them back into the game.”
It was elation for Tinley Park (0-4-2, 0-4-2), which played the final 28 minutes, 42 seconds a man down after a soft red card.
The Titans cut the deficit to 2-1 on Hassam Zayyad’s goal with 7:09 to go before Chavez’s last-second stunner.
Chavez took the free kick from 30 yards along the right sideline and ripped a high shot inside the far post.
“I’ve never had anything like that happen,” Chavez said. “I saw there were nine seconds left. I heard the announcer counting down. There was a guy maybe two yards in front of the ball. I said, ‘I can’t call for 10, that’s going to take 10 seconds.’ I just took the shot; the goalie was a little bit out of the net. It went straight to the net and went in. It was exciting.”
And it was a lesson for Oak Forest to learn.
“When we went 2-0 up, instead of pushing and keeping our tempo up and taking it to them, we backed down and let them back into it,” Oak Forest coach Kieran Byrne said. “We have to close games out. This feels like a defeat, even though it was a tie, because of how it happened. It’s a tough one for us to take.”
The match marked the 100th all-time meeting between the rivals and produced the first tie. Oak Forest now holds a 57-42-1 edge in the series.
Early on, the Bengals had their offense clicking but couldn’t quite break through.
Junior midfielder Issa Deifallah tested Tinley Park goalkeeper Brayden Carroll with a pair of shots that Carroll stopped.
Carrillo fired just high off a free kick and Mohammad Deifallah sent a shot just wide.
When they finally broke the deadlock, it took the Bengals just 2:36 of game time – with halftime in between – to go up two.
Carrillo, Chicagoland Soccer’s Man of the Match, was at the center of it all, with a goal and an assist.
In the 39th minute, junior defender Kyle Baker pushed forward and made a nice run down the right side of the field before slipping a pass to Carrillo in the center of the field near the top of the box.
Carrillo ripped a shot to the top left corner to make it 1-0 with 1:23 left in the first half.
“Kyle saw where I was and played the ball up,” Carrillo said. “I just shot it. Kyle was on the run, and he saw the play develop. He put it right where it needed to be.”
The Bengals made sure the momentum from that goal carried over after halftime as they immediately went on the attack.
Carrillo broke down the left side of the field and crossed a ball to the middle, where Gavin Collery ran onto it and ripped a shot into the back of the net to make it 2-0 with 38:47 to play.
“I didn’t see Gavin, but I knew someone was going to be at the top of the box,” Carrillo said. “I put it there and was confident one of my teammates would get there. Luckily, Gavin was there.
“He told me after it happened that he wasn’t sure if he was going to make that run. He made the run, and it worked out for us.”
Byrne applauded the way his team moved the ball and generated chances at the end of the first half and start of the second.
“I liked what we did in patches,” he said. “We had some good, short, fast combinations. We did a good job getting the ball behind their defense. Now, we just have to do that consistently, and we have to do it more clinically.”
Tinley Park’s comeback was an emotional one. Senior captain and defender Tadeo Urquizo went down with an injury near the midway point of the second half and had to be taken in an ambulance to a local hospital.
“When we lost our captain, I think the guys felt they had something they had to do,” Tinley Park coach Pete Sansone said. “They really stepped up and played hard.
“Going into this game, we talked to them about staying focused mentally and playing hard. Coming in here, we had made a lot of defensive mistakes in our past games. We knew we had a good squad, but we haven’t been putting it together. We had to play almost the whole second half down a man. I’m proud of the way our guys responded. That was a crazy way to end it. You live for those moments.”
Oak Forest, meanwhile, had some positives to take away as it continues to build for this season and beyond.
“We’re a very young team,” Byrne said. “With this unique season, we’re playing everybody a lot of minutes. We have three freshmen playing (Mohammad Deifallah, Alex Stacy and Brandan Stacy) who are going to be a huge part of our future. We’re trying to get everyone that experience, and this helps me too with seeing different combinations and what works.
“We just have to keep working hard and keep improving.”
Carrillo is excited about where the Bengals can go if they continue to come together.
“We need to keep jelling as a team,” Carrillo said. “We’re not completely there yet. We’re getting there, but there is a lot of potential that we have as a team that we haven’t tapped into right now.”
Starting lineups
Tinley Park
GK – Brayden Carroll
D – Thore Gloeckner
D – Tadeo Urquizo
D – Juan Beltran
D – Justino Cortez
MF – Davis Brooks
MF – Gustavo Chavez
MF – Ethan Alvarez
MF – Ethan Patrick
MF – Miguel Martin
F – Chris Flores
Oak Forest
GK – Giovanni Cabrera
D – Michael Speaker
D – Gavin Collery
D – Kyle Baker
D – Cody Evans
MF – Declan Collery
MF – Dorian Perez Bacilio
MF – Cirilo Guiza
MF – Omar Plancarte
F – Ian Plancarte
F – Bruno Carrillo
Chicagoland Soccer’s Man of the Match: Bruno Carrillo, jr., F, Oak Forest
Scoring summary
First half
Oak Forest – Carrillo (Baker), 39th minute
Second half
Oak Forest – G. Collery (Carrillo), 42nd minute
Tinley Park – Zayyad (Martin), 73rd minute
Tinley Park – Chavez (unassisted), 80th minute