Streamwood, Glenbrook North
meet in unexpected final
Teams will decide Northside College Showcase title tonight
By Mike Garofola
With all of the high profile clubs on the guest list at the second
annual Northside College Showcase, it appeared to be a sure
thing that the likes of Lyons, Schaumburg, St. Charles East
or host New Trier would have booked a spot in tonight's final.
But Glenbrook North and Streamwood would have none of that, and
it's those clubs that will meet for the top prize at 7 p.m. on the stadium turf
at the Northfield Campus of New Trier.
"I actually don't feel that surprised that we're in the final," said proud
Streamwood coach Matt Polovin. "We've been playing very good soccer the entire week, and let's face it, when you beat two great programs such as Lyons and New Trier
in pool play, you must doing something very well."
The Sabres were the only team in the event to go 3-0 in pool play and
and furthered their impressive showing with a shutout of each opponent
(1-0 wins vs. Lyons and New Trier, 2-0 vs. Buffalo Grove).
"We had a nice long talk with the team about our expectations on the
season after watching plenty of film of our Wheeling loss (3-2), which was easily
our worst half of soccer thus far," Polovin said. "(We) broke a lot of
things down, every single negative thing, and went into detail about
how we have to be different in future games.
"This is a great bunch, and we all know it's a long season, but the
chemistry is way up there, and everyone is getting to know each
others strength and tendencies, and it's shown well this past week."
In the Sabres final pool match, Brian Benitez bagged the game-winner in
the 15th minute against Buffalo Grove. Edwin Rueda, a key figure in the Sabres
3A fourth-place finish a year ago, added an insurance goal minutes later to
give the club some breathing room en route to its third-consecutive clean-sheet
during the tournament.
"It's hard to pinpoint an individual who has been the best this week,
and while the entire team has really picked up its play after that
loss to Wheeling, it's our keeper, Daniel Dominguez who has obviously
gained a ton of confidence against three terrific teams this past
week," offered Polovin.
The Sabres manager expects Paul Vignocchi's Glenbrook North side to be organized,
well coached, and ready to come at them with plenty of energy for 80
minutes, something that Schaumburg manager Hamid Mehreioskouei
can attest to.
"We had a 10-minute letdown in our match with them, and they took
full advantage of their opportunities, scoring twice on our mistakes,
before getting a fantastic third goal to all but finish us off," said
Mehreioskouei, whose club looked the part of a finalist after its
tourney opening 1-0 win over St. Charles East.
"The work rate of Paul's team is very high, and let's face it, they
went up on us, and played very smart (packed it in) - and we had
trouble breaking them down after that. It was good work from Paul and
his players, and they deserve credit for the result."
Glenbrook North opened the 2015 fall season with a 1-0 home loss to Barrington (4-0-1) in the CSL-MSL challenge. Since then the Spartans are undefeated in four matches (3-0-1). They opened the showcase with a 1-0 decision against CSL rival Niles West,
before all but closing out the rest of the clubs in their pool with its 3-1 win
against Schaumburg in game two. The Spartans tied St. Charles East 1-1 to cement their title berth in game 3.
"We're a little surprised we're here because of our youth, but we
began here this week by taking the approach of being the underdog. And
with Niles West having so many returning guys, and Schaumburg having
their All-American (Jessie Lopez) and (St. Charles East) beginning the
season nationally ranked - what else could we be?," asked Vignocchi.
"But the improvement has been coming together as a team, and we stress
that this is our family until the first weekend of November."
In their keystone win in the pool, Spartans Kamil Barabas, Michael Papper and sophomore Mason
Rose found the back of the net just before the half hour to help seal
the deal for Glenbrook North.
"I'm not sure if it's been individual performances that have gotten us
to this point," Vignocchi said. "Collectively we've defended and attacked well, the
guys have come off the bench and done a nice job (plus) the work from
our keeper, Ian Albert, who has two sophomores and two new juniors in
front of him, has been steady all throughout the week."
Glenbrook North is ready for a challenging final.
"Streamwood is very technical, and they play with pace," Vignocchi said. "And let's not
forget, they haven't given up a goal in the tournament, so this will
be our biggest test thus far."
Streamwood hasn't slowed down since it announced its arrival as an Illinois power
at the state meet last fall. They want to keep the momentum.
"We know it will be a tough game, but we also know if we step up
another level from our first three games (here) we can have a terrific
chance of winning the championship," said Polovin.
"The guys are excited about playing in the final, and its a great
chance for us to start the season on a high note."
meet in unexpected final
Teams will decide Northside College Showcase title tonight
By Mike Garofola
With all of the high profile clubs on the guest list at the second
annual Northside College Showcase, it appeared to be a sure
thing that the likes of Lyons, Schaumburg, St. Charles East
or host New Trier would have booked a spot in tonight's final.
But Glenbrook North and Streamwood would have none of that, and
it's those clubs that will meet for the top prize at 7 p.m. on the stadium turf
at the Northfield Campus of New Trier.
"I actually don't feel that surprised that we're in the final," said proud
Streamwood coach Matt Polovin. "We've been playing very good soccer the entire week, and let's face it, when you beat two great programs such as Lyons and New Trier
in pool play, you must doing something very well."
The Sabres were the only team in the event to go 3-0 in pool play and
and furthered their impressive showing with a shutout of each opponent
(1-0 wins vs. Lyons and New Trier, 2-0 vs. Buffalo Grove).
"We had a nice long talk with the team about our expectations on the
season after watching plenty of film of our Wheeling loss (3-2), which was easily
our worst half of soccer thus far," Polovin said. "(We) broke a lot of
things down, every single negative thing, and went into detail about
how we have to be different in future games.
"This is a great bunch, and we all know it's a long season, but the
chemistry is way up there, and everyone is getting to know each
others strength and tendencies, and it's shown well this past week."
In the Sabres final pool match, Brian Benitez bagged the game-winner in
the 15th minute against Buffalo Grove. Edwin Rueda, a key figure in the Sabres
3A fourth-place finish a year ago, added an insurance goal minutes later to
give the club some breathing room en route to its third-consecutive clean-sheet
during the tournament.
"It's hard to pinpoint an individual who has been the best this week,
and while the entire team has really picked up its play after that
loss to Wheeling, it's our keeper, Daniel Dominguez who has obviously
gained a ton of confidence against three terrific teams this past
week," offered Polovin.
The Sabres manager expects Paul Vignocchi's Glenbrook North side to be organized,
well coached, and ready to come at them with plenty of energy for 80
minutes, something that Schaumburg manager Hamid Mehreioskouei
can attest to.
"We had a 10-minute letdown in our match with them, and they took
full advantage of their opportunities, scoring twice on our mistakes,
before getting a fantastic third goal to all but finish us off," said
Mehreioskouei, whose club looked the part of a finalist after its
tourney opening 1-0 win over St. Charles East.
"The work rate of Paul's team is very high, and let's face it, they
went up on us, and played very smart (packed it in) - and we had
trouble breaking them down after that. It was good work from Paul and
his players, and they deserve credit for the result."
Glenbrook North opened the 2015 fall season with a 1-0 home loss to Barrington (4-0-1) in the CSL-MSL challenge. Since then the Spartans are undefeated in four matches (3-0-1). They opened the showcase with a 1-0 decision against CSL rival Niles West,
before all but closing out the rest of the clubs in their pool with its 3-1 win
against Schaumburg in game two. The Spartans tied St. Charles East 1-1 to cement their title berth in game 3.
"We're a little surprised we're here because of our youth, but we
began here this week by taking the approach of being the underdog. And
with Niles West having so many returning guys, and Schaumburg having
their All-American (Jessie Lopez) and (St. Charles East) beginning the
season nationally ranked - what else could we be?," asked Vignocchi.
"But the improvement has been coming together as a team, and we stress
that this is our family until the first weekend of November."
In their keystone win in the pool, Spartans Kamil Barabas, Michael Papper and sophomore Mason
Rose found the back of the net just before the half hour to help seal
the deal for Glenbrook North.
"I'm not sure if it's been individual performances that have gotten us
to this point," Vignocchi said. "Collectively we've defended and attacked well, the
guys have come off the bench and done a nice job (plus) the work from
our keeper, Ian Albert, who has two sophomores and two new juniors in
front of him, has been steady all throughout the week."
Glenbrook North is ready for a challenging final.
"Streamwood is very technical, and they play with pace," Vignocchi said. "And let's not
forget, they haven't given up a goal in the tournament, so this will
be our biggest test thus far."
Streamwood hasn't slowed down since it announced its arrival as an Illinois power
at the state meet last fall. They want to keep the momentum.
"We know it will be a tough game, but we also know if we step up
another level from our first three games (here) we can have a terrific
chance of winning the championship," said Polovin.
"The guys are excited about playing in the final, and its a great
chance for us to start the season on a high note."