Storm battle well in scoreless tie with Glenbard North

 

By Kevin Chroust
Photos courtesy of James Homa

At one point it looked like Kevin Greiner might win it for Glenbard North. At another it seemed Mike Kozielek had done it for South Elgin. And in the end, no one did anything to disrupt the zeros on the scoreboard.

The Panthers (2-3-4) and Storm (5-4-1) each had their chances to put away a late game-winning goal Thursday night at Streamwood, but neither was able to find the back of the net as they played to a 0-0 draw in non-conference action.

“We’re not giving up a lot in the back, which is nice to see,” Glenbard North coach Greg Chrisman said. “But at the same time, we need to produce more offense.”

Quite possibly the best scoring chance of the match was the final scoring chance. After South Elgin’s Brett Musnicki was fouled on the right side of the top of the penalty area, Kozielek drilled a 25-yard free kick that rung the crossbar with authority in the final minute and kept South Elgin off the board.

“It looked great,” South Elgin coach John Uveges said. “Koz has got a great shot. We knew we were going to get a great opportunity to score. It was just unlucky.”

The near miss was the last in a series of South Elgin opportunities that all came in the final 25 minutes of the match. After a slow start, Uveges thought his team picked things up in a big way, despite the lack of a tally.

“0-0 doesn’t mean anything,” Uveges said. “It’d be nice to win the game, but honestly on the field I think we outplayed that team, and it’s just a really good feeling for us.”

Nine minutes prior to the free kick, Kozielek had another chance that developed out of a 71st-minute set piece.

From a similar location though closer to the middle of the field, he and teammate Bret Hildebrandt lined up over the ball. Kozielek stepped over it and moved into the penalty area, Hildebrandt played a low ball that followed his teammate into the box, and Kozielek directed a shot wide right.

Despite conceding the better end of the possession game in the second half, Glenbard North (2-3-4) also had a pair of opportunities in the final 15 minutes.

In the 67th, midfielder Kevin Greiner found himself alone near the top of the left side of the Storm penalty area. A teammate deflected a ball his way and he hit a quick volley that beat Storm second-half keeper Andrew Perry but sailed just over the bar.

“I was making a run on my back post,” Greiner said. “Nick [Callard] got in a good far-post ball and [Eric] Dailly got the flick on. I was running behind him and I just put it over. I thought I should have had that one. It could have been the game-winner.”

In the 77th, Glenbard North’s Jon Colucci found himself with the ball at his feet and his back to the goal inside the Storm penalty area. He laid the ball back to teammate Danny Campagna at the top of the box, but his chance was also struck high.

For the second time in three days, Glenbard North started the match with a promising demeanor and gradually slid. Chrisman said it has just been a matter of circumstance this week and is nothing to be concerned with.

“The first few games, we were the comeback kids,” Chrisman said. “We were always going down early then. But now it’s different and sometimes games just flow like that.”

Meanwhile, Uveges was pleased with what he saw in his team’s first time on the field since losing to Lake Park Tuesday. And overall, through 10 games, he feels quite good about where his team is at.

“We fell apart Tuesday,” Uveges said. “But tonight we’re feeling really good.

We look at it as there being three levels of teams. We look at our team as second level. We’re trying to get into the first level. This is the type of game, when we possess the ball the way we are, we’re hoping will get us to play well against the upper level teams.”