Hawks can't hold off hosts in Glenbrook North title match

By Dan Santaromita

At the end of a tournament where teams play three matches in 24 hours, it’s crucial to have the fitness to outlast the opponent.

That proved to be the case for Bartlett, which didn't quite have enough left in Saturday's Glenbrook North Invite to close out the tournament.

The Hawks had a lead over the host Spartans in the title match but surrendered two goals in the last 17 minutes in a 2-1 loss at Northbrook's Techny Park.

Bartlett midfielder Andrew Triantos hit a free kick and Tommy Russo eventually got on the end of it after a scrum for the ball in the 25th minute to give the Hawks the lead.

They held that lead and frustrated the Spartans but the wear and tear of the tournament eventually caught up with Bartlett (9-5).

"We played actually really well the first half," Russo said. "I think the second half we played a little too defensively.

"We got a lot of guys hurt and didn't have a lot of subs. I mean we had our chances. Calls didn't go our way. We couldn't put it away."

The Spartans evened the score by converting a Ryan Stern throw-in in the 64th minute.

After a couple flicks of the ball from both teams, GBN defender John Choi was able to chest the ball to control and rip the ball into the goal.

GBN showed more life after getting the equalizer.

"This is our tournament," Spartan midfielder Jonathan Weber said. "We wanted to win from the start so going down 1-0 sort of hurt at the beginning.

"At the end we just kept the energy up and made sure that we kept fighting. After we got the first goal we had this whole new burst of energy."

Another Stern set piece later led to the tournament-winning goal. With less than three minutes to play, Stern hit a free kick that was blocked, but the ball came back to him.

This time his pass made it into the penalty box and Weber scored a pretty goal sliding to hit the ball on his first touch.

"We were tired, we were hurt," Bartlett coach Ben Beary said. "We suffered from a little bit of that today.

"We were shorthanded in the second half. I think we just lost focus a little bit. The emotion of the game got to us."

Beary and the Hawks knew they let one get away. The Hawks defeated Kenosha Tremper 1-0 in the semifinal earlier on Saturday, but were still disappointed with the outcome of the tournament.

"We're not happy with the result because the result should have been different," Beary said.

Bartlett goalkeeper Alex Busch made nine saves, including a couple of nice diving efforts in the first half.

Beary and Russo agreed that the team played too defensively in the second half.

"We probably could have slowed it down a little more instead of playing the long balls to the corner," Russo said.

"We were sending our forward in and sometimes he would have four guys on him and he wouldn't have support. If we slowed it down a little bit we could have had more chances."

When the Spartans tied up the match, the play became a little chippy. Beary wanted his team to respond better to the adversity and physical play.

"We know what we need to do, but when you get the emotions going like they were we don't play intelligently," Beary said.

"We weren't making smart decisions. There were easy fixes to some of the problems we saw and we didn't make them."

In the semifinal victory over Tremper, Tyler Lake scored the lone goal, thanks to an assist from Russo, while Busch recorded the shutout in the net.

The Hawks return to action on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. when they play host to Lake Park at Streamwood's Millennium Field.