Knights use early goal against Cougars to end losing streak

CLICK FOR PHOTO GALLERY COURTESY OF ANDY SCHNEPF

By Dan Santaromita

There's nothing like an early goal to end a scoring drought.

After a hot start to the season, Prospect had been shutout in its three previous games.

That made Patryk Ruta's seventh-minute goal against Conant on Tuesday a bit of a relief for the Knights.

Prospect held on for a 1-0 win over Conant in Mid Suburban League play in Hoffman Estates to end its three-game losing streak.

"I'm a little disappointed that they didn't keep the intensity up after we got the goal. I was kind of expecting they would because that's what we did in the past, but all in all I think we played a pretty solid game," Prospect coach Kurt Trenkle said.

"We possessed the ball really well in the opening ten minutes. I thought we moved it very, very well."

Richard Lenke flicked the ball to Ruta, who finished from close for the goal for the Knights (10-4-2, 6-4).

After Prospect's strong start, there were few quality chances the rest of the first half and possession was mostly even.

"The first half, especially the first ten minutes, we came out a little bit slow," Conant coach Jason Franco said. "That's been our Achilles heel the last couple games.

"I thought it was pretty even after that. I thought it deserved to be maybe a tie or maybe even get us the result."

The Knights sat back more in the second half and created a few near-breakaway opportunities via long balls.

Lenke, Bill Cooney and Alex Schnepf all caused problems for the Cougar defense and Brayhan Nunez had a chance that Trenkle says he should have put away.

Meanwhile, Conant (9-6-1, 6-4) had numerous set pieces that with a generous bounce could have leveled the match.

Brad Reibel (14 saves) once again saved the day for the Knights with a few fantastic saves towards the end of the match.

"We kind of let them in with some of those set pieces we were giving in the final third," Trenkle said. "They send a lot of people into the box and anything can happen.

"Defensively, I thought we were pretty good. Brad once again made big saves at the end. That's a daily thing."

A Zach Conrad free kick was sent to the far post and headed hard at Reibel who stood his ground well.

With less than ten minutes remaining, Reibel made a double save on Cougars forward Shivam Patel.

Patel was a threat in the final third all game, but couldn't get one in the back of the net.

"Goalie stood on his head a little bit," Franco said. "I think the ball hit him more than he hit it, but sometimes that's what you need to win games like this.

"Credit to them, they played well, they're talented and they found enough to break us down and that was the difference today."

On the other end, Bobby Potratz made six saves in goal for the Cougars and was pressured every time he received a back pass from one of his defenders.

Franco was frustrated with the team's lack of finishing, but they were also missing a few players. Joe Bosco, who was serving a red card suspension, was among them.

"I think we played actually very well," Conant midfielder Dustin Garland said. "It was just one unlucky break that broke us down.

"I thought we played well in the second half, just couldn't get our chances up in the air, just couldn't score."

The Knights had been on the receiving end of three 1-0 defeats during their losing streak and were happy to turn the tables.

"The last three games were a little rough," Ruta said. "We knew today we had to come out and get the three points. I thought we did the job.

"We still have some things to work on obviously like possessing the ball, keeping the ball more in the middle, being more composed but I thought we did a very nice job of getting the W today. I thought we played possession overall much better.

"We were much more controlled. We didn't panic with the ball. I thought we made much better decisions overall as a team I think everybody did. We played better as a team defensively. Attacking-wise it was just so much better. The movement off the ball was just great."

Despite the win, the Knights will not be returning to the MSL Cup this year. Elk Grove clinched the East's spot in the Cup with a win Tuesday.

Prospect will finish conference play with a home match against Buffalo Grove on Friday at 5 p.m.