Storm beaten to the punch by Hawks

 

By Kevin Chroust

If Fabio Aiello can keep finishing like this, the Bartlett soccer team could turn some heads moving forward.

The junior midfielder certainly turned a few Thursday when he netted a pair of goals, both in impressive fashion, as the Hawks blanked South Elgin, 2-0, in Upstate Eight Conference Valley Division play.

“His ball skills are phenomenal,” coach Sarah Marks said. “His knowledge of the game, he knows where to be, what to do and when to do it.”

Marks was filling in for head coach Ben Beary, who missed the match due to a previous red card.

Aiello’s first goal came on a set corner kick play just over 10 minutes into the match. Carmelo Abate took the right-side corner and played a controlled ball on the ground to Aiello at the top of the box, who drilled a top-shelf one-timer into the South Elgin net.

“We’ve been working on that a lot lately because we haven’t perfected it,” Aiello said. “I wanted to put it in the back of the net, especially in this game. … I was going to finesse it at first, but I saw the angle it was coming and I decided to power-shot it and it worked out.”

He struck again with 11:09 left in the match to give the Hawks (11-5-2) a cushion. South Elgin had just started to pressure some as the game opened up with more play in the attacking thirds.

Aiello gained possession along the left end line, beat a defender with a stepover, ad hit a low shot from a bad angle that beat South Elgin second-half keeper Andrew Perry.

“I saw the near post open,” Aiello said. “I was going to pass it to my teammate, but I saw that wide open because the keeper was moving, so I decided to take advantage of the open post.”

South Elgin (8-6-2) didn’t develop much in the attack until the final 15 minutes. Almost everything that seemed threatening for them in the first 65 minutes ended with an offside whistle, which is something the Bartlett defense is starting to become known for.

“We’re not used to a flat back four at all,” South Elgin coach John Uveges said. “It’s a real simple thing. You’ve got to know exactly what’s going on out there. If you turn your head and they step forward, you’re going to be offside every time. It was just one of those things that cost us.”

The Storm drew three noteworthy free kicks in the final 15 minutes, the first of which was the most threatening. Forward Mike Kozielek was fouled from behind as he neared the penalty area from the left side to draw the chance with a little over 13 minutes on the clock.

Midfielder Bryan Irwin bent a right-footed shot from 25 yards that cleared the crossbar by a matter of inches as it curled down.

“It was very close, and again those little things can change the complexion of the game,” Uveges said. “I felt that today, if you looked at both teams, we were a split second slow on 50-50s and that was the big thing.”

Kozielek took the next two free kicks, but Bartlett keeper Alex Busch pulled both in.

Kozielek’s best chance of the evening came on a header from close range with 4 ½ minutes left, but a pumped-up Busch was able to deflect it wide.

“He had a good game,” Marks said. “You heard him yelling in the back. He gets a little excited.”

Marks was thrilled with the play she got out of her back line for the first 65 minutes with Dan Giera, Brett Dini, Chris Baumann and David Wade limiting South Elgin’s chances and working an effective offside trap, but she would like to see that play stretch into the critical minutes going forward.

“There was a little panic in the back there,” Marks said. “We started to lose composure a little bit, but luckily we held it together. Our sweeper, Chris Baumann, is incredibly fast so he’s usually able to come through and clean things up for us.”