Fire U-17/18 beats FC Milwaukee to run unbeaten streak to six matches

By Curt Herron

Records don't mean much when teams in the Great Lakes Division get together, as the Fire's U-17/18 team saw again on Sunday.

Despite going up against an FC Milwaukee squad that was winless in division play, the Fire found themselves tied midway through the final half.

But Chicago responded to the challenge with a pair of goals during the final 20 minutes to claim a 3-1 victory at Toyota Park's practice field.

The victory continued the unbeaten streak for the Fire (5-3-4, 19 points), who have gone 4-0-2 during their last six matches.

It also moves them into a tie for third with the Chicago Magic in the division, just three points behind leader Derby County.

Sunday's win was critical since the Fire settled for a scoreless draw against Sockers FC in a match that they also dominated.

Joey Calistri scored a pair of goals to lead the winners while Luis Medina connected on the go-ahead score in the 70th minute.

FC Milwaukee (0-7-3, 3 points) grabbed a 2-0 lead in its earlier meeting with the Fire and wound up settling for a 2-2 draw.

It looked like the visitors might throw complicate the Fire's playoff hopes after scoring into the wind in the 58th minute.

That's when Peter Tongas connected on a short shot after a ball was headed to him following a free kick from Kelmend Islami.

But rather than getting down about the situation, the Fire picked up their play and started to create numerous opportunities.

The Fire dealt with a key change in the middle of the field when Brady Wahl exited just before the break due to an injury.

David Caban entered the match for Wahl and following the tying score, both he and Felipe Cortez began working well together.

"I've played a lot of different positions and am most comfortable at outside back or in the middle but I'll do anything my coach needs me to do," Caban said. "Whatever it takes to get the job done for the team.

"It's obviously easier to play with Brady than without him. There was a little disorganization in the first few minutes of the second half. But right after they scored, then Felipe and I started working better.

"We dropped two points to them the first time and tied Sockers yesterday so we knew we had to get the three points. We put ourselves into a hole and luckily we're slowly but surely getting ourselves out of it."

Almost immediately, the Fire received a liner that was denied and a free kick that went over the net, both from Manny Guzman.

The hosts finally put things together again a few minutes later when cortez chipped a pass to Medina, who fired in an attempt.

A bit later, Lalo Cuautle had a corner kick punched away and Calistri had a pass deflect off him that was cleared by a defender.

Caban was denied on a liner, Cuautle was stopped on a kick save on a short try and Calistri saw a close-range attempt deflected.

Things finally clicked again for the Fire in the 87th minute when Guzman tried to get off a short shot but got into a collision.

FC Milwaukee's keeper came out of the net on the play, allowing Calistri to put in the loose ball for the match's final score.

"We could have gotten three points yesterday so we knew that we had to get three today," Calistri said. "We know that if we can get four points each weekend we could be in good shape at the end of the season.

"They gave us a good match but toward the end we really picked things up. We've scored 10 points the past two weekends and are putting ourselves back into the mix. We really feel like we're making a good push."

Other than the score early in the second half, the visitors mounted relatively few serious threats against Fire keeper Zak Allen.

Thanks to defenders Keaton Albert, Peter Beasley, Daniel Lojek and Anthony Torres, Allen mostly had to stop a few long free kicks.

"Our defense has played better in the last couple of weeks," Torres said. "We aren't giving up too many goals, and if we do, they're dumb ones. We weren't going to let them take two points away from us this time.

"We knew that we had the players to play well, but our attitude at the beginning of the season wasn't that good. Things have changed a lot and we're back in the picture for the playoffs, which is a good to see."