Grenadiers post third straight win against Lake Park

By Dan Santaromita

Baseball is referred to as a game of inches, but when Elk Grove and Lake Park met on the soccer pitch, soccer was the game of inches.

The Grenadiers hit the post and the crossbar once each and had two balls cleared off the line.

Lake Park almost had an England-Germany World Cup moment when a Luca Giovine shot hit the crossbar and fell straight down, not quite crossing the goal line.

After all those near-goals it was just one goal that decided the game, a penalty kick at that. Rafal Borys’ well-taken spot kick gave Elk Grove a 1-0 win in the Stach Memorial Tournament, hosted by the Lancers.

The Grenadiers (4-2) were more aggressive and played clean defense in the win over the Lancers (5-3-1).

“I think we played well,” Elk Grove coach Joe Bush said. “I think it was a good team effort. We were fortunate to get the penalty kick call that we did especially since Lake Park could have had one easily in the first half.

I think we were fortunate that way and sometimes the balls roll funny for everybody. Fortunately they rolled well for us.”

Neither team controlled the run of play early, but the Grens caught a break when Lake Park committed a foul at the edge of the penalty box and Borys converted the ensuing penalty kick in the 22nd minute.

Lancers’ goalkeeper Eric Ahrens (10 saves) guessed correctly by diving to his right, but Borys pounded the penalty into the side netting.

About four minutes later the Lancers came devastatingly close to leveling the game when Giovine’s open shot in the box wouldn’t quite cross the line after bouncing straight down from the bar.

“They had a ball that bounced right on the goal line, which could have been a goal,” Bush said. “We had a couple of opportunities. For as well as both teams played there some open chances.”

Giovine’s close effort seemed to change the game because Elk Grove played with more confidence afterwards and controlled the play.

Not even two minutes later Elk Grove forward Connor Murphy headed a cross at goal, but Ahrens just got a hand on it and the ball harmlessly hit off the post.

Murphy was at it again later in the half and this time his headed ball actually beat Ahrens. However, a Lancer defender was able to block the shot just in front of the goal.

The Grens’ pressure later resulted in Ahrens being stripped of the ball on an attempted clear. Ernesto Rodriguez raced to the loose ball and a put it on goal, but Ahrens was able to scramble back to touch the ball enough for another clearance off the line by his defense.

“We’ve been talking about how we need to be tough in the box,” Bush said. “We weren’t as tough as we should have been, but we got the goal that we needed. Of course I’d like to finish more of those. We can knock the ball and we can get our chances but as you play tough teams we’re going to have to finish. We should be good.”

For all the action of the first half, the second half was a more defensive period. Bush’s team kept Lake Park at bay and the Lancers barely sniffed the goal.

Skilled Lancer forward Joe Passarelli’s touches were limited in the second half.

“Just shut down and neutralize their main attacker and you can control the game after that,” Elk Grove midfielder Carlos Cisneros said.

Elk Grove’s defense was so strong that keeper Frankie Ortiz only had to make one save.

“It was a scrappy game,” Cisneros said. “It could have gone either way, but we had luck on our side today. All we need is one goal to put the team away and play defense. It wasn’t our best game, but our defense held through so I think today our defense won the game for us even though we couldn’t finish a lot of our chances.

We still have a lot of time to improve and hopefully throughout the season we can finish and put teams away easier and we’ll have an easier ride to state.”

Borys and the Ginter twins, Matt and Mike, manned the defense for Elk Grove.

“We played good defense and I think that’s what saved us the game,” Matt Ginter said. “We tried to hold the ball up front on our forwards, but (Lake Park) had a good solid core. They’re a tough team, they were really physical and we kept our composure so it was all good.”

Ginter was pleased his defense didn’t allow another late goal like they did against Hersey earlier this season.

Lake Park coach Norm Hillner was frustrated with his team’s performance, but liked the way Elk Grove played. “When people are playing hard, getting their first touch, winning the ball. It makes a big difference,” Hillner said.

Hillner's frustration was counterbalanced by Bush's optimism over his side's win.

“Lake Park is a good, good team and that’s a big win for us,” Bush said. “Defensively we were strong. We didn’t give up too many chances and we were good.

I thought our outside mids did a good job of getting in front of them and forcing them to make an errant pass that our backs could then pick up. We played with five in the mids so we’re usually outnumbering people, but of course we’re only playing with three in the back.

We were able to pressure and you know there were a lot of turnovers in the midfield. The pitch is ok, it was a little bumpy at times and I think that might have ruined the flow.”

Elk Grove gets into the swing of conference play next week with home games against Conant and Buffalo Grove.