Cougars fall to Rolling Meadows on OT goal
MSL West remains up for grabs

By Mike Garofola

Something went terribly wrong in Rolling Meadows yesterday afternoon for Conant.

That's where the Cougars (9-5-1, 6-3-0-18 pts.) would find themselves on the short end of a 3-2 decision after Meadows’ senior Josh Koutas fired in the game-winner near the end of the second overtime session.

Koutas’s goal gave the home-side Mustangs (5-10-1, 4-4-0) its second upset victory in a week over another MSL West contender.

The loss hurt the Cougars in so many ways as Jason Franco's club was looking to stay a perfect 3-0 on the week, to help keep them 3 points ahead of Fremd and hard-charging Barrington heading into the final full week of the MSL regular season.
 
"There really wasn't any spark out there in that first-half," said Franco, who watched his club’s dreams become a little cloudy after Koutas helped send a big homecoming crowd home happy with his second goal of the day.

"We certainly didn't play with any urgency, especially in the first 40 minutes of soccer, and although we (did) come back to get even, and had a few chances to win it, you have to give (Rolling Meadows) credit for their play and energy.”

The Mustangs were easily the better side in the first half hour as the Cougars' lack of touch proved to be the downfall of many of its advances forward. Rolling Meadows also seemed to win nearly every 50-50 ball at midfield, whether on the air or on the floor, which only added to the frustrations of the visitors.

"I really thought there was plenty of purpose in our game when the match started, because we all knew what was at stake (here) today,” offered junior MF Zach Conrad, who did his best in the middle of the park to help generate some much-needed pace to help rev the Cougars’ attack.

“But we didn't have any positive energy at all, and all of a sudden we found ourselves down two goals and chasing them to get back in the match.”

Koutas found the back of the net at 21 minutes, after an initial save by keeper Bobby Potratz, then combined with teammate Miguel San Roman, who ran freely up the right side to head a Koutas serve and make it 2-0 just 4 minutes later.

Franco would bring on several players off his bench as he searched to find someone to help ignite the attack, and Dustin Garland made a determined effort to help jump-start things.

The Cougars' would come to life at 50 minutes and would record a series of chances which saw Michael Zentner nearly score at the back post, Shivam Patel's sure goal turned away by Mustangs’ keeper Carter Gibson, and Thomas Kozlowski's drive in the area blocked by an alert defender.

Joey Bosco would finally get the Cougars onto the scoreboard at 68 minutes, finishing Nathan Cornell's helper, and it seemed to be just what the club needed to lead to another shortly thereafter.

However, it wouldn't come until the waning seconds of regulation; in fact, with just 10 seconds remaining.

That's when the Cougars pushed everyone up to take part in a Conrad free kick from 35 yards out on the left side. Mike Miller somehow got free at the back post to thump in the equalizer and send the match to extra time.

Midway through the first 10-minute period, Bosco was shown a quick red card for what the center official deemed a deliberate charge into Gibson on a corner serve from Conrad, on a play which appeared to be, instead, a case of Bosco coming hard for the ball - then forced into Gibson from one of his own players.

While Gibson was being attended to, Franco argued the call to be too harsh, which would earn the Cougars’ coach a yellow card booking from the official.

"I don't want to take anything away from Peter's club, because they flat out out-played us, and I am not even sure we would have had a chance to win with a full 11 on the field,” Franco said. “I thought Bosco deserved a foul and maybe a yellow card, but not just a quick and decisive red card like that."

Belmonte had a go off the near post to start the second OT period after order was restored, but a few minutes later Koutas ended the day with a shot just under corner of the bar, a shot initially argued to have gone under the football crossbar instead.

"We gave up bad goals all day long, and started the match in the hole because of our poor play," said a disappointed Conrad. “There's really nothing else to say."