Knights drop into tie with Grens for lead in MSL East

By Dan Santaromita

Prospect coach Kurt Trenkle said his team may have played their worst game of the season and it couldn't have come at a much worse time.

On senior night in Mt. Prospect, the Knights lost 1-0 to Elk Grove in a fantastic match that could end up deciding the Mid Suburban League East race.

The win pulled Elk Grove (9-4, 5-3) to a tie with Prospect (9-3-2, 5-3) at the top of the division and with the head-to-head tiebreaker, the Grenadiers control their destiny.

"Absolutely huge win," Elk Grove coach Joe Bush said. "We've still got to take care of business if we're going to get to the title game. I was so proud of these kids today.

"We haven't put together a possession-type game like that in a long time. They're a very good team and I'm impressed to come onto their home field on senior night and beat them."

Elk Grove showed its intentions from the start. The Grenadiers had multiple chances in the opening minutes and took the lead in the seventh minute through Ernesto Rodriguez.

After some sloppy play at the back from Prospect, Rodriguez took control of the ball and dribbled into Brad Reibel's penalty box almost uncontested for the goal.

Once they fell behind, the Knights fired up and Elk Grove didn't take another shot for about a half hour. However, the possession didn't turn into quality chances.

"We didn't put a single quality shot on frame tonight," a frustrated Trenkle said. "Everything was high or wide or if it was on frame it was rolling and weak."

Prospect's best shot came from Richard Lenke not even twenty seconds after the second half's opening kick.

The junior forward weaved through the Grens' defense and ripped a shot that hit the post and bounced back into play before being cleared.

As Prospect pushed forward, Elk Grove was able to create a couple breakaways. However, Reibel (11 saves) stopped two clear breakaways to keep the game close.

First, he charged off his line and collided with Ernesto Rodriguez and both players stayed down for a few minutes.

Then in the final minutes Justin Gavros was in front of goal, but a loose touch allowed Reibel to snatch the ball.

"Although we only scored one goal, their Reibel is just an absolute stud," Bush said. "They're going to be in every game because of him."

On the other side, Frankie Ortiz made six saves for Elk Grove and got some help from forward Connor Murphy, who cleared a ball off the line in the second half following a corner kick.

Prospect didn't display the usual flowing attacking style of soccer that has netted it nine wins already this season. The Knights struggled to utilize talented wingers Brayhan Nunez and Mario Morales.

"We made too many mistakes on every phase of the field," Trenkle said. "We came out flat I thought.

"We gave them some pressure down the right wing and other than that we were making poor passes, poor choices in the midfield, giving away breakaways. The bright spot was Reibel again.”

This is Prospect's second straight 1-0 loss after falling at Fremd Tuesday.

Trenkle said the team will have to figure out what's different now as opposed to three weeks ago when the team was rolling, but technically they need to improve.

"The last couple games we've been playing less than usual, but we're just going to keep our heads up and then hopefully we pick it up the next couple games," Knights' forward Bill Cooney said.

Despite the losses, Cooney remained confident and thinks the team will come out of this slump better than before.

"It's probably helping because we started off playing weaker teams, but now that we're playing stronger teams, we're getting used to it and eventually we'll be able to beat them," he said.

Prospect goes to Barrington Saturday and later has matches against Conant and Buffalo Grove to close out conference play while Elk Grove has Wheeling, Palatine and Hoffman Estates remaining in MSL play.

"They've got the easier road," Trenkle said. "We've got three harder teams that we're going to see. What we need to do is focus from the opening whistle Saturday."