Broncos top Conant on Hennelly goal in Barrington
By Bill Hupp

CLICK HERE FOR BARRINGTON'S TEAM PAGE

Few conferences in the state are as evenly matched, with solid teams from top to bottom, than the Mid Suburban League, and Thursday night’s game on a rainy, chilly night at Barrington Community Stadium bore that out.

Conant came in riding high after having upset Buffalo Grove on Tuesday and while the Cougars had some scoring chances, Barrington used a fortunate bounce to score the game’s only goal in a 1-0 MSL West victory.

The sequence of events that led to the game’s only tally began with a free kick about five yards outside the box on the right wing in the 50th minute of action. Senior midfielder Ethan Claes’ outswinging cross came to Broncos teammate Danny Jaderholm. The senior forward had his shot blocked by a Cougar defender, but Connor Hennelly was Johnny-on-the-spot.

Hennelly took a touch to settle the ball and then drove a hard shot past Cougars goalie Patryk Openchowski to break the scoreless tie.

“The kids handled the game pretty well,” Barrington Coach Scott Steib said. “We controlled the tempo and managed to win the possession battle and that kind of stuff. I thought [the game] was under control with the exception of a few set pieces that they were able to do on the counter-attack.”

Conant’s set-piece chances came thanks to players like skilled senior forward Giovanny Rocha, who would win free kicks or corners and then pick out teammates like Blake Fairbanks, Justin Pydo or Victor Moskal and feed them good crosses to win in the air and put on net.

Conant managed to win those 50/50 balls in the air, but either missed the net or saw Broncos goalie Pat Deroche there to either punch them away or make the sure-handed save.

“We generated some good scoring opportunities,” Conant Coach Jason Franco said. “We gave up one good chance [to Barrington] in the second half and unfortunately, they scored on it.”

Deroche’s poise on a difficult night for keepers particularly impressed his head coach. All told, Deroche unofficially made six saves to preserve the shutout.

“It’s great to get a shutout,” Steib said. “You’re going to have to win a couple close 1-0 games in this conference. Our keeper made some really nice plays where he didn’t give up rebounds (even though it was wet out). He was clean tonight.”

“I think everyone is just doing their job right now,” Barrington senior fullback Dylan Nelson said of his fellow defenders. “We’ve really wanted everyone to bring their best effort … and if everyone is accountable for what they’re doing, then it works out because we don’t become mentally complacent.”

Steib also singled out senior midfielders Claes, Craig Zahour and Jack Hoots as guys who had excellent work rates and allowed Barrington to control possession for much of the game.

Conant (4-4, 1-3) dropped to .500 on the season as the Cougars lost for the third time in four games. They’ve only scored one goal in that span, but Franco says that is partly by design.

“We’ve struggled to score of late, but we’ve changed our philosophy to be more defensive so we can run with the big teams like Buffalo Grove and Barrington,” Franco said. “We’re trying to shore it up [defensively] and if we can be dangerous on the counterattack, we’ll be a hard team to beat.”

Conant hosts Neuqua Valley on Saturday before returning to MSL play next week, with a Tuesday home game against Wheeling and a road game at Schaumburg on Friday.

Barrington (7-2-2, 3-1) has now won seven of its last nine games. Six of Barrington’s 18 players on its roster are underclassman, so the Broncos got a huge confidence boost from knocking off tough teams like St. Charles North and Rockford Boylan en route to winning their own tournament title earlier this month.

“It was great for us in terms of us knowing that we’re a team that can play other good teams and find ways to win,” Steib said. “For us to have early season success with that many young kids was not something that I anticipated, but again, you’ll always welcome it.”

Winning early has emboldened his team for the daily grind of conference play, where Barrington now sits atop the MSL West Division table with Palatine, with a huge away game at Buffalo Grove looming on Tuesday.

“I respect every team in the MSL,” Steib said. “There are no easy games, I mean everybody in this league plays hard, so every win is to be valued and we’re happy about getting the win tonight.”