Vikings get past Grens in OT on senior night

By Jonah Rosenblum

CLICK HERE FOR FREMD'S TEAM PAGE

 

After overtime was required to settle Thursday's match at Fremd's Hale Hildebrandt Field, the roles were reversed.

Coach Steve Keller and his victorious Vikings were frustrated with their effort, despite the fact that they secured a 2-1 home win over Elk Grove.

"The second half certainly, they dominated us," Keller said. "They certainly played with more energy. We didn't do many things to help ourselves relieve the pressure they were putting on us.

"We played poorly and they played extremely well and it showed with what they created. They created numerous chances in the second half and we were fortunate tonight."

Perhaps the only thing Keller and his men were overjoyed about was finally reaching the .500 mark at 8-8-2 after starting their season 0-6-2.

"Yes, it has (been a long journey) actually," Keller said. "It's nice. I've had that in the back of mind I guess since we were coming closer a couple of games back and then we had a couple of stumbles.

"It's always nice to get that record back even, and even though we didn't perform well, we got the win, which is always a good thing."

Meanwhile, Elk Grove coach Joe Bush sounded a positive note, after his men put up a valiant effort in Palatine, just one year after the Grenadiers were routed at home by the Vikings, 4-0. Bush and his players remarked that their improvement was evident on Thursday night.

"We just played harder. Last year, we played them toward the end of the season. They won 4-0. We were kind of going through the motions then," Bush said. "This year, after we got our seeding last week, we said, 'What can we do to get better to prepare for Libertyville?'

"We're just trying to get better and I don't think we're ready to quit. Last year, we might have been just kind of like, 'Ah, we've only had three wins,' or something. It's just hard to get motivated and get up for every game, but we're 4-6-5 right now and so it's like we've played 15 games and we've only lost six and that's not bad. There are a lot of teams that are right around that .500 mark."

With both teams looking to reach the .500 mark with a victory, there was one thing that had to be taken care of before the match could begin.

As darkness overtook the field, the parents of Fremd's seniors gathered at the northwest corner of the stadium to celebrate Senior Night. Their children joined them.

As the cars sped by on adjacent Quentin Road, the pregame music went silent for a couple of minutes. Holding bouquets of flowers, the parade of seniors and parents strolled across the field as the public address announcer extolled their contributions to the program.

Each senior and his parents had their names read aloud and had their picture taken, while their fellow classmates and parents clapped for them. Then, it was time to play.

Neither team looked particularly good in the opening minutes. Perhaps, both teams were affected by the pre-game showers that soaked the field by the time the opening whistle was sounded.

"It wasn't as much the turf as it was the ball," Elk Grove senior forward Connor Murphy said. "The ball was definitely real slick. It was pretty slippery material. It's not like that usual leather sticky kind, so the ball's skipping when it comes in fast, especially off the turf, it's skipping and sliding, so you've just got to really have your first touch down."

Fremd controlled play early in the first half as senior midfielder Jeremy Kosacz had several shots deflected away in the early going.

Ten minutes in, the momentum started to change, as Elk Grove began to penetrate the zone. Junior midfielder Gio Garcia immediately began to establish himself as the smoothest dribbler in the game, swooping in to steal several Vikings' passes and turning it effectively upfield.

With Garcia in the lead, the Grenadiers were able to control the middle of the field. His lob to junior forward David Bahena sailed a little long with 28:45 remaining in the first half and as a result Vikings' keeper Steven Soltykiewicz was able to pounce on it.

That happened countless times to Garcia and the Grenadiers. Many of his passes sailed long, or rolled through a teammate's legs, leaving Garcia with nothing to show for his stellar play.

"We're the last school in the Mid Suburban League to have grass and I think it takes us a little bit of a while especially with wet turf and a little bit of a wet ball," Bush said.

"But Gio, he's one of our hardest workers. That's the kid that came in in November and started hitting the weight room and just loves to work hard. He just has such a positive mental attitude and he just stays upbeat. It's a great character attribute that he has, that's why we love having him. He's a good leader for the team and he's got a real bright future."

Midway through the first half, Bahena had Elk Grove's finest chance of the half, as he was one-on-one outside the box, and had time to fire. Unfortunately for the Grenadiers, his shot failed to leave the ground, rolling straight to the keeper.

In the final 12 minutes of the half, the Vikings went back on the attack, starting with a couple of long shots from junior midfielder Nathan Dolan. His first attempt, from 25 yards out as he dribbled with his right foot in a diagonal direction to keep his defender at bay, would have gone in, but for a leaping save by Elk Grove keeper Daniel Alvarez.

Dolan tried again minutes later, but his shot was blocked. The Vikings stayed aggressive, however, and it paid off with two minutes remaining in the opening period, when Kosacz fired from well outside the box, taking aim at the far post. Alvarez got a hand on it, as he dived awkwardly to his right, but the ball deflected off his hand and into the side netting to put Fremd on the board.

"(A couple of the coaches) have been harping on me to start using my left foot to start shooting it, so I did and it went in," Kosacz said. "It was a little lucky. The keeper should have had it but I'll take anything as long as it goes in."

With Bush yelling at his team to "step up a level" and apply pressure to the Vikings, the Grenadiers responded with a dominant second half performance. After Fremd senior forward Lucas Cholewa slotted one from the right side of the box into Kosacz, who was pushed over right as he received the pass, the game belonged to Garcia and the Grenadiers.

At first, Garcia was frustrated on numerous occasions. He sent a fine pass over to junior midfielder Jonathon Arzeta, who tried to send a ball down the middle of the field, but he hit it too hard and it rolled all the way to the keeper.

Then, Garcia shot a pass right through Murphy's legs. Next up, Garcia sent a pass over to Arzeta, who was surrounded and gave the ball away.

Their lobs were similarly fruitless, particularly against a much taller Vikings team.

"Absolutely, they're bigger, and they have got five, six defenders," Bush said. "I think they were in that 3-5-2 or 5-3-2 or however you want to call it, and they just stepped up. Our average height is probably about 5-foot-6 and theirs is probably about 6-foot and that takes a toll.

"We plan to play balls in the air direct on a 5-4 guy with a 6-foot guy on his back. It's never going to work. So, it wasn't until we had a guy checking in and we could play over the top and we had some overlapping runs that we had any success."

Despite those early frustrations, the Grenadiers slowly began to get lobs into the box, and slowly began to get chances on net. Garcia took a shot from well outside of the box with 26 minutes remaining that sent the vocal visiting fans into a brief frenzy, until they realized it had deflected off the outer part of the side netting.

Senior defenseman Guillermo Aroya skipped one well wide of the net. Minutes later, Garcia had another pair of misses, as he boomed a pass up the middle of the field, but Arzeta was along the left sideline, and so the ball sailed to the keeper. Then, Garcia skipped a pass that Bahena was unable to handle for another stalled drive.

"That was kind of frustrating because like you said, every ball is an inch away," Garcia said, "and then we got ourselves together and started playing shorter balls instead of long, and then it started working out."

Finally, the Grenadiers connected when Murphy sent a soaring shot into the upper righthand corner of the net, which new keeper Nathan Duffield was unable to get to, tying the score at one apiece with 17 minutes remaining.

"We've been trying to get really wide lately and I guess that paid off because we got it wide to Guillermo and then he passed it off to me and it just hit my left foot right and went right in the upper corner," Murphy said.

"When a team's packing it in the back and has four or five guys back, you just shoot from a little farther out, from outside the 18, and see what their keeper is going to do."

Elk Grove had several chances to win it in regulation. Arzeta nearly headed a ball in with 14 minutes remaining, but he got a little under it, allowing the keeper time to step over and snare the high bounce.

Arzeta had an even better chance moments later, as he approached the net from the left side of the box, faked around a defender, only to slide his shot into the side netting.

Bush said that he was grateful that his team was earning those chances, even if they failed to go in against the Vikings.

"I'm happy that we're getting those chances," Bush said, "and that's something in the next week and a half that we have got to fine tune because we might only get one, two, three chances in any playoff game and we've got to finish them."

Fremd also had its chances in the final few minutes of regulation. Kosacz received the ball in the middle of the box off of a throw-in, but his shot was deflected well over the net.

On the ensuing corner kick, Alvarez did well to punch the ball away from the net, with a dramatic dive to his right. By the time Elk Grove junior defenseman Manny Pillado cleared it out of bounds with five seconds remaining, both teams were justifiably relieved to make it into overtime.

In the overtime period, the Grenadiers fired the first shot, but the Vikings fired the best shot. After a fruitless though threatening throw-in to the box by Murphy, the Vikings pushed the ball back into Grenadiers' territory.

That's when senior defenseman Spencer Janes was able to find Cholewa, who gracefully headed the ball into the right side netting just three and a half minutes into the overtime period to set off a delirious celebration on his home field.

"We always have (junior midfielder Brock Vonholt) hit the long balls because he's got that nice, driven ball and then we always load up on the back post and make those diagonal runs in," Kosacz said.

"And I think that one actually popped out and Spencer had a cross in and Lucas got a head to it, and we look for his head because it's the biggest, well not necessarily the biggest, but he's the best with his head, so look for him (and) he got it."

And so on a night when they played far from their best soccer, the Vikings eked out a win, if just barely.

"We didn't start the season the way we wanted to. We did have a tough schedule, but it was one of those where it was one-goal losses and games we could have, should have won. Not finishing our chances, not playing smart," Kosacz said.

"We didn't play smart today either. I'm going to be honest. They dominated us, really, especially in the second half, but we've been improving over the year, and that's what we want to do, keep improving and head into the postseason on a win streak and playing our best soccer."