Chicagoland Soccer

Pirates fall to Schaumburg on overtime goal

By Mike Garofola

MSL-leading Schaumburg continued to enjoy the high life on Friday, and this time at the expense of Palatine

The Saxons shocked their guests with a goal at 84 minutes to help stay unbeaten in six conference matches, while sending a Pirates’ (7-4-0, 3-3-0) side to ponder what had happened to them during a quiet cool down on their end of the pitch inside Gary Scholz Stadium in Schaumburg.

"I just don't know what to say. There are really no words to describe the disappointment about this result," said Pirates keeper Evan Held, who was magnificent all throughout the match as a shot-blocker, and air fighter, who took everything and anything away from the Saxons.

In the second half the Saxons served one quality ball after another near the spot, forcing the Pirates big keeper to elevate far above all others to bring the ball down and out of danger.

"That (lead-up) to their game-winning goal is so surreal, and it happened so fast, especially when just a few moments early on the other end, it looked like Jon (Clark) was in a position to have a great look on frame to maybe score for us - instead - it quickly came down on our end, and suddenly the game was over,” Held said.

That the Pirates where in this match for 80-plus minutes was a tribute to its meddle, and ability to overcome a series of injuries during this hard-fought match. The Saxons (7-2-1) are suddenly the talk of the MSL, leading the table with 18 points and appearing to have no plans of vacating the top spot in the near future.

"When you read about Hamid's (Mehreiouskouei) results, and see that many of (their) victories are coming on goals late in the match, you know that he's got them fit, and playing hard for 80 minutes, and we saw first hand how they've been doing it this season thus far," offered Palatine head coach Willie Filian.

Filian’s side was shorthanded to begin play Friday night, and became even shorter when its best player, Clark, went out with an ankle injury early in the second-half. Clark returned to give a gritty performance down the stretch, only to be seen hobbling after the match.

Having Clark at less than full speed, coupled with the loss of Jason Palmas at the hour mark, and then Matt Fleischhauer, thinned out the fresh legs for Filian, whose lads struggled to keep up with a rampant Saxons' group, which seemed to be running downhill for most of the second half.

"I've always admired how hard Willie and Charlie (Gries) get their guys to play, even when I was a player back here at Schaumburg, so we've tried to instill that same kind of energy and passion from our guys since I took over,” Mehreioskouei said. “I know they had some of their guys go out but I really feel that was one of the main reasons we were able to stay in their end for most of the second half, and to continually put them under pressure during that time.”

The Pirates appeared to show no side effects from their 3-2 loss to MSL West rival Hoffman Estates earlier in the week. Palatine had plenty of momentum going forward in the first half, fueled by Clark, Jack Reynolds, Tim Murphy, Saul Gutierrez, Josh Lee and John Livaditis.

All showed enough pace to keep the home-side pinned in its area for stretches of minutes, while making sure on the other end not to allow too many opportunities for the long-range throws of Nick Abel, who since coming from St. Viator this fall has made a name for himself in the MSL with his 40-yard tosses.

The addition of Palmas in the middle of the park, after Filian brought on the senior at 25 minutes helped jump-start the Pirates attack. Both he and Murphy might have been at their best in distribution, leading up to the Pirates’ best chance of the half as the duo helped create a deep throw from Reynolds.

On the ensuing throw, Reynolds would find Johnny Enriquez alone at the endline but the junior's header would end up on the roof, far away from Saxons keeper Ben Beard, who saved the Pirates best shot on frame of the night at 63 minutes.

Just after this sequence, Saxons' sophomore defender Christian Michalowski's tackle of Livaditis took away a one-vee-one opportunity as the first half came to an end.

"I really felt that Palatine outworked us all over the field in that first half, especially in the middle, and we made sure to tell the guys, in no uncertain terms that they had better go out in the second half and change that or else we had no chance of winning this match," said Mehreioskouei.

"We told the guys they had to win all of the one-vee-one battles and to stop allowing Palatine to win the first and second balls, and if we did then we could slowly win back the run of play, and wear them down."

A frantic start from the Saxons' after the whistle showed that the harsh words of reality from its coach has been heard.

During the first quarter hour, and with Clark being tended to by the Schaumburg trainer, the Pirates' attack sputtered, placing even more stress on Kyle Clancy, Ulises Alcaraz, Fleischhauer, and, at times, Piotr Karpierz, who all asked to defend far more than Filian would have liked them to.

"We knew that (Hamid) could go deep into his bench with fresh legs, and that they would bring extra numbers forward because of it, and that was a concern for us, especially when we just couldn't find the ball in the second half to relieve our backline and (Held) of all of that pressure," said Filian.

Held was fearless during times in which the Saxons' stretched the Pirates in its own end, and when the backline was breached with successive runs into the area by Jake Savino, Joey Faleni and sophomore Norikazu Honda, who were all mentioned by Filian as especially troublesome during the second half.

The Pirates keeper made sure each and every serve sent in by free-kick specialist Alan Santana was sent into another area code. But Held might have been at his best when Savino broke free at the near post, only to be snuffed out by a picture-perfect piece of technical skill, as the senior stayed low and spread his wingspan as far as it would go to smother Savino's point-blank shot.

"That kid (Held) was unbelievable tonight," said Mehreiouskouei.

Just 3 minutes into OT, Clark had space and what looked like enough time to have a go on Beard, but the senior instead would lay a ball off to a wide-open Cesar Valdez, who might not have expected the Pirates captain to go to him.

"Typical Jon Clark, he is so unselfish, but that was a time when I hoping he would be selfish, and take a shot," smiled Held.

In the blink of an eye, Savino roared down the left side and found Michalowski, who sprinted clear of his mark, and on the turn would fire the other way to help start a huge celebration from the Saxons' faithful.

"You hope you can hold a team off when you’re dragging and running on near empty, but you also know that all it takes is one boo-boo, and you’re done. That's what happened to us tonight," said a disappointed Filian.

"Now we've got to regroup, and try to get healthy real fast, because we have five matches this week, which ends with three in two days at the Glenbrook North Invite beginning on Friday."