Corsairs' season ends in 1-0 loss to Buffalo Grove

CLICK HERE FOR CARMEL'S TEAM PAGE

By Gary Larsen

For much of Tuesday's game, Carmel possessed methodically while Buffalo Grove countered with speed in their Class 3A regional opener, as each team created a handful of prime scoring chances.

Buffalo Grove got the only one that mattered.

“That’s football,” Carmel coach John Halloran said. “We had chances, they had chances. But they had that one combination that paid off, and that was it. But in this sectional, for anyone seeded fourth through twelfth, it’s a bloodbath. You know that going in.”

An Eric Quintana goal at 60 minutes carried the sixth-seeded Bison to a 1-0 win over 11th-seeded Carmel at Hoffman Estates, which feeds into this year’s Palatine sectional.

Early action saw a quality chance each way, with Carmel’s Max Heinrich nearly getting his foot on a ball crossed to the far post from Mike Reed and Buffalo Grove hitting the crossbar on a shot before the game was two minutes old

The teams fought for control through the next 20 minutes as Buffalo Grove’s Irving and Alberto Eloyza spearheaded the speedy Bison attack, while Carmel’s midfielders combined with a rotation of strikers to establish its possession game.

Carmel’s Todd Holup fired on BG keeper Nick Landsberger at 10 minutes, Heinrich got in deep on the left side and squared a pass that was cleared two minutes later, and the Corsairs’ Mike Scheer went wide late in the first half. The Bison earned a handful of corner kicks and sent in a few shots from distance through 40 minutes, handled by Carmel keeper Steve Sliwa.

The Corsairs jacked up their attacking intensity further after halftime, pressuring hard to the 50-minute mark.

“I thought we had a really good stretch in the first twenty minutes of the second half, and we dealt with their pace better in the second half,” Halloran said.

Doom came for Carmel when Quintana settled a cross from right to left and fired from 14 yards out, inside the far post.

The game’s physical play predictably picked up from there, with Carmel urgently chasing a tying goal and Buffalo Grove fighting to make its 1-0 lead stand up.

Max Heinrich nearly knotted the game at 74 minutes, getting behind the defense and getting on the end of a Justin Gibbons free kick, but Landsberger made an exceptional save on Heinrich’s head shot on the game’s best, last scoring chance.

Carmel bids farewell to 10 departing seniors from this year’s team, in Pat Hannon, Gabe Brouilette, Ian Heinrich, Stephen Feely, Todd Holup, Max Heinrich, Justin Gibbons, Justin Andreasik, Mike Reed, and Steve Sliwa.

Heading into this season, the Corsairs only had two returning starters from last year, but this year’s group knew it was their chance to make its mark on Carmel’s proud soccer tradition, and made it count.

“A lot of these kids had to wait their turn and that’s not easy to do,” Halloran said. “I think we had two returning starters, from this game, that started last year so we more or less started from scratch.

“We returned Ian (Heinrich) and (Justin) Gibbons. We had talent but we didn’t have that go-to guy that was going to get us twenty goals this season. So we adopted our strategy to possession because we knew we couldn’t counter and that we didn’t have a lot of pace.

“We had to build from the back and to win twice as many games as we lost, and to win our conference, without having a couple of (speedy) attackers is a real accomplishment for these guys.”

Carmel finished 12-6-3 on the year and went 7-1 in earning a piece of this year’s East Suburban Catholic Conference crown, sharing it with Benet and Saint Viator.

With Carmel’s players understandably emotionally crushed after Tuesday’s loss, Halloran let them know that once the pain subsided, they could look back on a season in which they put another ESCC championship banner inside the school.

“It’s going to be hanging there forever,” Halloran said. “That’s one of the things I love about winning a conference or a regional. There’s only one team in the state that ends up happy. Everybody else ends in tears. But in a couple of months and years, that banner will still be up there and they should be proud of that.”

Ian Heinrich was a dynamic force at midfield all season, Reed and Max Heinrich were a pair of workhorses on the outside, and Holup also contributed in the attack. Gibbons and Andreasik helped key the back line in front of keeper Sliwa, for a defense that posted 7 shutouts and gave up 25 goals in 21 games.

Reed was typical of the kind of player that keeps the best programs in Illinois operating at a high level.

“Mike Reed did a tremendous job all year, and he was one of those guys that had to wait his turn,” Halloran said. “Even having done that he emerged as one of our leaders right from the get-go last year. He’s just hungry. Part of it was waiting but he’s got a good, competitive spirit and he’s a great, great kid. He’s one of those guys you know you’ll still be in touch with in ten or fifteen years. Most of our kids are just great kids.”

Halloran sees promise next season in a solid core of returning rostered players in Scheer, Peter Kolb, Adam Cloe, Christian Avalos, Billy Kloss, TJ Poll, She Ronayne, Jeremy Jenich, Michael Georgen, Michael Zucco, Tommy Paslaski, and Kevin Delamar.

“Ian was our most talented, gifted player, so we’ll have to replace some possession,” Halloran said. “But Peter (Kolb) will be back, Michael Scheer is back, TJ Poll will be a hundred percent – you know, he broke his leg in the first game of the season and we were counting on him to be our goal scorer. (Jeremy) Jenich is back, Shea Ronayne will be healthy, and Adam Cloe with be a year older. Talent-wise, we’ll probably be better next year than we were this year.

“They’ll just have to find the heart. Since our loss to Cary-Grove this year (on Sept. 24), this team came together and played with heart for us, every time out.”