Lake Park wins in OT; Warriors slip past Batavia

Tuesday's regional boys soccer semifinal between Upstate Eight Conference rivals Lake Park and St. Charles East required more than the regulation 80 minutes to decide.

The two teams nearly stayed tied throughout the entire first overtime period before Lake Park's Edwin Castro received an opportunity for a penalty kick, as he was tripped from behind inside the box.

Castro lined up for the shot with 54 seconds remaining in overtime and struck the ball past the outstretched arm of Saints goalie Scott Dettro, giving the Lancers a 2-1 victory in Roselle.

"It was a little nerve-wracking, but it was good," Castro said. "At the end of the game, when we knew we were going to overtime, we just had to step up.

"I split the defenders, and they got me from behind, and there it is. I'm 5-for-5 on (penalty kicks) - so I was pretty confident. I picked a corner, and I knew I was going to put it in that corner."

The Lancers (14-5-5) played Tuesday's game without co-captain Ken Miller - a loss which worried Lake Park coach Norm Hillner.

"With one of our top players not playing, we were just hoping to get by," Hillner said. "We were a little concerned with how we would deal with that, and we did fine."

Lake Park opened the game well, earning a 1-0 lead in just the fifth minute of the game. Senior forward Dan Messina bounced a throw-in off his chest before streaking the ball across the ground and past Dettro for the early Lancer lead.

The Saints (9-7-7) refused to play catch-up for long, though, answering in the 19th minute. Junior Corey Novotny snuck a shot past Colin Norman's left side to knot the game at 1-1.

Lake Park had several second-half chances to put St. Charles East away before overtime, yet couldn't manage to capitalize. The Lancers missed a shot on a wide-open look, and had a goal taken stricken from the scoreboard after a delayed foul call toward midfield.

Saints coach Paul Jennison felt heartbroken over the season ending on a penalty kick but acknowledged that a season-long inability to finish off opponents is what really hurt his team in the end.

"We played against them once this year - and I told (the Saints), 'They've got some good players, and if you let them hang around, they're going to sniff one out,'" Jennison said. "We did let them hang around, and they got one."

- Matthew McClarey

Schaumburg 2, West Chicago 1: Success in the playoffs necessitates not only stopping a team during live-action play, but also from preventing goals on dead-ball situations.

Though Schaumburg failed to register a goal during live play, a pair of dead-ball goals from senior forward Josh Beard lifted the Saxons to a 2-1 victory over West Chicago Tuesday night in the Class 3A Lake Park regional.

Beard's goals both came after the Saxons (16-7) fell behind 1-0 on Luis Ortega's goal for West Chicago in the 48th minute.

According to Schaumburg coach Hamid Mehreioskouei, Beard's elevated play in the clutch should serve as a surprise to no one.

"You can put him wherever you want," Mehreioskouei said. "When I put him on top he scores for me, and when I put him in the back he shuts guys down."

Beard's first goal came on a free kick - a situation that he feels particularly comfortable in.

"Free kicks are kind of my specialty, and I like to hit it under the wall," Beard said. "The guys were kind of spread apart, and they couldn't hold the wall, so I hit it, the guys broke apart, and it went right through."

The game-winner came in the 71st minute, when Beard capitalized on a Saxons throw-in that eventually bumped Schaumburg into the next round.

"On our long throws it wasn't working out for us, so I decided to check," he said. "I got the ball, felt the guy on my right side and just spun him off and hit it."

West Chicago (13-8-1) coach Steve Brugman felt his team played well but simply couldn't figure out a way to prevent Schaumburg from scoring close to the net.

"When you give up a free kick outside the 18 - you can't make that kind of mistake," Brugman said. "When you get to this stage in the state (playoffs), you can't give up anything inside the box, and we did that twice."

The Wildcats will need to find new leadership for the 2009 season, as all three of the West Chicago captains this year were seniors.

"All year long we really felt like we were better than maybe our record has shown," Brugman said. "Our seniors were the core of our team this year, they have been, and they did what they needed to do tonight. We just didn't put the ball in the goal."

With the win Schaumburg earned a date with Lake Park in the regional final. That game will be played on Lake Park's East Campus at 6 p.m. Friday.

- Matthew McClarey

St. Charles North 2, Glenbard North 1: Dan Figura and the phrase "goalscoring sensation" haven't been even remotely synonymous this fall. In fact Figura went through his entire junior regular season without a goal.

But what a time to hit the back of the net for the first time - with 18 minutes left in a tied match in the opening round of the IHSA tournament. Figura's flick header helped the North Stars rise from the goo of their stadium field, recover from a 1-0 halftime deficit and knock Glenbard North from the tournament with a 2-1 victory.

"It was like disbelief at first," Figura said. "But when it went in - it was awesome."

Figura's goal helped the North Stars (11-8-2) advance to Saturday's regional title match against top-seeded Larkin.

And that won the match because the North Stars recovered from a first half in which Glenbard North not only took the lead but could have added to their advantage and possibly put the match out of reach.

The Panthers (11-5-4) took the lead in the 16th minute when Nestor Gorostieta knocked in a left-to-right ground hugging shot that just went in at the far post.

Gorostieta sent a rasping shot over the cross bar with 16 minutes to play in the half. And from a corner kick late in the half, a pair of Panthers, including Alex Graf, had efforts blocked.

"They played tough," Glenbard North coach Greg Chrisman said. "My guys came out and gave it their best. It just wasn't good enough today. We didn't have as many chances as they did. But the ones we had were quality goal scoring chances."

St. Charles North made some adjustments in the second half. The defense needed to play tighter and the attack needed to show more bite. The North Stars displayed both through the second 40 minutes.

"They were beating us to the ball some in the first half," St. Charles North coach Eric Willson said. "We had to make a little more commitment to get to those second balls. And we had to try to get hungrier in the box."

It only took 90 seconds for the North Stars to equalize when Bob Lundeen floated the ball from the left wing over the Panthers goalkeeper and into the right side netting.

Then Lundeen nearly put his team ahead. By the time Figura scored, the chances were nearly all falling the North Stars way.

"We've had to fight all year," Willson said. "We certainly had to fight hard tonight. It was exciting. There's no doubt about that."

- Darryl Mellema

Waubonsie Valley 2, Batavia 1: Waubonsie Valley's Ryan Dotson never imagined his goal in the first half would eventually turn into the game-winner in the Class 3A regional soccer game against Batavia, but it did.

Dotson's unassisted goal with 26:44 left in the first half was all the Warriors needed to beat No. 9 seed Batavia, 2-1 in the semifinal hosted by Waubonsie Valley.

"I thought there was going to be a few more goals after that toward the end, so I guess that was it," Dotson said. "I'm pretty happy with it."

With the win the No. 9 seeded Warriors take on the No. 1 seed Naperville Central at 11 a.m. Saturday for the regional title. The Redhawks advanced after topping No. 15 Plainfield South 5-0 in the first game of the night.

Batavia ended its season 11-8-3 while Waubonsie Valley improved to 8-10-1. This was the second time these two teams faced each other in a week; the Warriors beat the Bulldogs by a goal in their own tournament.

All the scoring took place in the first half. Batavia was the first to strike at the 34:33 mark when Robert Forslund assisted Michael Faraone's goal.

"That was a great start," Batavia coach Mark Gianfrancesco said. "We were happy to get that start. I wish we would have sustained that ... but I think we became nonchalant after the goal because it was early."

Ryan Soloman evened the score with his unassisted goal at 28:03. Less than two minutes later, Dotson scored.

"I think they came out hard and fast," Waubonsie Valley coach Angelo Di Bernardo said of Batavia. "But after we tied the game, we settled down a bit ... but I thought we had the better chances, especially after we scored the second goal and took the lead."

"(Dotson) is their big gun," Gianfrancesco added. "We knew we had to control him."

Batavia had several chances in the second half to even the score. Perhaps the closest was on a shot from Mitch Albrecht with less than two minutes remaining.

"It's sad to lose 2-1," Gianfrancesco said.

The Warriors know they have tough challenge ahead with Naperville Central, but were happy to walk away with a win against the Bulldogs.

"We'll have to play the best game we've played all season to get a win, but if we get the win, that will be great," Dotson said. "We'll be flying high if we win that game."

- Christine Bolin

Glenbard West 3, York 2, 3 OT: He looked up, and Scott Glotzbach saw what high school soccer players dream about with a ball at their feet in an overtime game.

"I just saw a lot of green and the goal," Glotzbach said.

The Hilltoppers' senior played the hero's role on Tuesday at the Class 3A Elk Grove regional, running onto a through-ball from freshman Ruslan Seyfulov, cutting left with a goalkeeper charging him, and poking it inside the post left-footed to put his team into a regional final.

"It feels great, especially to beat them," Glotzbach said.

"Them" would be the Dukes of York. No. 10 seed Glenbard West (7-8-4) won 3-2 in three overtimes over a No. 7 team in York (14-5) that beat the Hilltoppers in West Suburban Silver play.

"One of their goals today was to have their revenge," Lopez said. "We lost 4-3 to them, but we didn't have our whole team then. But this was a very, very difficult game."

Bring a conference rivalry into a regional semifinal soccer game, and the referee's whistle is bound to get a workout. Tuesday's game featured the hard, emotional play you'd expect, periodic yellow cards, and five goals on a cold night.

York scored first when leading scorer Ryan Roberts sent a ball from the left side to the goalmouth, where a Hilltoppers defender stepped onto it and inadvertently put it into net.

The Hilltoppers tied the game before halftime when Angel Escobedo sent a direct through-ball forward to Glotzbach, who went in alone on net. Glenbard West went up 2-1 one minute into the second half when Joe Piwowarczyk located a loose ball and finished in the goal mouth.

York tied the game in the 78th minute when Stefan Salzano scored at the post on a long free kick feed from Anthony Selvaggi. Selvaggi and his brother David battled all over the field for the Dukes throughout.

"Our defense played hard for 120 minutes. Everyone pitched in," said Hilltoppers senior defender Bryan Emanuel, who stood out in Tuesday's game.

"We've had a few bad games in a row, but we played our hearts out today. York's a great team, but we knew coming in that we could win if we came out and played hard."

Glenbard West will play Saturday for a regional title against No. 2 Geneva, a 3-0 winner over Elk Grove in Tuesday's other semifinal.

- Gary Larsen

Girls volleyball

York d. Glenbard West: York volleyball coach Patty Iverson just had one question after Tuesday's match with Glenbard West: "is there a hot dog place around here that has ice cream?"

Her girls earned a treat.

A night after a big win at Downers Grove South, the Dukes put a cherry on an undefeated run through the West Suburban Silver with a 25-12, 25-15 win over the host Hilltoppers.

"We're finally clicking and putting it together on the court," York junior Lauren Zerante said. "It's a great time to do it."

It's no coincidence the Dukes had an extra spring in their step the last two nights. York had six days off before the Downers Grove South match, allowing the girls to get back in the weight room. They're pretty good in the class room, too, with a collective 4.1 GPA.

"We're lifting three times a week again," Iverson said, "starting to do more sprints, starting to get in shape for the postseason. Long matches, you're able to jump, able to push hard, able to jump higher when you lift."

York (27-6, 6-0) didn't need to worry about a long match Tuesday. The Dukes led the first game 8-2 on a kill by freshman Morgan Semmelhack and made it 19-5 on a Moe Damm kill. Seven Dukes had kills in Game 1, 3 by Zerante, Kayla Mullaney and Semmelhack.

"We're a very versatile team," said Zerante, who can play middle, outside or right-side. "A lot of the girls have experience in club playing different positions. We have a lot of different options."

York never trailed in Game 2, either, scoring the first 6 points. Glenbard West didn't help its cause with 4 service errors in Game 1, 7 for the match.

"They're hot," Hilltoppers coach Pete Mastandrea said of York, "but I wish we could have played better. We rely so much on our serving. Four consecutive serve errors (in Game 1), that kind of sets a negative tone."

Zerante had 8 kills, Semmelhack 5 and Mullaney 4 for York. Damm added 12 assists, Ali Deatsch 7 digs and Brianne Graunke 3 aces and 2 kills.

For Glenbard West (22-11, 2-4), which wrapped up its second straight 20-win regular season, Amy Kendall had 4 kills, 4 assists and an ace, Bridget Lawson 4 kills and a block and Laura Luczak an ace, a block and a kill.

"I feel bad for our seven seniors, that they had to go out at home like this," Mastandrea said. "Two straight 20-win seasons, that's the height of what we can do right now. York might be one of the top teams we've played all year. I didn't expect this."

- Joshua Welge