Varsity Soccer |

GAME RECAP

In a game that Coach Steib described beforehand as “just a friendly and nothing too meaningful” our boys followed suit and played too many minutes of the game as if it truly was not meaningful to us.  Mainly because our team is focused on conference play and faces a week ahead with four conference games next week, we came out a bit flat and ultimately paid the price for that.

Within ten minutes we had conceded two goals, and built ourselves quite a hole.  Some miscommunication and leaky marking allowed the Mustangs a couple of high quality chances, and they didn’t pass them up.  As the half moved forward, we did start to tighten our focus and pick up our play, creating a couple of good chances ourselves.  Unfortunately, we didn’t convert those looks and went into halftime down 0-2.

In the second half, just eight minutes into the half, we cut the Mundelein lead in half on a Connor Delahunt goal, his second of the week and second of the season.  The goal came from a service from our right back, Justin Funk.  His delivery found sophomore Noah Sebens (playing in his first varsity match,) who poked the ball toward the goal.  Delahunt pounced on the ball and made sure it found the net.

The game leveled out with each team having some good moments.  Mundelein stretched the lead back to a two goal margin in the last quarter hour, on a nice piece of skill from their player (#1, Alba.)  He was able to carry the ball in from the left side, and then cut back to his right where he could smash the ball into the far post, past Bronco goalkeeper Brett Sprengel.  (This goal was his second of the game, as he had also scored one of the earlier goals for the Mustangs.)

Despite the two goal deficit, our boys wouldn’t stop pressing.  And their work would be rewarded with a penalty kick with just under five minutes to go.  Nash Pirie converted the spot kick, and enabled us to have a bit of life.  In the final minutes, we had a flurry of set pieces and long throw ins, but couldn’t get the equalizer.

There were lots of lessons available for us today:
– perhaps most importantly we learned that if you don’t come fully focused and committed to the game, you will pay the price.
– we also learned that Saturday morning games have a distinctly different rhythm to them, just based on the time of day.  We hope this will be a valuable lesson for us in 7 days when we play our Homecoming game at 10am next weekend.
– on a positive note, we learned that the four players (junior Nathan Patterson, sophomores Omkar Prabhavalkar and Noah Sebens, and freshman Bryan Guarnero) are all capable of competing at the varsity level.  We look forward to the next opportunity to have them with us!

SCORING SUMMARY

MHS —  5th minute
MHS — 9th minute
BHS — Delahunt, Connor (Noah Sebens) — 48th minute
MHS — 65th minute
BHS — Pirie, Nash (PK) — 75th minute