Varsity Soccer |

GAME RECAP
Today’s IHSA Regional Championship match pitted our Broncos against the regional hosts, the Palatine Pirates.  We entered the game on an eleven game unbeaten streak, with an overall record of 18-3-1.  Palatine came in with an overall record of 11-8-1.  The weather today was again BEAUTIFUL and felt more like a day in mid September, than a day in late October.  The sun was shining, and there was a bit of wind.  Regardless of the opponent or the weather, we walked in excited for the chance to win a regional championship!

In the first half, as has been the case in many of our games of late, we came out looking strong, organized and capable.  Palatine stood up to each of our attempts, until the 31st minute when Omkar Prabhavalkar made a blistering run in behind the Pirates defense and onto a great through ball from left back Noah Sebens.  Prabhavalkar took a great first touch and carried himself into the box with just the rushing Palatine keeper to beat.  Although the finish was a fairly difficult one, Omkar made it look easy as he passed the ball into the net.

We went into halftime up 1-0, knowing that the wind would now be at Palatine’s back in the second forty minutes.  With Palatine’s ever dangerous arsenal of long throw-ins, free kicks and corners, we knew we would be challenged to keep the clean sheet.  We discussed how to play with the wind in our faces going forward with the ball, and how we could use that to our advantage as we would be working for our second goal.

Twenty two minutes into the half, Palatine was awarded a free kick in the center circle, when one of our players was whistled for “playing the ball while on the ground” – which is NOT AGAINST THE LAWS OF THE GAME (but is called in every little kids league in America.)  The free kick was served inside our area and not dealt with immediately by our guys.  After the ball bounced around a few times, and went up in the air a couple of times, a Palatine player elevated and courageously headed the ball past Broncos goalkeeper Brett Sprengel to level the score at 1-1.

Neither team was able to add to their score during the remainder of regulation or through either overtime period.  Palatine did come close when they put the ball in our net off of a long throw in.  Unfortunately for them, the officials ruled that the ball did not touch anyone and bounced straight in, so the goal was disallowed.

The game would have to be decided by PK’s.

Our staff elected to put backup keeper Daniel Hesselbein into the goal for the shoot-out, placing our championship hopes on the gloves of the freshman keeper.  It turned out to be a great decision.  Hesselbein nearly saved the first Palatine attempt, guessing the right direction but just missing the save.  Then, after Enrico Ruffolo buried his chance, Hesselbein added to the drama, stopping the second Palatine shooter.   Noah Sebens gave us the 2-1 shoot-out lead by calmly converting his spot kick.  The third Palatine shooter, perhaps aware that Hesselbein was no push over, rocketed his attempt off of the crossbar and out of play.  We had the win in our hands now – you could feel it!  Connor Delahunt believed this day would be ours.  He coolly put his PK into the net making the shoot-out score 3-1.  A miss by the Pirates, or one more goal from our two remaining attempts, and victory would be ours.  Palatine missed again, hitting the crossbar for the second time in the shoot-out… and the 2017 IHSA Regional Championship was ours!!

Coach Steib was pleased with the team effort, and praised the play of Nathan Patterson and Gio Guarnero especially.  While each player did their job today, both of these guys were rock solid in their perfromances!  Connor Delahunt, Noah Sebens, Charlie Frank, Enrico Ruffolo and Justin Funk all worked hard throughout the full match as well, while Aidan and Ethan Lew, and Prabhavalkar all pushed our attack.  Newly added JV standout Brenden Lodl played 30+ minutes off of the bench and did well to hold his own on both sides of the ball.  Brett Sprengel played keeper for us for the 100 minutes of regulation and overtime before  stepping aside for the pk’s.

Great job boys!  Be proud!!

We now advance to the sectional semifinal, which will be played Tuesday night at 7:00pm at Fremd High School, against the #2 seeded Waukegan Bulldogs.  See you there!!!

GO BRONCOS!  YNWA!!!

SCORING SUMMARY
BHS – Omkar Prabhavalkar (Noah Sebens) — 31st minute
PHS – 52nd minute
* Barrington wins 2-1 (by winning 3-1 on PK’s)

STATS SUMMARY
Shots:  BHS 22, PHS 8
Corner Kicks:  BHS 4, PHS 1
Fouls:  BHS 7, PHS 16
Offsides:  BHS 2, PHS 2