Pirates fail to finish in MSL loss to Prospect

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By Dan Santaromita

Set pieces are crucial to a team’s success. The difference in converting them and not is often the difference in a game.

Palatine had several corner kicks and tons of long throw-ins put in the box by Ethan Chaplinsky that the Pirates couldn’t convert against Prospect on Thursday night, and the result was a 2-0 loss.

“We’ve had a bunch during the season and we still don’t make good chances off of it because we’re still too inexperienced to know where the second ball is going to be,” Palatine coach Willie Filian said of his team’s struggles with set plays.

“These guys are intelligent kids, the Prospect kids, give them credit. They collected every second ball, every loose ball. They had an idea where it was going to be and they either got it front of it or got it out. They’ve got Patryk Ruta in the middle of the field and they got some really good skillful kids. It was a good effort by our kids, but they were better.”

For all the pressure Palatine put on the Knights, Prospect had plenty of their own chances in the first half and displayed a successful deep throw-in in the 27th minute. Mario Morales hit a brilliant first-touch volley that wrong-footed Pirates’ keeper Evan Held (5 saves).

Then, less than a minute before halftime, the Knights sprung a counterattack that turned into a 3-on-1. Brayhan Nunez led Alex Schnepf, who set up Bill Cooney for an easy finish.

“In the first half we just made some mistakes in the back and they took advantage,” Filian said. “They’re a very good team. We outworked them in the second half, but we were unfortunate not to be on the end of a couple crosses. That’s the way it goes in this league.

If you’re good in the back, and the other team is having trouble getting on the end of things … they deserve to win because they got their two goals in the first half.”

Palatine, desperate to come back, controlled the possession in the second half, but couldn’t connect on Chaplinsky’s many throws.

“Our goal is to try to get a flick and get it in, so we just weren’t getting it today,” the senior defender said. “We have our designated runs that we run every time. It just wasn’t working today.

We needed to win the second balls, we need to get our crosses in and get a head on it. That’s what we do best.”

Pirates’ midfielder Jack Reynolds caused a few problems, but the Prospect defense was firm.

“We played fantastic,” Prospect goalkeeper Brad Reibel (12 saves) said of his defense. “We marked in the back. We did everything a defense could ask. Our midfielders came back. (Patrick) Sitko took one off the line. That was unbelievable. You can’t ask for anything better than that.”

The Pirates (6-3, 3-1) were the last to take a defeat in Mid Suburban League play this year and are tied for the MSL West lead with Fremd and Conant. Filian knows his team will have to work harder in order to beat those teams.

“We know what our talent level is,” he said. “We’re obviously not at the talent level of a Prospect yet, or a Fremd, or a couple of the other sides that are out there. We have to work hard. We have to outwork teams. We have to take more advantage of our set pieces. We make chances off of it but we just can’t finish.”

“We could have done better,” Chaplinsky added. “We worked hard in the second half especially, but we just couldn’t put one away.”