Knights stay on upswing in tie with Conant
By Gary Larsen

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You play as a team, but where offense is concerned it’s that final individual effort to get a quality ball on frame that makes all the difference.

Conant’s Curtis King has been giving that effort a lot lately in the final third, and Prospect defender Alex Whiteman managed to do so on Tuesday. The result was a 1-1 tie in an MSL contest in Hoffman Estates.

With neither side’s defense allowing anyone to get behind, shots taken mainly from distance essentially carried the day.

“It was a good effort, especially with the condition our team is right now,” Prospect coach Kurt Trenkle said. “We’ve got three or four guys playing out of position and guys getting a lot of minutes who don’t normally get those minutes. But people are stepping up. Whiteman played up top and that’s the first time he’s been up top all year.”

Conant coach Jason Franco saw the tie as a fair result considering the airtight defensive play of both backlines. But he’d also like to see his boys get over the hump.

“Every loss we’ve had has been a one-goal loss except for Rolling Meadows (a 3-0 loss on Sept. 6), but Curtis and Blake (Fairbanks) didn’t play in that game,” Franco said. “So we’re in every game. It’s just a question of whether we can start winning more of them. We don’t give up a lot of chances and we’re starting to get some goals now – two against Schaumburg and one tonight – and I’ll be interested to see how we do (Wednesday) against Palatine.”

Prospect (3-6-3, 2-4-2 in MSL play) found a decent chance two minutes into the game when center mid Avi Chitman intercepted a pass at midfield and moved it ahead to Matt Wruskyj, who forced Conant keeper Patryk Openchowski to hit the turf to save the shot.

Whiteman sent a long one-hopper in that Openchowski handled easily at 29 minutes, but just as Prospect pressure had begun establishing potential set piece chances, lightning struck going the other way.

King, who netted both goals for Conant in Friday’s double-overtime, 2-2 tie with Schaumburg, scored on a quick counter at 31 minutes. “He has the ability to beat two guys and get to the goal,” Franco said of King, who showed composure in finishing on Tuesday’s goal.

“Nathan (Marasigan) sent it up. It was kind of a clear and he launched it,” King said. “I saw the defender was pushing me hard so I went for the flick over the top. And recently I’ve been trying to hit every shot my hardest, but they’ve been getting blocked. So I went for the finesse this time.”

King passed the ball into net past charging Prospect keeper Jack Cooney, and Conant seemed headed for a 1-0 halftime lead. But it wasn’t to be.

With players missing for assorted reasons, Trenkle slid Whiteman up top from the back line. All the  sophomore did in Tuesday’s game was earn a foul deep in the right corner, and then score the game-tying goal on a head shot on the ensuing freekick, just 27 seconds before halftime.

After halftime, Prospect returned to the successful formula implemented through the first 40 minutes.

“I was very pleased with our ball movement today,” Trenkle said. “We got into patches where we dribbled too much but overall we did a nice job of playing to the touchline, playing up, winning set pieces – it’s just that one of our things is we have difficulty finishing.”

Whiteman slid a few nice passes into the penalty area that went for naught to start the second half, with Cooney flying off his line to gather them up. Conant’s Dino Kandalepas busted in on the dribble and fired just high at 67 minutes, and the junior showed an energy in the final third that Franco welcomes.

“Dino had been good at the start of the year in terms of taking guys on and beating them, and he seemed more into that today,” Franco said.

With Matt Burikas and Ethan Graven keying Tuesday’s backline effort for Prospect, and Cooney handling shots taken from long-range, the Knights kept Conant from scoring again.

“Matt wins things and Ethan is about the best positional back I’ve ever coached,” Trenkle said. “He just knows how to use his body correctly, ever since he was a sophomore.”

Graven knows that last year’s MSL champion Knights are likely out of the running for a conference crown this year, “but I think we can do well in the state tournament,” Graven said. “We’re looking to go far in the tournament.

“We’re still trying to get our touch in the final third. It’s getting there but it’s not perfect the way we need it to be. (Defensive responsibility) falls on me, Burikas, Whiteman, and when (Patrick) Hipple came in I thought he did a good job, too.”

Trenkle also applauded the day’s work given by his midfielders in the tie. “I asked my central mids for a lot today,” Trenkle said, “and both Avi (Chitman) and Joe Tuczak played a hundred minutes today.”

Two minutes into the first overtime, Chitman took a shot off the foot of Conant’s Gio Rocha. Tuczak sent a head shot wide of the post two minutes later after a Curtis Glennon throw-in, and Conant outside defender Eduardo Ocampo sent a shot wide at the six-minute mark of the first overtime.

The first overtime ended with King reaching the endline on the right side and rolling a ball along the goal line and past the far post, capping arguably Conant’s best sustained attacking spurt of the contest.

“In the first four minutes of overtime it was on our end too much but then we came out a little. They opened up the counterattack for us and we just didn’t take enough advantage of it,” Franco said.

Prospect’s Ryan Srednicki gave it a go from distance early in the second overtime, a one-hopper handled by Openchowski.  On a Conant counter, a Prospect defender tracked back to hit a ball out with Cooney charging off his line, and Fairbanks flicked the ensuing Rocha throw-in to the far post but it flew harmlessly over the endline.

Cooney handled a flick sent in, set up by a Conant freekick seven minutes into the second overtime, and then handled another a minute later. Srednicki ripped a shot wide for Prospect from distance, and that stood as the last shot attempt either side would muster.

Openchowski and his backline continue to keep things locked down for the Cougars, who will keep working to find more scoring chances.

“We’re finally learning to play together, we’re connecting more passes, and we’re finding the open man,” King said. “We’re in every game and the team plays hard. We’re also really good in the back so it’s just a matter of whether we can score some goals.”