Storm falls to Lake Park on PK
By Bill Stone

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The Lake Park soccer team had trouble getting good scoring opportunities at South Elgin Tuesday.

Senior midfielder Joe Keane missed on the best one, but he didn’t hesitate on the second.

Keane’s penalty kick in the second half was stopped by goalie Tyler Shipon but Keane pounced on the rebound to give the Lancers a 1-0 victory in Upstate Eight Conference Valley Division action.

“I thought I placed (the penalty kick). The keeper made a great save,” Keane said. “My first instinct is always just to get at the ball and get the rebound. I went at it and finished it.”

The tally in the 64th minute proved to be enough for the Lancers (5-3, 2-0 in UEC Valley) even though they were outshot 15-12 (7-4 in shots on goal). Lake Park did lead 3-1 in corner kicks.

“I’ve got a headache after a game like that,” joked Lake Park coach Anthony Passi. “It says a lot about a team, though. They hung in there, they came out with a 1-0 victory, but it’s like, ‘Guys, come on. I’m getting too old for this.’ ”

So far, nail biters have become the Lancers’ specialty. Four of their five victories have come from 1-0 decisions, including their previous three victories prior to a two-game losing streak. In Saturday’s final round of their Hillner Classic, they scored the first goals on Buffalo Grove for a 2-0 lead in the first 10 minutes, but the undefeated Bison responded for a 4-2 victory to win the tournament with a 4-0 round-robin record.

Goalie Zach Chesak earned the shutout with the starting defense of sweeper Gustavo Contreras, stopper Dillon Hack, and outsides Dom Azzolin and Joe DeSario.

“We’re just trying to play as strong as we can back there, send those long balls up front and hopefully we’re getting our forwards to finish those. It’s working and we’re winning 1-0 most of the time. We’ll take it,” DeSario said.

“We had to stay on (South Elgin) as tight as we could and hopefully just get that ball out of there. They had some pretty good pressure on our defense most of the time.”

The Storm (4-3-1, 1-1) kept coming after Keane’s goal but got shut out for the first time this season and now has a three-game winless streak.

Outside defender Owen Bott crashed the crease and headed Adam Smith’s 35-yard free kick off the crossbar and out of bounds with just under eight minutes left. The Storm made one final push in the final seconds but a passing combination from freshman Isaac Perez to Bott to Quinn Uveges in the middle of the crease was poked away by Hock.

“In my opinion, we outplayed them, we out shot them. A lot of times kids are so competitive and they hang their heads on a loss, but when you actually play as well as we did today, a loss doesn’t mean anything because we grew today,” South Elgin coach John Uveges said.

“I had a lot of support from the bench players today and that was really nice to see. I think it’s going to be a catalyst for playing Metea (Valley away) this coming Thursday.”

However, even the Storm’s best play turned out well for the Lancers.

With 16:17 left in regulation, Lake Park was awarded a penalty kick after a handball in the penalty area during a cross by Sergio Doardo from left of the box.

Keane shot to his left, and Shipon made the save but the ball squirted back toward a charging Keane before Shipon nor anyone else could clear the rebound.

There was momentary confusion when the linesman called offsides, which would have nullified the goal. After a brief conference among the officials, the goal was allowed to stand.

“The ball hits a defender, it’s coming in (our) direction, we’re running on, there’s no one behind it so there’s no offsides. You have a second shot on it,” Passi said.

“I don’t know what the controversy was, but it was a goal. A goal is a goal, and we’ll take it,” Keane said.

The only reason Shipon was there to make the save because he was playing so well. Uveges said that he initially considered switching to Michael Cortes to at halftime.

“He was just so hot today that I said, ‘We’ve got to keep Shipon in goal,’ ” Uveges said. “Right now Shipon is my starting goaltender, but I can’t take anything away from Michael. Michael’s been fantastic so I can go with him at any time.”

Keane’s second goal of the season was sweet in that it helped to avenge last year’s 1-0 loss to the Storm in Roselle. Several players on both teams also know each other from club soccer.

“They’re nice kids out there. It was a good game,” Keane said.

“We have like 18 new kids this year (on varsity) so me and a couple of other kids are probably the only ones that remember that (loss in 2011). We came out a lot stronger in the second half so it felt good just to put one away, especially to come out here and get a win. It’s an away game, a conference game, too, a big conference game.”

Passi said the Lancers tried to work the ball to the side of the field in the second half and then cross back into the middle. The strategy set up the penalty kick and nearly led to another goal by Kevin Coria, who blasted the ball from outside the box just over the crossbar off a passing combination with Oliver Horgan and Kris Lopez.

Prior to the penalty kick, Contreras started dribbling the ball up the center of the field but couldn’t find a target. He finally pushed the ball forward to Hock, who made a long cross the ball into the far left corner of the attacking zone. Dorado faked going down the line and then cut back to cross the ball.

“The problem is we’re capable of doing that but the consistency of doing that, there’s our inexperience, our lack of varsity play,” Passi said. “We’re getting it, and it’s eight games into the season. The problem is we’re just figuring it out. It’s going to take some time.”

South Elgin has scored 17 goals this season, double the Lancers’ eight, but couldn’t put the finishing touches on its chances Tuesday.

Midway through the first half, Tyler Piszczek found Spencer Scott free down left wing, but his shot was easily stopped by Czesak. The only other good first-half threat was a 25-yard blast from Perez that just sailed over the goal less than three minutes before the half.

With less than six minutes left in the game, Czesak punched out a 37-yard free kick on goal by Smith and Azzolin cleared out the ball. With less than four minutes, Matt Padron’s ball was passed by Josue Hernandez through to Quinn Uveges on right wing, but his shot was another easy stop for Czesak.

“It’s funny because we do have finishers. They do finish, Quinn in particular. Today he just couldn’t find the sweet spot and put it in,” coach Uveges said. “Phillip (Saccameno) couldn’t find his luck, and Spencer (Scott) had his opportunities. Hitting the post (off the free kick), it’s just one of those games.

“Like I told the boys, you’re going to have games like this. You’ve just got to know you played hard, you gave it your all, you outplayed a team and you lost and that happens.”

South Elgin senior Alberto Bustamante, an honorable mention All-UEC player in 2011, still could possibly return this season from a stretched and slightly torn posterior cruciate knee ligament suffered in the 2-1 victory at Bartlett Aug. 28. Uveges said the injury will be evaluated in three weeks.

In the meantime, the Storm is seeing improved depth from sophomore Hernandez, who started at outside midfield, and freshman Perez, who contributed off the bench at center midfield.

“Isaac Perez is just dominating right now and so is Jose. Jose went from bench to ‘I’ve got to start him,’ because he’s just doing too many things out there for us,” Uveges said.