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Prospect takes the game to Barrington in MSL win By Gary Larsen
Well, not quite an hour. The game was stopped due to lightning with 25 minutes left to play, but that was plenty of time for Prospect (10-3-2, 6-2-1) to show its stuff. A perfect cross from Ray Latourette and a finish by Patryk Ruta preceded a long-range blast from Mario Morales, before Ruta broke behind the Broncos’ back line on a counter and scored to make it 3-0 before halftime. Three goals, three different ways. All the Knights needed was a restart goal to complete the cycle. “It’s all them,” Prospect coach Kurt Trenkle said of his Knights. “This has been my easiest coaching year ever because I really don’t do much. The boys understand the game so well and play together so well, that I just trust them to make the correct decisions." “They’re a better team than we are,” Barrington coach Scott Steib said. “They’re quicker, they’re more technical, and they’re more organized.” For Barrington (4-11-1, 3-4 MSL), Thursday’s game was a case of taking two steps up and one step back. “We’ve been playing a lot better, but we looked awful today. It’s our third game on grass, and maybe they’re more used to it than we are, but we just weren’t here. There were so many things that we didn’t do well today.” “But I think it would be right to give Prospect a lot of the credit for us being bad. They looked really good.” The Knights’ ability to move the ball around seemed surprising, considering the game was played on wet grass in an intermittent downpour. “Conditions were tough but the field was in pretty good shape,” Ruta said. “It really wasn’t that bad.” The Knights struck first 18 minutes in when Sam Slusher sent a perfect ball ahead from midfield up the right side, with Latourette running on. Latourette took a few touches forward and crossed a great ball that Ruta tucked inside the post. “Ray was by himself and I had one defender, so I was either going to go back post or front post,” Ruta said. “The defender didn’t follow me, and I chose the front post.” The Knights controlled play and didn’t allow the Broncos to find dangerous space from there. Barrington keeper Will Cotopolis took shots off the feet of both Ruta and Richard Lenke in the first half, on quick counters that left him isolated. Morales made it 2-0 in the 34th minute when he saw an opening and let fly from 25 yards out. “He’s one of those guys that wait for his moment, and he capitalized on it tonight,” Trenkle said. “He saw an opening and took advantage of it.” Barrington fell behind 4-0 when Ruta converted a penalty kick just after halftime to complete his hat-trick. Slusher played outstanding soccer throughout Thursday’s match. The senior gathered and distributed balls all night, and the central midfield duo of Slusher and Mike Stankiewicz has steered the attack terrifically all season. “The great thing about those two is that when one is a little bit off, the other one picks up the slack,” Trenkle said. After Tuesday’s 3-1 loss to Schaumburg, Prospect couldn’t get back onto the pitch fast enough. The Knights squandered multiple scoring chances in the loss to the Saxons. “We know we’re a good team and we want to prove that we’re the team to beat this year,” Ruta said. “Schaumburg was a tough game, so this was a good game to follow.” Luckily for Prospect, Hersey's loss on Tuesday kept the steering wheel of the MSL East in the Knights’ hands. “Hersey’s loss keeps us in first place. If we can beat Buffalo Grove on Monday, our last game against Conant (on Oct. 9 at Prospect) could decide things,” Trenkle said. Knights’ goalkeeper Jim Brault posted his 9th shutout of the year with Thursday’s win, leaving him one shutout away from tying the program record for a season. The senior will get his first chance at it when Prospect hosts Mundelein on Saturday. “One of the toughest things for a keeper in a game like this is staying sharp when you’re not seeing a lot of shots,” Trenkle said. “They might need you for just one, and Jim stayed focused throughout the game." |
Man of the match: Patryk Ruta By Gary Larsen
Patryk Ruta plays dirty. And he does it well, too. Mud-caked from his cleats to his shoulders on a rain-soaked night, the Prospect sophomore netted the first hat-trick of his career in Thursday’s 4-0 win over visiting Barrington. “Patryk’s been waiting to have a game like this,” Prospect coach Kurt Trenkle. “He saw Richard (Lenke) and Francisco (Nunez) both get hat-tricks this year, while he’s been getting one goal here and one goal there.” “There’s a friendly competition between those guys, and Patryk knows what he’s capable of doing.” Ruta now has 10 goals on the season. His first goal on Thursday came on a nice cross from Ray Latourette, and he broke behind Barrington’s back line to get his second before halftime. His third came on a penalty kick conversion after a hand-ball call on Barrington in the box. After Prospect’s 3-1 loss to Schaumburg on Tuesday, in a game that saw the Knights squander numerous scoring chances, Ruta was particularly pleased with Thursday’s result. “That was one of my worst games of the season,” Ruta said of the loss to Schaumburg. “I thought I should have had five goals in the first half. So it was good to come out here today and score some goals.”
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Prospect’s attack can come at you in a number of ways, and it was Variety Hour for the Knights in Thursday’s 4-0 Mid-Suburban League win over visiting Barrington.
