Barrington Loses to Cary-Grove in Soccer Regionals

Tuesday, number two seeded Barrington Broncos traveled to nuetral site Grant High School in Fox Lake to take on number 3 seeded Cary Grove Trojans in regional action.  The game was the kick-off to the IHSA class 3A state playoffs for soccer.

Barrington is coming off a good year (12-9-3) and finished by winning their last 10 matches of the season. Coach Scott Steib was expecting the Broncos to continue their strong play by coming out with lots of energy. 

"This is what we have been playing for all year.  Cary is a tough team; we have to respect the fact that they won 13 straight to end the season," said Steib.

Barrington brought the energy Coach Steib was looking for at the start, but Cary was able to match the Bronco's runs.  The game stayed relatively quiet until about midway through the first half when both the Broncos and Trojans  had nice shots on goals.

Barrington continued the pressure and physical defense that opened up a few more goal shots throughout the first half, but tough defense by both teams had them tied at zero leading into halftime.

The second half began with the same intensity that the first ended with but the game remained scoreless until  33 minutes in when Cary managed to find the back of the net. 

On a throw-in near Barrington's net, Cary's Nolan Walsh was able to get some separation from his opponent and scored the game's first goal.  Barrington's goalie Will Cotopolis (who has had 6 shutouts in his last 8 games), was able to get a hand on it but wasn't able to redirect the ball which gave Cary a 1-0 lead.

"You got to be happy, [Walsh] was in the right place at the right time," said Mark Olson,Trojan coach.

With Cary now leading they appeared more at ease to push the action and forced Cotolpolis to make another diving save just a few minutes later.

The Broncos made a nice run to tie things at the 25th minute but Cary's goalie Tom Breen was in a good position to see the ball go wide right.

Cary returned the pressure by capitalizing on spacing and had good clean shots on back-to-back corner kicks that were both defined nicely by the Broncos and Cotopolis.

After their attempts to extend their lead, the Trojans continued efficient shots from good passing that stretched the field in hopes of draining the clock.

At the 12 minute mark the Broncos had another opportunity to tie the game at 1, but Barrington was unable to handle the shot off a rebound and it went wide right.

Cary continued their tough defense throughout the game.  After Barrington's attempt at the 8 minute mark, Charle Giovenco missed a header and the Trojan's Jon Guay had a great run on a deep pass that required Cotoplois to leave the goalie box and make an aggresive save.

Barrington had an frantic final minute but each attempt was denied by Cary's defense, and the Trojans held on for a 1-0 victory.

After the game Coach Steib said of his team's performance, "Can't complain too much, you need to score goals to win.  We had quite a few chances; we talked about being opportunistic and it's tough when you have chances but you can't put it in."

"All the players were unbelievable tonight, but I can't say enough about Gustafson and how he played defense in the middle," said Coach Olson.

Barrington was eliminated from the IHSA playoffs while Cary-Grove will play number one seed Round Lake at 2pm on Saturday Oct. 23rd for the Regional Championship.