This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Sports

Maine West Capitalizes on Glenbrook North's Miscues

The Warriors move on to 8-2-1 on the season while the Spartans drop to 3-3-2.

Crisp and cool autumn air made its way to Northbrook on Thursday night.

But it wasn’t high school football in the air--it was boys soccer--and at Glenbrook North (GBN), the visiting Maine West Warriors put on quite the display.

The Warriors, behind a pair of first-half goals that occurred three minutes apart, had no trouble getting past the hometown Spartans.

Find out what's happening in Des Plaineswith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Earlier:

The Warriors took early advantage of a Spartan team that has been hit hard by graduation and an influx of new talent, whose inexperience was the primary reason for Maine West’s two goals in the first half.

Find out what's happening in Des Plaineswith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The opener came when Warrior captain Tait Jensen floated in a pass from the right side just after a corner kick was played immediately back to him. His pass was headed by a Spartan defender right into the path of Warrior star Nelson Herrera, one of the top sophomores in the state, who ripped a shot across goalkeeper Mitch Shapiro.

Three minutes later, Maine West doubled their lead courtesy of some incredible luck.

Senior Spencer Walton floated in a pass from midfield that overshot his teammate, Jerry Espinoza. Spartan freshman Zayne Willis had a horrible kick that directed the ball into Will Hepburn’s path. Moment later, Hepburn slammed home the ball with his left foot and past a helpless Shapiro for a 2-0 lead.

“Early in the year, we had some really bad luck. We just weren’t getting the bounces our way and tonight, we started to get some,” said Warrior head coach Mike Divincenzo. “It was refreshing to see that happen.”

Both sides looked to play out the majority of the second half to a draw. Only one real scoring chance was provided and it was with tough luck that Maine West didn’t make it a third.

With 15 minute remaining, Herrera had a slaloming run down the left side to set up teammate Alex Herrera (no relation) who calmly slid the ball off to teammate Tommy Cerri.

Cerri, cutting to his right, unloaded a bullet that came flying against Shapiro’s momentum. The ball came thumping off of the left post right into the hands of Shapiro, who was well beaten and a good eight yards away.

For Divincenzo, it was a good effort all around by his players.

“We moved the ball around really well and I thought we created some good chances. GBN does a good job of making you play kind of down one side and makes it tough for you to switch the ball [to the other side of the field], so credit to them.”

The Warriors move on to 8-2-1 on the season while the Spartans drop to 3-3-2.

Fb Like Des Plaines Patch and Join the Conversation.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?