By Brian Thomas
Staff Writer
On Friday, the Prospect soccer team came away with an impressive win over Conant in overtime. The final score was 2-1. Prospect struck first to give them the lead just before the first half came to a close, with senior Michael Stankiewicz scoring off of a penalty kick. The penalty kick was awarded because of a red card given to the Conant goalie; the red card was due to an intentional handball and, as a result, he was out of the game. It was a big play because now Conant was forced to play their backup goalie who was cold coming off the bench.
When asked about the whole play, Prospect coach Kurt Trenkle said, “It was a big swing of momentum in the game for us.”
Conant was not going to go away quietly, however. With about 10 minutes left to play in the second half, Prospect goalie Jim Brault, who is gunning for the school record in shutouts, gave up a rare goal. The game was now tied, 1-1 and the momentum had changed back over to Conant. But Prospect was determined to win the game. They held off Conant for the remaining 10 minutes and they went into sudden death overtime.
Trenkle fired up his team before overtime. “You guys are going to win this game, you guys deserve it. All we have to do is put the ball in the back of the net and we win.”
What he said to them must have worked, because with about three minutes left in overtime, senior Francisco Nunez gave sophomore Patryk Ruta a beautiful pass and Ruta put it in the back of the net to win the game in overtime for the Knights.
“It was just flat out amazing. It was fun to win it for the crowd. But the goal was also for the seniors,” Ruta said. “We wanted to win it for them because it was their last Homecoming game.”
“It was just flat out amazing. It was fun to win it for the crowd. But the goal was also for the seniors,” Ruta said. “We wanted to win it for them because it was their last Homecoming game.”
Despite the win, Trenkle says that the team can still improve. “We need to attack more to give us more scoring opportunities. If we attack the corners, that will give us a better chance of scoring, and we can always improve on hitting our shots.” Ruta agreed and said that they need to “attack much more often” and “create more offensive opportunities.”
After the big win, the Knights turn their attention to a big matchup with Palatine on Thursday for the MSL championship. Prospect lost to Palatine earlier in the season and they are going to be well prepared for them.
“To get ready for Palatine we are going to practice on field turf at Olympic Park in Schaumburg. We are not used to playing on field turf, so this will help us for Thursday,” Trenkle said. “We will watch lots of game film on them as well. We will be ready for them come Thursday.”
Ruta believes that they are ready for Palatine as well.
“We have been waiting such a long time for this game, he said. “This in a way is a payback game. We really want to beat Palatine after they beat us last time.”
For more photos from the game, see our photo album