By Bill Esbrook

CAROL STREAM – York had to persevere, to say the least, in the first half of the championship match of the Glenbard North Quad on Saturday.

The Dukes faced off against Conant on Weber Field, and they had a lot to contend with in the initial 40 minutes.

The Cougars had the majority of possession and peppered York goalkeeper Diego Ochoa with shot after shot.

To top it off, strong winds courtesy of Hurricane Helene, blew right in the faces of the Dukes.

When the score went to intermission at 0-0, York breathed a sigh of relief.

“It was a little scary when we didn’t have the wind (in the first half),” said Dukes coach Jordan Stopka.

“Then (in the second half) it was a wonderful strike by John O’Connor,” added Stopka, “to give us the lead.”

York, which beat the hosts 3-1 to gain the final, found the back of the net just four minutes into the second stanza thanks to O’Connor. The tally proved to be the game-winner after the Dukes held off Conant the rest of the way for a 1-0 victory.

Ochoa was staunch in goal for the winners. He finished the match with seven total saves, five in the first half.

“We played pretty sound defense,” said Stopka, "even though they (Conant) put a lot of pressure on us.”

The coach pointed out that Jackson Bui, who is thriving after a change of position, stood out for his team.

The senior backliner earned Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match honors for his tough-as-nails performance.

“He’s great,” said Stopka. “Originally, he was an outside back, and now he’s slid into the center and has been a revelation. He’s really stepped up.”

Conant, which downed West Chicago in the semifinals, played a strong first half with the brisk wind at its back. Despite a balanced attack, the Cougars couldn’t put one past Ochoa.

They were persistent in the second period as well but couldn’t find a way to get the equalizer.

“We’ve been on a three-game stretch,” said Cougars coach Jason Franco. “We had to play Thursday, Friday, Saturday, so I wasn’t expecting us to be our normal selves.

“But I thought we played a good solid game. York kind of hung in there in the first half, and after that goal in the second half, we tried to hang on.

“Good solid effort, I think, by both teams. Their goalie (Ochoa) was good, but we didn’t really test him as much as we would have liked to.

“For us to play three games in a row, against West Chicago, Barrington and this team, is a lot to ask of our guys. But I’m proud of the effort, we fought and gave ourselves a chance to win.”

Early in the first half, Bui stopped chances from Cougars Danny Flores and Ibuki Takahashi, taking the ball away from each near the goal and booting it out of harm’s way.

Conant kept the pressure on and in the 29th minute forced Ochoa to make two stellar saves back-to-back. The shots came from Cougars junior midfielder Gabe Dobrincu, then sophomore defender Kacper Niziolek.

The Cougars kept the pressure on, but in the 34th minute, York counterattacked.

Midfielder Aaron Jobi made a long run up the middle of the field and blasted a rocket of a shot from 38 yards that Conant keeper Alex Romero blocked.

The ball banged off his hand and looked like it might bounce over the goal line, but he recovered to grab it just before it did any damage.

That sent the teams to intermission in a scoreless deadlock.

“Going into the second half we were confident,” said O’Connor of York. “With the wind going to be at our backs, we were telling each other that we had to take some shots.”

The junior midfielder saw his vision come true in the 44th minute.

On a spectacular strike off an assist by teammate Cameron Coates, O’Connor blasted a shot from 31 yards just under the crossbar in the left corner to give the Dukes the game-winner.

“I had a good chance,” said O’Connor, “and I just took it.”

Play went back and forth until Conant had a couple of great opportunities to tie things up late in the match.

In the 69th minute, Cougars senior forward Krystian Niziolek slipped the ball through traffic to classmate Eric Plaza, who was just five yards away from the goal with nothing but daylight in front of him.

He took the shot but Ochoa, with his finest save of the day, recovered to bat the ball away with his left hand.

“It was kind of an uncomfortable save,” said Ochoa, “because the shot came out of nowhere.”

Then in the 74th minute, Bui headed away a strike by Takahashi from eight yards away.

York was able to ride out the final minutes to secure the win.

“In the first half,” said Ochoa, “we were trying to keep the ball low and possess, because the wind was in their favor.

“After halftime, we were with the wind and kept attacking, taking more shots.”

Goal-scorer and match hero O’Connor was voted the Most Valuable Player of the tournament.

“This feels great,” he said. “We started out the season kind of slow, but we’re starting to figure things out.”

Conant is now 4-6-2 on the season. York improved to 4-5-2. 

“This (win) gives us a lot of motivation for the rest of the season,” said Ochoa. “Now we’ve got a big test coming up Friday versus OPRF (in a West Suburban Conference Silver Division match), so we’ll see how it goes."

Starting lineups

Conant
GK: Alex Romero
D: Chase Staniak
D: Luis Mendez-Luna
D: Danny Flores
D: Kacper Niziolek
MF: Damian Porebski
MF: Eric Plaza
MF: Jimmy Cirbo
MF: Gabe Dobrincu
MF: Ibuki Takahashi
F: Krystian Niziolek

York
GK: Diego Ochoa
D: Jackson Bui
D: Cameron Coates
D: Will Carter
D: Freddie Steen
MF: Charlie Dewbray
MF: Carlos Banda-Berrones
MF: Oliver Connor
MF: Aaron Jobi
MF: John O'Connor
F: Quinn Stratton

Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: Jackson Bui, sr., D, York

Scoring summary

First half
No scoring

Second half
York: O'Connor (Coates), 44'