Neighboring leagues will square off

Fremd's soccer team pitched back-to-back shutouts on pitches last weekend, beating Buffalo Grove 1-0 on Friday and Maine South 3-0 on Saturday.

"We played our best game of the year against Maine South," Vikings coach Steve Keller said. "If we come to play and bring our heads, we could be a dangerous team in the postseason."

Backup goalkeeper Eric Ciura saved a shot in the BG match, and Matt Leonard scored the goal on an assist from Cory Degrave. Leonard, Degrave and Bobby Hurwitz found the net on Saturday, with keeper Richie Podjasek collecting four saves against South's Hawks. Sam Myers provided the assist on Hurwitz's goal.

Fremd (6-5-1, 4-2-1) was scheduled to host Palatine (9-6, 7-2) on Tuesday.

MSL VS. CSL: One season after the introduction of the new table schedule, MSL boys soccer teams will be treated to another wrinkle that organizers hope will continue to increase excitement for the sport.

Teams from the MSL and CSL will match up with one another to kick off the 2008 season in what Glenbrook North coach and tournament creator Paul Vignocchi calls the MSL/CSL Challenge.

Vignocchi approached Barrington coach Scott Steib at last year's state tournament with the idea for the event that will be played Aug. 25-26, with six matches each day.

"It's a way to promote soccer and to make things more entertaining for coaches, players and the public," Vignocchi said.

Paul Vignocchi

In the first year, the games will be equally split between MSL and CSL sites. Teams will be matched up according to their respective conference standings from the previous season. But if two teams already are scheduled to play one another during the season, they won't face each other at the event.

"It's going to be trial and error," said Vignocchi, who eventually wants to move the tournament to local college campuses. "We'll see how it goes."

Palatine coach Willie Filian likes the idea.

"Both conferences have 12 teams that are relatively strong from top to bottom," he said. "Paul and Scott are two great young minds trying to make things more exciting for every one ... more power to them."

But Filian wouldn't mind seeing another kind of challenge unfold.

"Maybe create a similar matchup of Elite Eight Class A teams against Elite Eight Class AA teams," he said.