Niles West continues through playoffs

Updated: March 22, 2011 5:18PM

No. 1 seed Niles West got a first-half strike from freshman Dzenan

Nezirevic and a second-half goal from senior David Dawood to defeat No. 9

Maine South 2-0 in Friday's Class 3A Evanston Regional final.

The Wolves (16-2-4) won the school's first regional title in four years and

advanced to Tuesday's Maine South Sectional semifinal to meet the Maine

East/Mather winner.

West got on the scoreboard in the 27th minute when sophomore midfielder

Robert Urosev slid a pass in to junior forward Jaime Zapeda, who fed

Nezirevic. The big freshman striker beat MS keeper Richard Balek to put the

Wolves in front.

Niles West had a number of other scoring chances in the second half, but

most of them ended up in Balek's capable hands.

That was until just over 20 minutes remained in the contest when the Hawks

failed to clear a corner kick and it landed at the feet of Dawood. The

midfielder, who had been impressive throughout the second half, hammered the

ball into the net from the top of the 18-yard box.

"Dawood was a little shaky in the beginning, so we took him out and talked

to him," NW head coach Scott Ackman said. "He said Œcoach I'm going to go in

and I'm going to get a goal.' From that point on, he was really focused.

Maine South's best scoring opportunity came 14 minutes into the second half

when senior forward Richard Mullane's shot was saved by NW senior goalkeeper

Danny Niedzielski.

© 2012 Sun-Times Media, LLC. All rights reserved. This material may not be copied or distributed without permission. For more information about reprints and permissions, visit www.suntimesreprints.com. To order a reprint of this article, click here.