Saxons looking at Plan B after loss to Vikings

Schaumburg soccer coach Hamid Mehreioskouei wasn't very merry on Saturday afternoon.

His Saxons had just lost 2-1 to host Fremd, an MSL match that started promisingly thanks to senior forward Tim Piotrowski's goal in the third minute.

A resolute Mehreioskouei stood near midfield after the post-match handshakes and chose to assess his club bluntly.

"My team has no heart," he said. "I'm going to have to make tough decisions, maybe pull some JV kids up, play them instead. Every game in our conference is a conference-championship game it seems. You have to want to win.

"I want to see more of that from my team."

But Mehreioskouei praised Piotrowski's work rate and abilities to drop back to the midfield to win 50-50 balls.

Fremd entered the contest having won only once in its first six matches and the Vikings were coming off a 5-0 loss to New Trier's Trevians. Fremd coach Steve Keller was looking for a spark, any kind of spark, and he got one -- with the help of a post.

Vikings senior MF Cory Degrave's shot, on a free kick, banged off a goal post and an alert Victor Canestrini was right where he needed to be to convert the rebound.

Senior Joe Derkits, on an assist from junior Matthew Leonard, netted the clincher with 6:44 left in the second half.

"We needed a win and it was a win against a pretty decent team," Canestrini said.

Keller, whose team improved to 2-5, 1-2, was pleased with how his crew responded to another early deficit; NT and Wheeling had struck for goals in the first minute against Fremd this fall, with both resulting in Fremd setbacks.

"Today, our response was positive," Keller said. "We did a decent job on set pieces; we practiced a lot on positioning in set pieces last week."

Schaumburg (5-5, 3-3), which lost 3-2 to Palatine on Sept. 13, was scheduled to host Hoffman Estates on Tuesday before visiting Streamwood at noon on Saturday. Welsey Hollis and Josh Beard each scored goals in the loss to the Pirates.