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South Elgin, Bartlett battle to scoreless draw
Updated: September 7, 2011 10:06PM
Goalies for both South Elgin and Bartlett had their way Wednesday when the rivals battled to a scoreless draw at Streamwood’s Millennium field in their Upstate Eight Valley openers.
Bartlett sweeper Fabio Ayello may have had the biggest influence, though, in keeping the scoreboard clean. A midfielder by trade, Ayello volunteered for duty in the back during Bartlett’s previous match after Joey Morgan drew a red card, and had to stay back there for the match with South Elgin.
He found himself assisting goalkepper Christian Alva by clearing the ball away twice in the final three minutes two thwart South Elgin scoring attempts.
“The reward is that I kept a shutout — that was the reward,” said the Bartlett captain. “I tried my hardest. I’m glad that we got the zero, that they didn’t score on us.
“I felt comfortable playing back there. I’d never played it before.”
Ayello also had a perfect second-half tackle on South Elgin striker David Left in the goal area to prevent a point-blank shot.
Bartlett (2-1-1, 0-0-1) had a four-overtime match with Washington in the Pepsi Showdown on Tuesday, so there were weary legs by the end of Wednesday’s scoreless match.
“Not having (Ayello) in the middle hurt us (offensively),” Bartlett coach Ben Beary said. “But having a zero up on the board tonight is largely because he’s back there on defense.
“We had a couple chances. But you could tell we were a little flat (afterTuesday) and settling for some longer shots when we should have been driving them home.”
Bartlett might have won the match, anyway, if not for South Elgin junior goalie Tyler Shipon producing the save of the match. He stopped Bartlett forward Alex Quintana 20 yards out after receiving a perfect feed from forward Charlie Sordini with 32 minutes remaining.
Shipon had come in at halftime for starter Jarod Schieler, who was in net when Bartlett’s Ramiro Arroyo put one off the post in the Hawks’ most serious first-half scoring chance.
“Both our goaltenders are outstanding and I can interchange them,” South Elgin coach John Uveges said. “In each match this year I’ve been able to play both of them.”
Uvegas saw some positives on offense even if the Storm couldn’t get one past Alva. South Elgin (3-2-1, 0-0-1) had lengthy possessions throughout the first half without scoring.
“The first half I saw Danny Fry, who played a great game, get open outside, so we tried to use him and were trying to get it to him open,” Uveges said. “But when we get a little too fancy with the second and third pass, it’s going to cost you.”
Regardless, neither team came away unhappy about the outcome.”
“The way they played, nobody here has to hang their head all the way around,” Uvegas said.
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