Albert Leads Spartans to Win at Maine West

Glenbrook North must have had a familiar feeling when Maine West pulled to within a goal with about 10 minutes to play.

The Spartans gave up a late lead to the Warriors a year ago, but this time around they held on for a 2-1 win in a Central Suburban League North (CSLN) match in Des Plaines.

"Last year, they scored with 38 seconds left in this exact same scenario to tie up the game," GBN senior defender Ryan Stern said. "And they ended up winning conference that way. Mentally, we weren't letting that happen again today."

In the first half, GBN (5-2-2 overall, 2-0-1 CSLN) controlled possession for the most part, but the Warriors (7-2-4, 1-1-0) had the best goal-scoring chances.

Goalkeeper Quinn McAnaney (three saves) made a great save on a breakaway and Stern made a clearance off of the goal line later in the half to keep the game scoreless going into halftime.

The second half started with a bang. Maine West earned a corner kick within seconds of the opening kick, but the Spartans quickly turned the corner into a counterattack.

Senior midfielder Jeremy Albert dribbled the ball for about half the field before passing to Michael Simon. Simon was brought down from behind in the penalty box, resulting in a penalty kick that Jonathan Weber put away.

"After the counterattack, once we scored, it opened up and we had a lot of space in behind them just to counterattack and get balls in," Albert said. "Once I get it [on a counter] I look across the box, play it in and hopefully someone is there. We have Simon and me on the wings and we're both pretty fast so we like to play it down the wings and get crosses off and get in behind them with speed."

Later on, Albert sparked yet another counter to create the Spartans' second goal. He took a throw-in from John Choi near the sideline, beat a defender and crossed to Jack Rosenbach. Rosenbach scored on his first touch to make it 2-0 with less than 15 minutes remaining.

"Second half he really turned it on," GBN coach Paul Vignocchi said of Albert. "That's Jeremy. There's times out there where he kind of disappears, then there's times where he turns it on and can get to any ball that you put out there for him. He made that second goal happen. That first goal he tracked down that ball and played a nice ball across that set up the PK."

The Warriors amped up the pressure falling behind two and scored in the 70th minute when Nathan Herrera dazzled a couple of defenders with fancy dribbling and set up Jayson LeSeth for the finish.

Maine West could sense the equalizer was within reach, but only tested McAnaney once in the final 10 minutes.

The Spartans' defense put in a strong performance despite the loss of starter Dan Bleeker due to mono.

"If this was earlier in the season, they definitely would have scored that [tying] goal," Stern said. "I think a lot of the younger guys are coming together right now and figuring it out."

Vignocchi raved about Stern's ability to lead the defense, and thinks the team's defense is improving.

"Our defense has been solid," he said. "The last three games our defense has really stepped up and they've done a nice job. I mean, they've got a couple nice forwards up top and they were a handful for us. I think we're starting to play well."

The Spartans have a busy week ahead of them with a conference match at Deerfield on Wednesday before hosting the GBN Invite on Friday and Saturday.