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Sports

BOYS SOCCER: Simon Leads Spartans to Second Straight Win

Michael Simon had a goal and an assist in Glenbrook North's shutout win at Rolling Meadows.

Glenbrook North has an inexperienced team this year, but they still have Michael Simon.

Simon scored a goal and assisted another in the Spartans’ 2-0 win at Rolling Meadows Tuesday.

The senior left winger, in his third-year on varsity, is one of the most experienced and talented players on a team that lost 12 seniors from last year’s conference winning squad. His role on the field is the same, but Simon has noticed a change off the field as one of the team’s captains.

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“I’m taking on a bigger leadership role,” Simon said. “Last year I wasn’t a captain, first year captain now. I’m trying to get everyone to bring their A game everyday.”

According to Simon and coach Paul Vignocchi, the Spartans didn’t have their A game for much of the match against Rolling Meadows, but what they did have was enough. GBN had a number of chances in the opening minutes via Allen Napadov, but the game remained scoreless until Simon scored in the 14th minute.

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“We gotta start the game off better,” Vignocchi said. “We had a couple opportunities where we should have scored that we didn’t. Our focus has got to be a little bit better from the start all the way for 80 minutes.”

On the goal, Austin Gundry crossed the ball from the left flank to Ryan Bunney who chested it down to set up Simon for a powerful scoring shot.

Simon scored the game-winning goal for the Chicago Fire Juniors North club team in the State Cup final this summer and is hoping to continue his playing career in college. Currently he is looking at Wisconsin, Indiana and SIU-Edwardsville, where 2011 GBN graduate Ryan Stern is playing.

The assist-goal scorer roles were reversed early in the second half when Simon sent a through ball to put Bunney all alone with the goalie. Bunney finished with a low shot to double the lead.

Goalkeeper Mitch Shapiro made six saves for the shutout and the Spartans moved to 2-1.

“It’s something to build off of,” Vignocchi said. “We’re still trying out players at different positions to see where we can play the best. Right now there’s times where we’re really playing well and we’re really connecting from our back all the way up to our front and then there’s times where we have lapses.”

The development process is expected with so many new players on varsity this year.

“More than half our team is first year varsity, a lot of us haven’t really played together,” Simon said. “Game by game they’re realizing what they have to do, what their role is and I think everyone is coming together now.”

Vignocchi said his team will be tested in their next game, Thursday against Carmel.

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