Bulldogs light it up against a tough Larkin squad

By Chris Walker

The Batavia boys’ soccer team entered the second half of Tuesday’s Upstate Eight Conference match against Larkin with only a single goal scored in its last 200 minutes of play.

That’s 3 hours and 20 minutes, or roughly the length of  “Titanic,” the James Cameron film from 1997 that won 11 Academy Awards. And the Bulldogs looked to be sinking just like the Titanic as they trailed 2-0 at halftime.

But that was before Batavia put on a simply amazing offensive display to start the second half, scoring 7 goals -- yes, 7 goals -- in the first 14 minutes and 58 seconds of the final half to turn what appeared might be a third-consecutive loss into a lopsided, 7-2 victory.

“When you’re watching (Larkin) go through us in the midfield and we’re not winning any 50/50 balls, why play the cute game,” Batavia coach Mark Gianfrancesco said. “Just put it up and attack their backs and go from there and we just let our talent go at them.”

Batavia (7-5-2) put three players up top to begin the second half and it paid off immediately as Lalo Cuautle helped the Bulldogs light up the scoreboard for the first time all evening with 38:49 remaining in the game.

“Scoring that first one really helped get us motivated,” Cuautle said. “Coach got on us at halftime, and I guess some of the players were still a little tired from yesterday (a 1-0 loss to Wheaton Warrenville South) but we had a lot of energy in the second half.”

The Bulldogs showed they have a lot of offensive firepower too.

Cuautle made it 2-all at the 36:27 mark of the second half when he got a lot of leg from about 30-yards away and smashed a bullet one-hopper past Larkin goalkeeper Eder Barrajas.

And the fun was just beginning now.

At 32:33, Calvin Baez dribbled toward the left of the penalty box and put the Bulldogs ahead.

“One of my friends told me to shoot the ball when I have the chance, and after seeing us score those first two goals I figured it was my chance to make one,” Baez said. “We finally started communicating out there and putting all our energy into it.”

Junior midfielder Nick Barstatis joined in the fun at 29:45 with a header goal to make it 4-2.

Less than two minutes later at 28:05, Cuautle served a picture perfect pass that left Cody Witkowski wide open to the right of the penalty area. He was just able to sneak it past the overworked Barrajas to make it 5-2.

Still far from finished, Witkowski thanked Cuautle for the wonderful assist on the previous goal by stealing the ball from a Larkin player and offering his own nice feed to Cuautle, who scored the hat trick to push the lead to 6-2.

The Bulldogs reached a number more common for football games when they netted No. 7 with 25:02. This one came via penalty kick off the foot of Witkowski.

The scoring barrage happened so quickly that it dumbfounded Larkin.

“I give them a ton of credit because (Batavia) came out and did what they needed to do,” Larkin coach Ken Hall said. “But honestly, I saw this coming. Our preparation and practices have been poor and we don’t take things seriously enough.”

Larkin (11-4-2) appeared to have Batavia right where it wanted them at the start of the match. The Royals needed less than three minutes to put the Bulldogs in a 1-0 hole when Ivan Maldonado scored. They’d increase their lead to 2-0 in the 30th minute when Danny Valdez received a pass, dribbled toward the center of the penalty area and smashed a low shot past Batavia goalkeeper Ben Steskal.

“The thing is that we should’ve had five goals in the first half, not just two,” Hall said. “We should’ve done to them in the first half, what they did to us (in the second half).”

And what the Bulldogs did was something Gianfrancesco had never seen before in his 12 years as Batavia’s head coach.

“I can honestly say that we’ve never had something like this,” he said. “The closest I can remember is a regional final game where we were down 2-0 to Wheaton Warrenville South, scored one before half and then put in three in the second half.”