Wildcats gets past Huskies in Best of the West opener

By Matt Le Cren

Neuqua Valley wasn't happy with anything that happened but gladly took the outcome.

Meanwhile, Naperville North was pleased with everything except the final score.

Despite outplaying the Wildcats for much of the contest and outshooting them 14-4, host Naperville North came out on the short end of a 1-0 score Tuesday night as group play got underway at the Best of the West Tournament.

Neuqua (2-0-1) scored on its only shot on frame and it came as a result of a recently installed play.

Will Butler's long throw-in from the right side found the head of defender A.K. Karkazis, who flicked it in front of the net where Jacob Brindle fought off a defender and Huskies goalie Kevin Anderson and deflected the ball over the goal line with 22:51 to play in the second half.

"We just drew that up a couple days ago and it worked out perfectly," Brindle said. "It's only the second time we've used it in a game. Everybody is supposed to crash [the net]; I just happened to be there.

"I couldn't head it because it bounced, but I just kind of threw my body out at it and got a leg on it."

Karkazis, who provides a big target in the box on set pieces, was the key to the play.

"After the throw I have to get a little bit of a nick on it to change the direction to get it going across the box and then we get people crashing and trying to tap it in," Karkazis said. "And it worked out. Jacob laid out for it."

Aside from a shot that Nicko Makropoulus rolled wide of the left post in the first half, that was the only dangerous scoring chance for the Wildcats, who weren't exactly celebrating their victory.

"It didn't go as well as planned," Brindle said. "It was very frustrating. We knocked the ball somewhat well, but we weren't able to find the goal as well as we would have liked to.

"We're not ecstatic about this. Some things we didn't do well, but we got the result which is what matters in soccer."

The Wildcats have goalkeeper Hunter Hollingshead to thank for avoiding their first regular-season loss in two years.

The junior made eight saves, including a brilliant point-blank stop with 28:00 left when he rushed out and deflected a breakaway from Bob Ren.

Ren's chance was set up by a perfect lead pass from Evan Trychta, who created havoc with his long free kicks. He unleashed five restarts from at least 30 yards.

Unfortunately for the Huskies (1-1), four of them went over the crossbar and the other, a 48-yarder, was caught by Hollingshead.

"We gave away too many free kicks today," Hollingshead said. "One he got over there was a good free kick," Hollingshead said. "I did a good job to hold it. That thing dipped really good.

"I felt like we had more possession. It's just we gave some sloppy balls away and they came at us quick with the ball over the top, and that's what troubled us today."

Hollingshead, who regarded his stop on Ren as his best save of the season, was lauded by an otherwise unsatisfied Neuqua Valley coach Tony Kees.

"His timing has been good," Kees said. "He's been bailing us out a little bit.

"We got a result tonight and that's the about the only positive thing we can draw from it. Solving simple soccer problems was eluding us today. Now we go back to the drawing board and we work on basics."

Solving the toughest problem in soccer – scoring – was the only thing that eluded the Huskies, who controlled much of the action even though Trychta, a forward, had to play in the midfield because of an ankle injury to Joe Sullivan.

North's back line of Jimmy Butler, Matt Vogel and Lee Grander played exceptionally well while Trychta and midfielders Max Auden Sean Labahn, Jack Henderson, Bryan Kanzler and Kyle Lindberg created plenty of chances for Ren and Madisen Gonzalez up front.

Just a minute before he was stopped by Hollingshead, Ren saw a bouncing shot from outside the box get headed onto and over the top of the bar by Karkazis.

Then with 13:15 remaining, Trychta sent a free kick from the right wing to Lindberg, whose header bounced off the turf and hit the bar before being cleared.

Hollingshead made a diving save on Grander's header with 12:34 to play and the steady play of Karkazis in the final two minutes snuffed out North's final attempts to get the equalizer.

"[Trychta] is a dangerous player and good around the ball and he was moving around midfield, but fortunately we had two solid defenders at midfield and most of the time he was stopped before he even got to the back line," Karkazis said. "So that really helped us out a lot."

Trychta also thought positioning was a factor.

"Joe Sullivan has a sprained ankle so I dropped back and played attack mid," he said. "So it changed our formation a little bit. I feel that kind of ruined our flow a little bit.

"But I felt we did really well except for finishing. Our defense was almost perfect. Their keeper did a great job."