Huskies defeat Young for second straight shutout

By Curt Herron

After posting a 1-0-2 mark during its opening week of the season at the Leyden Invite, Oak Park and River Forest was focused on a better showing in week two.

Beside the obvious reason of seeing improvement from week to week, the Huskies also realized that they had a key matches on the schedule on Monday and Friday.

In addition to those matches kicking off the home schedule at Oak Park Stadium, they were big since they involved teams that OPRF might see in the sectional.

Coach Paul Wright's squad set the tone for a good week on Monday when they posted their first shutout of the year by claiming a 3-0 victory over St. Ignatius.

The task at hand proved to be considerably more difficult during their Friday night match at the Stadium, however, when the Huskies took on Whitney Young.

Although the Huskies had more good scoring opportunities, the Chicago Public League squad definitely kept the pressure on throughout the entire 80 minutes.

OPRF found the net only once, with less than three minutes remaining in the opening half, but that score would be sufficient on this cold and windy evening.

With 2:50 left before the break, Dimeji Williams scored from close range following an assist from Mike Bower to help the Huskies to a 1-0 nonconference win.

After that, it was up to OPRF defenders such as Zack Weigel, Danny Pasternak, Max Neuman and Kelly Foran to help Sam Euler post his second straight shutout.

Holding off a furious comeback effort by the Dolphins was a good sign for OPRF, which let two late leads slip away in matches that ended as draws at Leyden.

Click to hear assistant coach Paul Daly interview

The majority of good scoring opportunities during Friday's match came in a bit over a 20-minute span which wound up carrying over from one half to the next.

From about 28 minutes into the match through the initial 10 minutes of the final half, the squads produced most of their offensive highlights for the night.

While the vast majority of those were put together by the Huskies, the Dolphins also managed to send a couple of dangerous attempts toward the OPRF keeper.

The key stretch kicked off when Cory O'Donnell sent in a header off a throw-in from Bryan Johnson, a minute before Young answered with a line drive to Euler.

A short time later, Nick Gadsby had a short attempt deflected away by Dolphin defenders as the Huskies continued to apply the pressure on the visitors.

With just under seven minutes left before the break, Gian luca Locasto forced a corner, on which Bower sent a ball to Weigel, who was denied on a header.

Things finally clicked for OPRF with just under three minutes left before halftime when Bower found Williams, who connected for his third goal of the year.

Click to hear Dimeji Williams interview

There were no other real threats before the break but the excitement picked up again after the teams returned to field, with the first provided by Young.

The Dolphins put together one of their best chances of the match as Euler had to punch away a long free kick to set up a corner that led to a wide header.

OPRF was back it just over seven minutes into the new half when Ryan Huettel sent a cross in front of the net and Thomas Lamm sent a header over the net.

About two minutes later, Lamm sent a liner from the side that was stopped by Young's keeper to close out the exciting sequence of scoring opportunities.

Click to hear Mike Bower interview

Things took on a decidedly defensive mode for the Huskies after that and neither team really threatened much until there was less than 15 minutes to go.

That's when Foran sent a throw-in that deflected off defenders before being stopped and then with less than eight minutes left, he forced a corner kick.

Following a dubious card which resulted in a soft red, Roman Zwarycz stepped in to take the corner kick and promptly lined an attempt that was hauled in.

With just over three minutes left, Lamm had a try deflected by the keeper, resulting in a corner by Huettel that led to a Locasto shot that was blocked.

Although the visitors had the ball often in the late stages, they only managed one more good chance, a long shot hauled in by Euler with a minute left.

OPRF plays three matches in the Pepsi Showdown this week, beginning on Tuesday at Glenbrook South followed by a home date two days later with Streamwood.