Gators shut down the competition in Rockford
Crystal Lake South posts 11th shutout of the year with 2-0 win against Guilford

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By Gary Larsen
Photos courtesy of Keith Allmandinger

When your side gives up a goal and you consider that a downright insult to your family tree, you’ve got the makings of a quality defender. Crystal Lake South coach Brian Allen is lucky to have an entire defense that feels that way.

“They take it personally whenever they give up a goal, and that’s what I love. They want zeroes. They crave zeroes,” Allen said.

The Gators (12-1-1) earned their 11th shutout of the season in winning 2-0 over Rockford Guilford on Saturday, in the Gold Division title game of this year’s Rockton-Hononegah tournament. Rockford-Boylan won the Purple Division title in a 1-0 win over Hersey.

Amazingly, it was also South’s fourth shutout in a 24-hour span of tournament play. The Gators blanked Sycamore Friday night and then shut down St. Edward, Rockford Christian, and Guilford on Saturday.

Senior keeper David Walsh, the defensive trio of senior captains Jacob Stock, Matt Biederwolf, and Adam Gatza, and junior Alex Anderl have led the way for a team that has only given up 4 goals all season.

On average, Crystal Lake South is giving up a minuscule .28 goals per game.

“My defense is amazing. They clear it out no matter what,” Walsh said. “Gatza is playing great on the outside, Stock is amazingly fast, so is Biederwolf, and no one gets behind them.”

For a goalkeeper, when you have a top-shelf back four in front of you, you aren’t always needed to consistently come up with big saves. But Walsh did his part in preserving shutout No. 11, diving twice to his left to swat away Guilford shots at the post.

The senior keeper would much rather have been called on to dive to his right.

“I had surgery on my left side so I was kind of nervous about that. The shots were well-driven and I was just glad to be able to make the saves,” Walsh said.

“We don’t give up many chances. We knew we had a chance at something special back there because we had that whole core together last year,” Allen said. “And (Walsh) has been strong off his line, he’s got a great punt, and he really cleans up when those one or two mistakes happen in the back. We know he’ll be consistent.”

The offensive heroes for South over four games in Rockford were Charlie Oliver and Trevor Bittenbender. Both were named to the all-tournament team, and Oliver was named Gold Division MVP.

Both scored against Guilford in the title game. Outside midfielder Bittenbender located a Stock free kick taken from the left side and fired on net, early in the second half. Guilford’s keeper deflected it, Bittenbender stayed with the play, and buried the game’s first goal.

Oliver struck mid-way through the second half, taking a feed from Sam Murdock, touching it to his left around a defender, and burying it in the side netting inside the far post.

“Trevor Bittenbender played fantastic for us this weekend, probably the best he’s played all year, and (outside mid) Mike Hernandez has been doing it all year,” Allen said.

For Oliver, who now has 18 goals and 5 assists on the season, the season turned when he made the switch from unleaded to high octane.

“To be honest, I wasn’t working as hard as I could have been at the start of the year,” Oliver said. “I realized that I was letting my team down and I needed to work harder for my team. My energy level has definitely risen.”

And when Oliver is a menace in the final third, everything gets easier for the Gators’ attack.

“Now he’s finding the space as opposed to hesitating, and I told him it’s okay to be selfish,” Allen said of his junior striker. “He’s a team player in every aspect, and that’s why he’s got a captain’s armband, but he also knows we’re looking to him and he’s got to carry a scoring load. The more dangerous he is and the more (defensive) attention he gets, the more other people have been stepping up.”

Oliver, Alex Tapia, and Alex Allmandinger are finding chemistry with one another up top. Oliver scored 5 goals during tournament play, while Tapia scored twice. Bittenbender had 3 goals and 3 assists in Rockford.

Allen applauded the central midfield play of senior Brian Karp and the freshman Murdock, and Oliver knows full well what Murdock is going through.

“I played varsity as a freshman, too, and I’ve talked to him. We all help him out. Our team chemistry has been amazing where that’s concerned,” Oliver said. “(Murdock) is good. He’s going to do well. He and (Karp) have been connecting well and our outside mids have been working their tails off.”

Karp steers the midfield with Murdock after playing a defensive stopper role last season.
Allen was able to slide Karp forward into the attack thanks to Anderl, who has filled the defensive stopper spot nicely.

“Anderl has been very impressive. Karp used to be our ball-winner there but we needed him in a midfield role, and Alex has responded fantastically to being asked to play 70 or 80 minutes in that spot,” Allen said.

Stock and Gatza have also been going boldly forward from their outside defensive spots, and did so with gusto throughout Saturday’s title game.

“We’ve been fortunate to have two outside backs who are smart defensively with their shape, hard tacklers, great on fifty-fifties, and their attacking abilities have been fantastic,” Allen said.

“And we want them to attack because they can both strike a ball from 40 yards on a dime. I think Gatza had 14 assists last year and he’s already got 6 or 7 this year. They’re not just defenders. They’re both good soccer players.”

The Gators are home against Woodstock North on Tuesday, and travel to Johnsburg for a Thursday game before hosting Prospect (7-1-1) on Saturday.

“That will be a great test for us,” Allen said. “Prospect and Elk Grove are two of the best in the (MSL) East, so we’re looking forward to that challenge.”

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