Hornets roll at home over Rams

 

By Darryl Mellema

It's easy for forwards to smile after a 5-1 victory, which is the scoreline Hinsdale South inflicted on Glenbard East on Saturday.

But it was the way the Hornets dispatched the Rams that left players like T.J. Kubiesa in a good mood as the teams left the field after the nonconference match.

“It's a blast when we're passing well and working well in the middle together,” Hinsdale South junior Kubiesa said. “It makes it fun out there to play.”

It took the Hornets 32 minutes to score – and that goal came from Kubiesa after a defensive mistake by Glenbard East (3-8-1). Even in those minutes, the pressure was mounting on the visitors' goal.

“Earlier in the season, we weren't moving as one up and down the field,” Kubiesa said. “Now, our defense is pushing up and moving forward with our offense. We're applying a lot more pressure.”

Kubiesa doubled Hinsdale South's lead and completed the first half scoring when he headed in a Dan Pocica free kick 4 minutes before the intermission.

With the 2-0 lead, Hinsdale South (5-7-2) resolved at halftime to keep pushing forward when possible.

“We talked that we really haven't blown out a team yet this year, and we really wanted a blowout in this game,” Kubiesa said. “We look forward to continuing to put pressure on opponents the rest of this year.”

And with the entire team pushing forward, defenders found themselves very involved in scoring chances. Tyler Langosch fed Matt Schuster for an open shot in the very first minute of the second half.

“That's part of our defense,” Langosch said. “As a group, we like to take shots. It's fun in practice to take shots and we try to do it in the game too.”

The improved play meant that the Hornets put a near-stranglehold on the match early in the second half.

“I wasn't too impressed with our play early in the game,” Hinsdale South coach Jim VanDenburgh said. “'I definitely think the adjustments we made at halftime allowed us to play at a better pace. I think we showed in the second half that we can play at a higher tempo than we did in the first half.”

Kubiesa got free in the penalty area 10 minutes into the second half but saw his left-sided shot blocked. The ball came to Ernie Yanez on the right side of the penalty area. Yanez chipped the ball over the Glenbard East goalkeeper and into the net.

At that point, Hinsdale South's movement came fully to the fore. The fourth goal came from Joe Petrak with 21 minutes left in the match.

“When we're talking out there and communicating, it's really easy to pass to each other,” Kubiesa said.

Through those first 25 minutes of the second half, Glenbard East did not have a shot on goal and much of that was due to the defense providing an effective screen to any ball that made its way through the midfield.

“We like to play physical and to keep people backing away out of our box,” Langosch said. “The less shots the better.”

Glenbard East's play revived with the 4-0 deficit and the Rams broke the shutout with 14 minutes to go on a curling Brandon Patino shot. Joey Gangi restored the four-goal margin with 6 minutes left when he hit a long-range effort.

“Yeah we put in two goals in the first half, but that wasn't our style of play,” VanDenburgh said. “We challenged them to come out in the second half with a vengeance and to put more goals on the board and to play our game. I felt they really executed and I'm proud of them.”

VanDenburgh said there were definitely things his team could use from Saturday's match as it prepares for the week ahead. The Hornets have three road matches this week, at Willowbrook on Tuesday, at West Aurora on Thursday and at Glenbard North on Saturday.

“I think our biggest area of improvement was getting goals and shooting outside the 18,” VanDenburgh said. “I think most of our goals come from inside the 6-yard box. That's good and I like that. But I think we've been challenging the guys that there are times when they've penetrated and they need to look up and shoot.”