Bulldogs play to a scoreless draw with Hornets

By Darryl Mellema

Batavia's players, coaches and fans all breathed a sigh of relief when Hinsdale's South’s potential game-winning goal was disallowed very late in Thursday's match at the Waubonsie Valley Invitational.

That disallowed goal balanced the scales in the match as Batavia had a goal disallowed as well.

The parity between the two teams was as apparent after 80 minutes, just as was the team's inability to find the net – the match ended 0-0.

"I think we started off a little slow," Batavia senior defender Anthony Torres said. "We weren't too organized or weren't communicating.

"But we really picked it up and fixed everything that was going wrong in the first half. We came out strong in the second half."

Even with revitalized play, Batavia (7-6-4) was still unable to break down resolute defending by Hinsdale South.

"I felt our guys played really strong at the back, especially in the second half," Batavia assistant coach Tom O'Reilly said. "We stayed together, were organized and did a lot of communicating."

O'Reilly took the coaching reins for Batavia as head coach Mark Gianfrancesco had a family commitment to attend to.

The Bulldogs showed great commitment in the match, but were unable to score.

"We've been asking our guys to do some specific things, and tonight, they did them," O'Reilly said.

"All right, they didn't finish, and that's the bottom line. But we created a lot of opportunities for ourselves."

Hinsdale South (6-9-4) has struggled to get results recently, but that doesn't mean the Hornets aren't always a threat when moving forward.

While Batavia has shifted from a 4-4-2 formation to a 4-3-3 setup, some things have remained constant.

One if that grouping of four players defensively, though they have had to adapt to different patterns of players in front of them.

"We don't have as many midfielders in front of us, so we have to be strong at the back," Torres said. "We have find our forwards up top, now that we have three of them up there."

Batavia's youth is another telling point, though the Bulldogs have all got at least the majority of one varsity season together.

"Most of these kids haven't played on the varsity team before," Torres said. "It took us a while to get accustomed to playing with each other. We're starting to really work as a team."

Batavia plays Metea Valley on Saturday at noon, then completes its schedule with a match at Streamwood and a home contest with St. Charles North.

"It’s good to get the fine-tuning of the team before the tournament starts," Torres said. "It’s good competition here.

"With this and then with St. Charles North next week, we can build toward the tournament. That's why, years ago, we got ourselves into this tournament."