Huskies edged by Trojans on PKs in WSC Silver clash

By Matt Le Cren

Downers Grove North goalie Matt Paprocki is known as "Papi" to his teammates.

Papi came up big Tuesday night in a West Suburban Conference Silver Division clash.

The senior made two saves in the penalty kick shootout to lift the host Trojans to a thrilling 3-2 senior night victory over Oak Park and River Forest at Carstens Field in Downers Grove.

The Xavier-bound Paprocki dove to his left to stop the Huskies' first shooter, Thomas Lamm, and clinched the match by doing the same thing to the fourth shooter, Mike Bower.

After the second save, Paprocki was swarmed by his teammates and several dozen fans who ran onto the field to celebrate.

"I screwed up on the first goal in regulation," Paprocki said. "I made a mistake on that and I just had to pick my teammates up.

"Through the shootout it's just mind over matter. I just have to look at where I think he's shooting and just look at his feet and his legs and in the end just make a save."

It's not the first time Paprocki has stood tall in a shootout.

He also made two saves in a 3-2 comeback victory over Wheaton Warrenville South in the Pepsi Showdown on September 9 and over the summer backstopped his club team, the Downers Grove Roadrunners, to the finals of the Valencia Cup in Spain, winning a shootout in the semifinals.

"We've been winning shootouts lately, with this and at the end of club season," Paprocki said. "It just [gives me] huge confidence to go into the season and know if we get [into that situation], I'm going to win."

Paprocki's performance allowed the Trojans to win the shootout 4-2. All four Downers North shooters – Paul Hogan, A. J. Jeffries, Reid Melton and Stu Melton - converted their kicks.

Elias El Metennani and Ryan Huettel converted penalty kicks for the Huskies.

"We all play together on our club team and it was just really cool to see him develop over the season," Downers North defender Tom Budnik said of Paprocki.

"He goes to college camps all the time and he really devoted himself to becoming a better goalie this year and it totally shows. He's won us two PKs, which is awesome."

With the win, the Trojans (15-2-2) extended their unbeaten streak to eight games and stayed alive in the race for the WSC Silver Division title.

Lyons, which hosts Oak Park and River Forest on Thursday, is 4-0 while the Trojans and Huskies (11-3-2) are both 3-1.

Much has been said, and rightly so, about North's explosive offense, but if the Trojans do win the league title they know that Paprocki will have had a big hand in it.

"It gives me so many more opportunities to be able to get forward and not have to worry about every time tracking my man back because I know I have a goalie that can pick off things that he should be getting," Budnik said. "He's doing a great job."

A shining example of that effect came with 4:59 left in the first half, when Budnik moved up to midfield to take a free kick from 50 yards out.

Budnik sent his drive into the penalty area, where Azmi Sharif headed the ball downward and toward the visitors' goal.

Hogan corralled the ball and, though tightly marked, quickly turned his defender and fired a five-yard shot into the upper right-hand corner of the net to give the Trojans a 1-0 lead.

It was Hogan's 22nd goal of the season and kicked off and exciting stretch of entertaining soccer.

North thought it had increased its lead to 2-0 two minutes into the second half when Hogan sent a dangerous cross in front of the OPRF net to Jeffries on the far post.

Jeffries volleyed the ball on target but Huskies goalie Chris Ingvaldson made a great diving save, then got up quickly to save Sharif's rebound from point-blank range.

Just 30 seconds later, the Huskies tied the game 1-1 on a determined individual effort by El Metennani, who dribbled into the box and fought through two defenders.

Paprocki came off his line and slide-tackled the ball away, but El Metennani got it back, knocked it over Paprocki's head and then raced behind him to finish it.

"We drew up a play at halftime with Paul and A.J." Downers North coach Brian Gervase said. "I thought we had a goal right there. Then it goes from 2-0 to 1-1 in 30 seconds.

"Both teams played really well tonight. [The Huskies] were physical today and we did not really match that physical part and we got caught playing their game in the second half and almost the whole overtime."

Indeed, the Huskies had more scoring chances after intermission. Roman Zwarycz just missed a shot wide after the ball was headed around in front of the North net with 33:14 remaining and Kelly Foran sent a header wide four minutes later.

But the Trojans went ahead with 19:42 left in regulation when Stu Melton nodded home a free kick from Jeffries.

The Huskies came right back, attacking with vigor and nearly tying it up just 1:27 later, but a shot by Foran hit the post and El Metennani put the rebound wide right.

Bower and Zack Weigel each had near-misses in the next 10 minutes before the visitors got the equalizer with 2:43 to go when Lamm poked a shot inside the right post after a mad scramble in the crease.

"They came at us and all credit to them," Paprocki said. "That was good on their part, coming at us and pressuring us.

"They got a long throw-in, we thought we were clear and then next thing we know they got another long throw-in and they put it in with a scuffle. That's what they're good at and that's how they get results."

The Huskies nearly got the result they wanted with 1:57 left in the first overtime but a 30-yard blast by Stephen Golz caromed off the crossbar.

"We could have ended the game a lot earlier,” OPRF coach Paul Wright said. "We had a couple shots, two off the post, a couple near-misses. We came to play today. We're in thick of it.

"We moved the ball around well, did some nice things. My guys didn't quit."

The Huskies could be forgiven for being down after losing star goalie Sam Euler to mononucleosis, but that isn't the case. In fact, they may have found a gem in Ingvaldson.

Ingvaldson, a foreign exchange student from Norway, was playing just his second game since being promoted from the junior-varsity squad.

The senior made 10 saves, including three brilliant stops in a matter of seconds midway through the second overtime.

The sequence started with Ingvaldson diving to stop a shot from Stu Melton. Hogan was right there to pounce on the rebound but Ingvaldson somehow blocked that shot.

A few seconds later, Jeffries fired from the right side of the box and Ingvaldson made a kick save on that.

"Chris stepped up big," Wright said. "He's getting used to [playing varsity]. He"s been pretty aggressive. [When Euler got sick] we looked at a couple other goalkeepers. He's aggressive, he's got a pretty solid kick, and this will get us into the attacking third pretty quick like with Euler.

"So we decided to go with his aggressiveness. He gives up a little too many corners for my liking, but he's out there making contact with the ball and making the save. You can't fault that."

Even so, Ingvaldson thought he could have done better in the shootout.

"I feel like I could have taken some of those but I wasn't aggressive enough," Ingvaldson said. "We played very good throughout the whole game, but when it comes to PKs, it's a 50-50 chance of winning."

High school soccer is a new experience for Ingvaldson; Norwegian schools do not offer interscholastic sports so all of his playing experience has come with club teams.

"It's been a real pleasure playing for varsity, now that I've got that chance," he said. "The guys are great and I have a great coach. It's really fun."

Both coaches were satisfied with the result as it was a stiff test with the start of the playoffs just 10 days away.

"My guys came off the field almost complaining that [the Huskies] were kind of tough on them," Gervase said. "Come playoff time we're going to see that.

"This is a good result for us at this time of year. It keeps the guys in the winning spirit and keeps our winning streak going."

"We're walking out of here with our heads held high," Wright said. "Could we have won this game? Yes. We know we can compete.

"[Downers] is a team we could see in the sectional final. We don't have anything to worry about if we come to play like this and maybe we have a couple things fall our way."