Huskies end challenging week with big win over Morton

By Chris Walker

If someone has been through a tougher week this season than the Oak Park and River Forest soccer team just completed on Friday, it would be intriguing to hear their argument.

Forget about cupcakes on your schedule, how about a week of facing the cream of the crop? A trio of teams with a combined record through of 45-6-7 through October 9.

The Huskies battled Downers Grove North on Tuesday and fell on penalty kicks. Then, they were far from at their best, but still competitive in a 2-1 loss to Lyons Township on Thursday.

This is the same Lyons team that has handed Downers Grove North its only two losses this fall and has lost only once itself, to Morton.

Finally, the extremely-challenging week came to a close with an afternoon affair on Friday against, of course, Morton, in Oak Park.

The Huskies scored in the first 35 seconds of the contest, added another first half goal and then battled through a scoreless second half to beat the Mustangs 2-0 at Oak Park Stadium.

"We wanted to win. It was very important to get the win," Huskies coach Paul Wright said. "Especially with the two losses to Downers Grove North and Lyons, I really thought we needed to come out with a win."

OPRF (12-4-2) couldn't have started any better as Thomas Lamm scored on a header at the 39:25 mark of the opening half.

"We encourage the kids to come out firing and that's the kind of thing that happens when they do," Wright said. "We got the ball out wide, a nice cross and a good header to finish it off."

Getting off to a strong start is something Wright has been pushing on his team, especially after coming out a bit lackadaisically against Lyons Township on Thursday.

Perhaps playing at home, where the Huskies are undefeated, helped get the adrenaline pumping a bit more.

"We know that it's always a huge boost to the team to come out and get (the opposition) on their heels," Lamm said.

"We did the same thing against Fenwick and then held on to win 1-0 so we talked about it before the game and were able to score one quickly."

Morton (16-3-3), which beat Downers Grove South 2-1 on penalty kicks the day before to win the West Suburban Conference Gold Division title, wasn't utilizing its complete roster.

The Mustangs didn't have many scoring chances in the contest with arguably its best opportunities coming on a pair of free kicks from inside the 20-yard line.

Morton also had a corner kick midway through the opening half which was then headed off the top of the crossbar, but the Mustangs weren't able to get any closer to finding the back of the net.

"We were aware that they didn't have all their best players today, but its still a big win for us," Lamm said. "Hopefully we can still continue making strides."

The Huskies tallied their second score with 25:48 remaining in the first half. Elias El Metennani took a corner kick and Lamm took advantage of a crowd near Metennani's feed and headed it in.

"It was great communication," Lamm said. "It was a great ball and I called for it. They (teammates) ducked down and let me get my head on it and it's something we've been working on and hopefully it can continue."

Playing with a lot of energy with the 2-0 advantage, the Huskies' Henry Burt, Kelly Foran, Stephen Golz, Ryan Huettel, Gian luca Locasto and Dimeji Williams would also pressure Morton with potential scoring efforts.

"When we play our tempo then we play well," Wright said. "When we do that we can compete against these teams."

The Huskies are hopeful they gained some knowledge and confidence during the past week and will now be able to extend it toward a strong finish to the regular season and into the postseason.

"It's great to have to play these top teams in the state because it prepares us for the playoffs," Lamm said.

"We know with all the seniors we won't have next year that this could be one of the best teams some of us will play on at Oak Park so we want to take advantage."

The week also taught Wright something about his players.

"It really shows the amount of character these guys have," he said. "These may not be the most skilled kids we've ever had, but they showed that they have got a lot of heart and that can help you go far."