Red Devils draw with Blazers in regular-season finale
Parsons, Cole find equalizers vs. Addison Trail

 

By Gary Larsen

When Ismail Hernandez fired, the only thing standing between his shot and a late lead for Addison Trail was Hinsdale Central keeper Will Meyer.

Meyer got it done, reacting to the point-blank blast and stopping it cold. “(Hernandez) broke through, I was off my line a little bit, and I was able to react fast enough,” Meyer said.

The Red Devils and Blazers tied 2-2 in the non-divisional game between West Suburban Conference foes in Addison. Addison Trail’s George Leyva scored both his side’s goals, while Gareth Parsons and Taylor Cole tallied for Hinsdale Central.

Not five minutes prior to Meyer’s late save, Blazers’ keeper Jesse Avelar took a turn preserving a tie game when he charged well off his line to beat the Red Devils’ Lenny Zavala to a ball near the top of the penalty area.

All in all, Thursday’s match was a hard-fought battle between two teams getting one final homework assignment in before the looming test of the postseason.

“We really like this game at this time of year because it really gives us a good test,” Hinsdale Central coach Mike Wiggins said. “We just know that (the Blazers) are well-prepared and they come out and give a great effort.”

Twice in Thursday’s game, Hinsdale Central (10-7-2) trailed Addison Trail (7-10), and twice they battled back to force a tie.

Leyva sent a missile inside the near post from 25 yards out at 22 minutes, but Central answered two minutes later when Parsons ran onto a ball that hit the carpet after a Red Devils’ throw-in, and buried it in the back netting.

Leyva struck again before halftime, bursting in on the left side and striking inside the far post just before halftime.

“On the goals that were scored on us tonight, I thought we could have done a better job of closing down and tracking guys down,” Wiggins said. “So we got put in a situation where we had to deal with some things. We had to deal with being in a deficit with forty minutes to play.”

Meyer was vocal throughout the contest, but his voice carried even more in the second half. “At halftime coach Wiggins fired us up and I just tried to bring that out in the second half and keep my team going,” Meyer said. “It was a good test to have to work for that second goal and salvage a tie.”

Central captains Cole and Mitch Reavis have been out with injuries recently, and both started the game on the bench. Cole’s presence in the second half impacted the game, and while Reavis did not see action, he’ll be ready to lace up his cleats for Central’s regional opener vs. Argo.

Two days after a stellar performance in slowing down Downers Grove North forward Paul Hogan, Central’s Mike Oleferchik showed his worth at midfield. Wiggins slid the senior from the back line to midfield after the break, and it was Oleferchik that set up Central’s second game-tying goal.

Oleferchik made a long dash deep into Blazers’ territory with a ball at his feet at 64 minutes, and sent a ball towards the far side, where Cole calmly finished from 8 yards out.

“We were able to keep the pressure on and in put us in a situation to adjust our formation a little bit. I like the changes we made at midfield and that seemed to have an impact on the play,” Wiggins said.

“We took a player out of the back and that made a difference in the midfield, which released our guys up front from the pressure of the defending they had to do. That created a few more chances that otherwise we probably wouldn’t have had.”

Prior to Cole’s equalizer, Zavala got off a good handful of dangerous crosses as the Red Devils chased the tying goal, Philip Gutman sent a head shot just wide of the post, and RJ Dralle shot wide.

Meyer’s big save came 10 minutes after Cole’s tying goal, and that’s the way things ended.

“We’ve definitely been improving over the past couple of weeks, especially with the DGN result,” Meyer said of Tuesday’s 2-1 win over Downers North. “We’re putting the pieces together but we still have some more work to do. As the season has progressed we have become more and more familiar with each other.”

“Will had another good game tonight, and that save was good to see. It kept us in the game,” Wiggins said. “We’re trying to have a build-up here and peak at the right time. It’s about what we can take from this that will put is in a good position for (the postseason).
 
“We showed that we had some guts there, to fight back. I was disappointed in the two goals we gave up, but they woke us up in the game.”

Hinsdale Central opens regional play against Argo on Wednesday, at 4:00 p.m. on regional host Morton's home field. A win there would put 7th-seeded Central in a regional title game versus top-seeded Morton on Friday at 4:00 p.m.