Mustangs too much for Lockport in regional play
Frosh addition sparks Metea Valley triumph

 

By Steve Nemeth

Who could blame Metea Valley coach Josh Robinson if he would have started his post-match talk with “See what happens when you listen to me.”

The Metea boss stressed to his Mustangs the need to come out strong, score quickly, and answer every challenge; and that’s exactly what Metea Valley did as the No. 14 seed cruised to a 7-1 victory over No. 19 seed Lockport in Friday’s first-round contest for the Naperville Central Class 3A Regional.

Making Robinson look even wiser was his decision a few matches back to elevate Nate Donovan to the varsity and there was no doubting the freshman forward’s potential after he assisted on the opening two goals and later added a strike of his own.

Donovan had the pass that enabled Joel Schmidt to nail a 15-yarder from the left side just 5:31 into the contest.  It was Schmidt’s third goal for the year.  The match was just over nine minutes old when Donovan assisted on a Brett Erwin eight-yarder --- his second goal in 2010 --- from the right side.

To Lockport’s credit, the Porters surprised the home team a minute later when Louis Piccione was able to boot an 11-yarder from the right wing past MVHS starting goalie Derek Carothers.  However, that’s when Metea Valley not only regained momentum, but virtually made the Porters’ chins drop to mirror their 4-14-2 final record.

“After we scored to make it 2-1, whoever got the next goal could take control.  Metea got that one and another, we just weren’t mentally tough enough to respond,” admitted first-year Porter head coach Chris Beal.

Chris Freeman chalked up his eighth goal of the season for Metea Valley when he used a Schmidt feed for a 16-yarder from the left wing that made it inside the right post with 15:52 gone. 

“We got off to a good start and I think it shows we’re finally being able to get more offense generated,” said Schmidt, who now has five assists to go with five goals.  “I’d like to believe we can now take what we’ve worked on and keep adding to it to become even stronger.  If we can apply all that to our next match, I believe we can really shock some people, especially when everyone contributes like today.”

There was still 12:52 left in the opening half when Enrique Rodriguez’s blast led to a follow-up opportunity that Decker nailed from nine yards for his first goal of the year.

“We’ve been preaching about the urgency to score,” Robinson noted. “So those first two early goals were great to see.  I was very unhappy with the one we gave up because I thought we quit on the play and too often in the past we’ve allowed teams to stay in a match.  Answering with two goals was key and at halftime, we made some more adjustments.  In the second half, with each goal we took the wind out of their sails.  Overall we did what we needed to do, but there’s still plenty of room for improvement.

“But what was good to see today was Chris and Nate looking for opportunities to get to the goal,” Robinson added.

Lockport did indeed start the second half with some intensity but back-up goalie Gabe Gongora and the Mustang defense were equal to the effort either stopping or clearing every offensive attack.  Just 8:24 into the second half, Decker’s through ball led to Evan Cudone’s 26-yard blast from the middle.

Then with 18:02 left in regulation, David Rodriguez’s set-up enabled Donovan to dribble past the LHS keeper for a five-yard chip shot.

“I’ll take an assist over a goal any day, especially if it helps us get the job done, but scoring did feel great.  Coach stressed to us the importance to get a good start and I think we did, which increased our confidence,” explained Donovan, who has two goals and two assists in three matches. 

Metea Valley then completed the scoring with 10:14 still to play when another roster addition --- Martin Krasuski --- earned an assist on Zach Bavol’s 21-yard volley from the right wing which sailed over out-rushing Porter keeper Luke Harnick, but under the crossbar. 

The resulting 7-1 tally included seven different goal scorers, and it was also the Mustangs’ most goals and biggest victory margin this year since a 9-2 triumph at Elgin back on Aug. 28.

Now sporting a 9-11-1 record, the Mustangs have a 5 p.m. Tuesday semifinal battle against Naperville Central, the host and at No. 3 --- the highest seed within that regional.  At 10-5-1, the Redhawks have been in the Sun-Times’ Top 10 or among others receiving consideration throughout the season.  In the 7 p.m. follow-up semifinal, No. 6 Benet Academy faces No. 11 Batavia.