Hilltoppers top DG North, stay in WSC hunt
By Dave Owen

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Glenbard West provided early and emphatic notice Tuesday of its drive to repeat as conference champions.

The Hilltoppers (12-2, 4-1 in the WSC Silver) incredibly struck for three goals in a span of just 142 seconds early in the first half at Downers Grove North, and went on to a 3-0 win over the Trojans (8-8-2, 2-3).

The victory sets up a showdown with Hinsdale Central (4-0 in conference) next Tuesday in Glen Ellyn for a share of the WSC Silver title.

“We just felt really good coming in,” Glenbard West senior Nathan Hall said. “We thought this team (Downers North) was going to be really tough so we gave it our all from the start, and since we got a good result we’re ready to take on Hinsdale next Tuesday.”

Hall had a big role in the entire deluge, which began with 31:43 left in the first half.
Downers North goalkeeper Ray Greco came off his line to make the initial save on Hall’s 12-yard shot, but Shawn Herrera rolled the rebound into the vacant right corner of the net for a 1-0 Glenbard West lead.

The Hilltoppers were just getting started. Just 48 seconds later, Hall stole a clearing attempt and broke in on the left side to score into an empty net to make it 2-0.

Then off a Mario Sotelo corner kick 29:21 before halftime, Hall took the final ounce of air out of the Trojans’ hopes with his 15th goal of the season. After his initial header was blocked, Hall corralled the clearing attempt by the Downers North defense and put the rebound away from just outside the right post.

“It’s definitely happened before in indoor, but never in outdoor season,” Hall said of the quick fire scoring. “It definitely gave us confidence in the first 10 minutes when we’re up 3-0.

“We definitely come out strong with a lot of pressure, and we have a lot of veteran players from last year so we know what we’re doing. We know what it feels like to win the conference championship, so we want to do it again.

The Hilltoppers’ defense led by sweeper Andrew O’Connell, Ivan Barajas, Gonzalo Villa, David Ortega, Paul Selman, Connor Kinna and goalkeeper Aaron Griffin did the rest, repelling several second-half Trojan threats as Glenbard West earned its eighth shutout of the season.

Three of the shutouts have come during the Hilltoppers’ current six-game winning streak, achieved despite the adversity of being without four injured players (including starting goalkeeper Robbie White and co-captain Zack Venzon). Griffin’s shift from defender to goalkeeper has been part of the successful adjustments to the injuries.

“Aaron’s doing a great job filling in,” Hall said.

“We always said that we’re a team, regardless of what circumstances we have to deal with,” Glenbard West coach Maciek Kusmierz said. “We’ve had to make adjustments, but as we’ve gone along we’ve done better and are all on the same page. We know what we should be doing on the field, and luckily for us the game tonight went for us on a positive note right from the get go.

“Guys are playing hard, giving quality minutes and we’ve been able to keep it going. Hopefully we can get some of those guys back fairly soon and keep on going.”

Downers North kept battling Tuesday despite the shocking start. Hall nearly added to his damage when he left-footed a partial breakaway shot wide in the 17th minute, then the Trojans’ Anthony Zea nicely prevented a Hall shot on another threat in the box four minutes later.

Michael Raines and Austin Walker broke up cross attempts to the crease by Hall in the remainder of the half, and Tyler Boese and Greco combined to deny another Hall shot 12:30 before halftime.

“Our regular goalkeeper Jim Barkei hurt his ankle on Saturday and it looks like he might be out all this week,” Downers North coach Brian Gervase said. “This is Ray’s first game up from JV and I thought he did a nice job. I don’t put any of those goals on Ray. We were very impressed – he earned himself another start on Thursday.”

Still hoping for the return of senior forward Byron Perez (who has been out all season), the Trojans had three other in-season varsity additions playing big minutes on Tuesday.

“We have a couple of new guys up like Miles Larson - he’s playing really well,” Gervase said, “plus Mike Malloy, (Jacob) Stevenson and some other guys who are up from our JV group. They’ve kind of filled in and given us some good role minutes.”

The best minutes for the Trojans on Tuesday included a strong second half, as an offensive at the end of the first half carried over to multiple chances after the break.

Glenbard West goalkeeper Griffin twice made nice plays to deny Emilis Bytautas late in the first half. Bytautas’ low 18-yard shot off a Daniel Lott pass in the 29th minute of the game was stopped on a diving Griffin save, then Griffin came off his line to grab a Bytautas corner kick to the box 4:45 before halftime.

Downers North’s threats continued to escalate in the second half, with Cullen Cummings and Reid Melton two main instigators.

Melton provided the closest call with 24:40 left when, fielding Cummings’ short pass off a corner kick left of the goal, he launched a 22-yard shot that hit the crossbar.

Cummings’ aggressive play with 12 minutes left produced two consecutive Downers North corner kicks, one of which needed a nice play by Hilltopper defender Villa to prevent a scoring chance.

“If all our guys could put half or three quarters of what Cullen puts into the game, we would be tough to beat,” Gervase said. “Cullen has a work ethic and a drive, he’s a state quality wrestler, he’s very athletic and he’s one of our leaders. Cullen and Reid Melton are our two big guns.”

Josh Treichel also did great work to create a threat with 7:50 left. Dribbling in on goal along the end line, Treichel sent a cross to the far post that Jordan Nunez shot just wide of the net. Then 45 seconds later, Griffin made a point blank save on Melton to wrap up his shutout.

O’Connell was a rock defensively on numerous threats, blocking a 25-yard Treichel shot 12 minutes into the second half and later making excellent plays in the box to clear threats by Kevin Mitchell and Treichel. Ben Ruby also blocked two pass attempts in a row as part of the Hilltoppers’ defensive effort.

The defensive stand after the explosive start offensively provided a frustrating contrast of sorts for the Hilltoppers.

“Fortunately for us (the goals) happened fairly quick,” Kusmierz said. “With a little bit of luck we could have scored a couple more, but being up 3-0 we still have to maintain our concentration and composure. At times I felt we didn’t really do it. We kind of drifted away from the game getting up 3-0 quick. We knew we didn’t have to score any goals, but just not allow Downers to get any momentum on their part.”

Gervase took solace in his team’s resiliency, but the painful first 11 minutes were way too much to overcome.

“I told them that it’s even more disheartening to watch us play the second half,” Gervase said. “We were much more poised and in control of the ball, and we didn’t give them many opportunities after that.”

“It was just a little bit of irresponsibility (on the three quick goals), and I told them that at this point of the season it’s most important because we have to get ourselves ready for a good regional and sectional.

“We have great wins – Downers South was a big win for us, and we played well against Morton,” Gervase added. “We’re going to work really hard the next couple of weeks and see what we can accomplish. We have to get it done. We have a nice senior class and we don’t want to see those guys go without a good end for them.”

Glenbard West has its sights on a big end to the regular season.

“We take it a game at a time,” Kusmierz said. “It’s going to be another tough game against Hinsdale and we’ll see how well we perform in that game.”