Red Devils' big second half buries Wolves
By Dave Miller

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The dam finally broke for Hinsdale Central.

After being shut out in its first three outings of the season, Hinsdale Central saw its offense flow into a 5-1 victory versus Oswego East in second-round play of the Red Devil Cup Monday in Hinsdale.

Mike Krohn tallied two goals and an assist, and Christian Meyer contributed the go-ahead goal along with an assist for Hinsdale Central (1-2-1).

“Once we got one goal, they just kept coming,” Krohn said. “Once you get one you feel like you can do whatever you want. Now we can finally say we got a victory and it feels real good. I think it’s going to pick us up. We might go on a streak now.”
 
In the 125th minute of their season, the Red Devils scored their first goal to take a 1-0 lead on Oswego East less than five minutes into the match. Wolves’ goalkeeper Danny Madrigal stopped Christian Meyer’s initial shot, but the ball bounced off Madrigal and Krohn buried the rebound into the net.

“It was real nice to get our first goal of the season,” Krohn said. “I couldn’t have done it without Christian. He put up a good shot.”

Hinsdale Central could have added to its early lead, but failed to put shots on the net on three prime scoring opportunities in the first 20 minutes.

Oswego East (0-1-1) temporarily made the Red Devils pay for those missed chances when it tied the game on Oliver Czopek’s header in the 27th minute. The scoring play started with a Cooper Fell corner kick from the right that Oscar Martinez headed from the left side to Czopek in front of the goal.

“I just saw it go past the goalie and I knew at that moment that the goal was open,” Czopek said. “I just headed it into the goal. I tried to not put as much power on it so it wouldn’t go over the net.”

“That was nice to see,” Oswego East coach Steve Szymanski said. “That was our first goal off a corner kick this year.”

The score stood tied at 1-1 at halftime.

Then Hinsdale Central’s offense really got untracked. The Red Devils seized control with a three-goal outburst in an eight-minute span.

“That was a key for us to respond the way we did so I was pretty pleased about that,” Hinsdale Central coach Mike Wiggins said. “We had a lot of good contributions from a lot of guys.”

In the 44th minute, Meyer supplied the go-ahead goal that made it 2-1 when he beat a defender and the goalkeeper to a ball that was moved forward by a long pass from Ryan Schwarz and a flick by Krohn. Meyer kicked the ball into the net on the ground.

“After we got that second goal it was just a relief for me personally because I’ve had a lot of chances,” Meyer said. “To finally put one away, it was just good to finally get that. And then from there, we had a lot of good chances and we able to convert them.”

In the 51st minute, Meyer made a nice feed to Krohn in front of the net, and Krohn scored to give Hinsdale Central a 3-1 lead.

Just 19 seconds later, the Oswego East defense coughed up the ball in front of its net and T.J. Schmidt pounced on it, scoring to push the Red Devils ahead 4-1.

Jimmy Walker’s goal in the 77th minute completed the scoring.

“They really picked up the intensity,” Szymanski said of the Red Devils. “We were expecting that, but they rose to the occasion. I don’t think we did. They picked us apart.”

Hinsdale Central’s goalkeeping duties were split. Harley Pranger started and made three saves. Philip Pielet took over after the break and didn’t face a shot on goal.

Oswego East’s best scoring chance came in the 75th minute, but Czopek’s bid for his second goal of the game sailed just over the crossbar.

“I guess we just couldn’t finish the game,” Czopek said. “I think we had a lot less energy (in the second half). We were just tired.”

Hinsdale Central improved to 1-1-0 and Oswego East fell to 0-1-1 in the tourney’s Red Division.   

“Hopefully this is kind of a new season for us,” Meyer said. “Obviously to get our first win is good. Hopefully we can keep the momentum going into the next few games. We had a new formation this game. It’s the first time we played a 3-5-2, so I think that might have made a difference.”

“For us to change things as significantly as we did and to play the way we did was good,” Wiggins said.