Red Devils play well but fall 1-0 at OPRF

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By Dave Miller

GianLuca Locasto picked a good time to score his first goal of the season.

Locasto’s goal in the 94th minute lifted host Oak Park-River Forest over Hinsdale Central 2-1 in double overtime Tuesday evening in a physical West Suburban Conference Silver Division battle.

Ryan Huettel put the game-winning play in motion. He sent a cross in front of the net from the left side. David Leitson didn’t connect on a header, but a split-second later Locasto put away the ball from the right side to send the Huskies (11-2-1, 2-1) into celebration.

No one felt better than Locasto, who missed seven games this season with a deep muscle bruise on his right leg that turned into a blood clot. It was his fifth game back since being sidelined. He’s been slowly worked back into the action.  

“I just gave it everything I got,” Locasto said. “I was told where to be and just had to go there. Ryan definitely put in a great cross. I was just there to finish the job.”

“I saw David coming across there, and usually I’d shoot because I shoot usually when I get the ball right by the goal,” Huettel said. “I just saw him making that run and I just played it. There was kind of a collision and then Luca came up back post and put it in.”

Locasto’s goal gave Hinsdale Central (6-6-2, 2-1) its first Silver loss and kept OPRF’s hopes of a conference title alive. The Huskies needed a win after their last conference result, a 1-0 loss at Glenbard West on penalty kicks.

It was a heartbreaking loss for Hinsdale Central, but coach Mike Wiggins remained positive after his team gave the Huskies everything they could handle on their home field.

“This group has a tendency to play extremely well on turf, which is interesting,” he said. “Tonight was a fantastic effort from our end. We just don’t have a result to how it. If we bring this effort every night we’re going to be in every game. I’m not disappointed in our guys in the least bit.”  

OPRF took a 1-0 lead in the first half when Huettel scored on a free kick from 25 yards on the left side in the 12th minute.

 It was Huettel’s ninth goal of the season.

“I’ve been shooting really well lately so I just saw the goalie on the other side and I decided to put it over the wall, and it went in,” Huettel said.

Hinsdale Central tied the game a couple minutes into the second half. Phillip Gutman received a short corner kick on the right side and sent the ball in front of the goal. Mike Krohn’s header bounced to the left side where Aaron Cheever buried it into the net to tie the score.

“It was a good game for Aaron,” Wiggins said. “He hasn’t played much this year, but he’s earned time with his play. He had a couple nice outings recently so we rewarded him with some time starting and today he bought himself really the entire time of the game. He did a nice job.”

Both coaches brought up the physical nature of the action.

“Every time we play Hinsdale they match up very similar to us in style and play so it was nice to pull it out,” Huskies coach Paul Wright said. “We battled. I felt like we were playing against 12 instead of 11 today. It was a lot more physical than I would have liked.”

“The way we were able to dictate tempo at times was exactly what I thought we’re capable of bringing,” Wiggins said. “Under very, very physical conditions and the way the referee chose to allow play to go, I thought we handled ourselves very well. Mentally we were never taken out of the game. I think we could probably do a better job of creating our chances, but in terms of feeling the game was in control from our perspective, we never really felt like we were having it taken to us, but credit them. They got the result when it counted.”

After Hinsdale Central stymied OPRF’s attack up the middle, the Huskies turned to a different strategy that ultimately produced Locasto’s game-winner.

“We talked about keeping your composure and getting the ball out wide and getting crosses in,” Wright said. “We were trying to attack up the middle and it wasn’t working all game. When we put the ball out wide we were giving ourselves some 50-50 opportunities, we were getting some throw-ins and we were getting some head flicks.”  

OPRF goalkeeper Granger Sheppard came up big when needed. His best sequence came 66th minute. He stopped Gutman’s shot through heavy traffic and then made a save on a Cheever blast from the left side.

Sheppard received strong defensive play in front of him from players such as Danny Pasternak and Max Neumann. At one point, Pasternak headed the ball twice in succession to clear the ball.

Will Meyer was in goal for the Red Devils. They’ll have to figure out how to finish offensively.  Cheever’s goal is their lone score in their last two games.

“We can really be aggressive and take it to teams, and I felt at times we really did that tonight,” Wiggins said. “That’s when we were at our best, when we’d knock it down, keep it and look to play forward. I thought we did a good job of finding Mike Krohn and playing off him. I would like to have seen Mitch (Reavis) get more touches. We were trying to find ways to utilize him better.”