Bulldogs again find late goals in win over DG North

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By Matt Le Cren

When a team that went 8-8-5 last season suddenly starts dominating opponents, people tend to take notice.

That’s what has happened with Batavia, which boasts one of the most potent offenses around. But teams are cottoning on to what the Bulldogs are about and starting to make life more difficult for them.

Oh, they are still winning handily, but the goals are coming later in matches. Such was the case in Batavia’s 4-0 victory over Glenbard South on Thursday and a 4-1 defeat of host Downers Grove North on Saturday.

“That’s been one of our problems,” Batavia midfielder Eduardo Cuautle said. “We’ve been beating teams 5-0 but against Glenbard South we just couldn’t score until the last five minutes. That’s when we put up three goals. Again today, the last five minutes, we put it away.”

The Bulldogs (11-1-1) had plenty of scoring chances against Downers North but the outcome was still in doubt with the visitors holding a 2-1 lead with five minutes to play.

That’s when Cuautle and senior forward Cody Balogh ended the suspense, taking turns setting each other up on a pair of insurance goals.

Cuautle, who had two goals and an assist, made it 3-1 with 4:57 remaining when Balogh found him unguarded in front of the Trojans net for a 10-yard finish. Cuautle returned the favor at the 2:24 mark, sending a pass from the midfield up the right wing to Balogh, whose 15-yard shot found the back of the net to give Batavia its ninth game with at least four goals this fall.

“I thought we played really good,” said Cuautle, who doubled his goal total to four. “On Thursday we had a very bad game against Glenbard South [a 4-0 win]. We picked it up a lot today, played very well.”

Batavia coach Mark Gianfrancesco expected to do well this season because he has five seniors – Cuautle, Balogh, Cody Witkowski, Anthony Torres and Nick Barstatis – who have been on varsity since their freshman year. But he also isn’t surprised that it is getting tougher for his squad to break down opposing defenses.

“I think people have heard about us, they’ve read about us, you guys are writing about us and so people are more prepared,” Gianfrancesco said. “In the beginning of the season we were able to come out there and just roll them in the first 15-20 minutes and then they’re shocked and at that point the game’s over.

“Now they’re a little bit more prepared for us and we’re creating chances but it’s a little more of a struggle at times to get the ball in the net.”

But the Trojans (3-11-1) weren’t able to stop the seemingly inevitable, though Downers North goalie Garrett Lems tried his best, making six saves and several other blocks on rushes out of the net before he left after being shaken up in a collision with 8:25 left in the second half. Sophomore Aaron Menyes replaced Lems and made a diving save just 13 seconds after entering and another 30 seconds after that.

Batavia just continued to attack relentlessly, using their speed and skill to create chances, eventually outshooting the Trojans 24-5.

“I think (North) was selling out a little bit the second half up top, so we were getting a lot of transition there,” Gianfrancesco said. “It was just persevering and staying with it and being mentally tough and they just created those chances.

“Our heads weren’t going down, we weren’t stopping our runs, so that was good to see. And that was kind of a mirror image of our game Thursday against Glenbard South where we scored three in the final 15 minutes.”

There were three goals scored in a six-minute span of the first half. Batavia struck first on Cuautle’s first goal at the 16:11 mark. Witkowski’s corner kick was deflected by the North defense but the ball went right to Cuautle, whose rocket from the top of the 18 beat Lems into the lower left corner.

“The rebound came right at me and I took a shot,” Cuautle said. “Yeah, [he does have strong leg] but this year I haven’t been testing it a lot. That’s why I haven’t been scoring that many.”

The 1-0 lead didn’t last long as the Trojans answered 1:58 later by converting their only shot of the opening period. Jose Flores lifted a cross from the left corner over the six-yard box to Josh Triechel, who flicked it in front to sophomore Dan Lott for a seven-yard finish to tie the game.

It was the third goal of the season for Lott, who is second on his team in scoring behind Cullen Cummings, who has seven goals.

But the Bulldogs retook the lead with 9:56 to go before the break when Michael Rueffer intercepted a North goal kick about 50 yards out and quickly sent the ball ahead to Witkowski, who beat a charging Lems to the ball, made one touch to get free and scored into the open net.

“We can’t let stupid goals like that happen,” Cummings said. “Good teams don’t do that. We were in the game, 1-1. We’ve just got to make things happen up top. We’re almost there.”

Indeed, Downers North coach Brian Gervase, whose already inexperienced team got even more so when top senior defender and throw-in specialist Zack Parik was lost for the season with a torn ACL, liked what he saw at times.

“I thought there was about a 25-minute period there where we really had this game in hand,” Gervase said. “We talked at halftime [about how] we were two or three [times] just a shoelace on the ball [away] from getting through, and that changes things. So we’re just trying to get their confidence back. We feel like we’ve got a good system now. We feel like we’re generating good offense and now in practice we have to really work on our finish.”

The Trojans had two chances to score in the second half. Cummings headed a corner kick from Reid Melton over the crossbar a minute after the break and 16 minutes later Batavia goalie Ben Steskal (three saves) made a diving stop on a shot by Flores, then got up in time to fall on the ball before Drew Dimos could pounce on it.

After that, the match devolved into a game of ping-pong in which the Trojans would knock the ball out of their defensive third only to see the ball come right back in.

“This is a talented group but they don’t get the speed of the game and it becomes difficult when you have to transition back that quickly,” Gervase said. “The good news is they’re all young kids.  This is a long process. We still think we’re going to make some noise at the end of the year.”

The Bulldogs, who have 14 seniors on their 18-man roster, already are making noise and plan to keep doing it.

“I’ve got some good 1v1 players. They’re very good at playing off each other, they play well together, they like each other, and that helps,” Gianfrancesco said. “There’s a lot of seniors that are buddies and they’ve got some goals that they want to accomplish. With those goals they’re putting that above anything else and that makes a cohesive unit.”