Gators top Huntley to stay unbeaten in FVC Valley Division

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By Gary Larsen

As Crystal Lake South and Huntley straggled off the field after a hard-fought Fox Valley Conference soccer game, somebody asked South’s Alex Anderl how his knee was.

“Destroyed,” Anderl said.

The Gators’ 3-0 win over the host Raiders was built on goals from the brothers Albuquerque and one from Charlie Oliver, and it was destroyer-in-chief Anderl’s play as a defensive stopper that embodied the effort coach Brian Allen is always yearning to see from his guys.

Tackling hard and sticking his nose into every battle he could find on the field, Anderl barreled around the pitch on one good leg and earned the ultimate compliment afterwards.

“Alex Anderl is a warrior,” Allen said. “We preach about warriors and artists, and he exemplifies what we want in terms of a hard-nosed tackler, who wins the fifty-fifty balls, and we kind of go as he goes.

“If him and Sam (Murdock) are on and we can win the midfield on those fifty-fifties, with those two going at a hundred miles an hour, we’re in good shape and everyone feeds off of that.”

The Gators (9-5, 2-0 in FVC Valley Division play) applied the better pressure early on, and senior Roberto Albuquerque sent a rolling shot saved at the post at 9 minutes. South’s first goal came on a penalty kick conversion off the foot of senior Charlie Oliver at 14 minutes.

His penalty kick conversion on Thursday gave Oliver 21 goals this season and 73 for his high school career – nine goals shy of the Tigers’ all-time career scoring record.

Not bad for a defender.

For four years, Oliver has enjoyed the best of both worlds on a soccer field. A defender for the Fire Academy’s U-18 team, Oliver has been a forward for Allen’s program since his freshman year.

And Allen has used the luxury of sliding Oliver to the back line more this season, as he did late in Thursday’s game.

“We haven’t done that too much in his career but we’ve done it more this year, just because our back line is so young,” Allen said. “When he’s been back there, I think our goals-against average is .03. It gives us a confidence boost when we put Charlie back there, but the key is getting a few goals and getting a lead first. And he’s the first person to volunteer to do it. I don’t even have to ask him.

The future of finishing once Oliver graduates seems to be in good hands at Crystal Lake South. Freshmen forwards Renato Albuquerque and Orlando Tapia have played quality minutes this season.

“There’s a lot of skill there. It’s just getting that mentality of the pressure and the work rate, and dealing with all of the components that come with varsity soccer,” Allen said. “But they’re adjusting well and peaking at the right time, which should pay dividends these last few division games.”

Renato Albuquerque had a hand in all three goals on Thursday. He raced behind the Huntley defense and got tripped to earn Oliver’s penalty kick in the first half, and in the second half he assisted on a goal to senior brother Roberto and then scored one of his own.

The Albuquerque-to-Albuquerque connection occurred at 67 minutes, when Renato found Roberto on the left side, and the elder brother finished.

“I saw the pass coming and it was like ‘all right, another assist from my little brother’,” Roberto Albuquerque said. “It’s always fun, a little brotherly love. But you’ve got to give it to the whole team – defense, offense, everybody was in synch today. And give props to Huntley. They came out and stayed with us but in the (second half) we put them away.

“I expected a tough game and I thought this would be another game for us to prove ourselves, that we’re still number one (in the FVC) and we’re going to stay on top.”

One minute after the Gators took a 2-0 lead, Renato Albuquerque followed up a shot that was initially saved off the foot of sophomore Sam Murdock and buried the follow-up shot.

Twice.

“It came to me, I hit it and it went over the line, and the keeper through it back out,” Albuquerque said. “It came right back to me and I just put it far corner.”

The Gators’ shutout on Thursday was also their fourth of the season.

“I thought they’d be more dangerous on the attack but we really closed them down a lot and we didn’t really didn’t allow them many chances,” Anderl said. “We shut them down in the center and took away their players up top. We’re combining better than we did earlier this year and we’re coming together as a family. We’ve improved a lot and everyone is hitting their stride now.”

Allen was pleased with the way his side played after halftime.

“The boys grinded it out in the first half, I don’t think either team really played their best, but we made some adjustments and were able to capitalize with a couple nice combination plays,” Allen said.
“We knew it would take some time today. They’re a disciplined team in the back. We had to make sure that we didn’t play too predictable and that’s something we’ve been working on all year long.

“We have the capabilities to get behind people but we’ve got to do a better job of breaking them down. Even when we try to break teams down, sometimes we forget about the fact that, when they step, we can then free (our forwards) behind. The second half was much-improved in terms of seeing both parts of that dynamic.”

And as Allen’s senior defensive stopper gathered his things and began to limp his way towards the team bus, Allen gave him props one more time.
 
“Alex Anderl with his tackles in the center of the park today, I thought he sparked the fire for everybody else,” Allen said..