Grens open strong against visiting Wildkits

 

By Matt Le Cren

Elk Grove hasn’t enjoyed much early-season success in recent years, but that trend could be ending if Monday’s performance in the season opener is any indication.

The Grens scored on their first two shots and cruised to a 3-0 victory over visiting Evanston, controlling play throughout much of the contest.

“In the past we haven’t come out very fast for games or for seasons and we’ve been kind of tentative,” Elk Grove coach Joe Bush said. “[Tonight] we were really composed and knocked it around and finished the ones that we should finish, which was exciting to see.”

The Grens opened the scoring with 36:28 left in the first half on a goal by Danny Cardenas. Ernesto Rodriguez ran onto a long pass up the left wing from his brother, Eddie, stopped to shake off a challenge from a defender and slid a pass across the crease to Cardenas on the right post for a six-yard shot.

Just 5:22 later, Ernesto Rodriguez put the hosts ahead 2-0 when he rolled a 12-yard shot inside the right post. Sophomore midfielder Justin Gavros set up the play with a quick pass up the middle to the unmarked Rodriguez.

“We’ve been working hard throughout the whole off-season and I think this is what we get off of hard work and teamwork,” Ernesto Rodriguez said. “[Getting the early lead] was pretty important but we couldn’t get cocky. We just kept our pressure up and I told the guys not to [get] over-confident because anything can happen within seconds just like [our goals] did.”

The Grens welcome back seven starters from last year’s 7-8-3 squad, and that experience showed against the speedy Wildkits. The veterans bring stability to every area of the field, with Ernesto Rodriguez and fellow senior Cesar Rodriguez (no relation) up front, Gavros, senior Nick Jordan and junior Trevor Cwiok in the midfield and seniors Matt Ginter and Rafal Borys on the back line.

“I think the key to this is that we’re all pretty close to each other,” Ernesto Rodriguez said. “We’ve been playing for a while and we got pretty comfortable with each other.”

The Rodriguezes aren’t the only brother combo on the team. Ginter and twin brother Mike anchor a defense that gave up just one shot in the first half and did an impressive job of containing Evanston’s two fastest players; midfielder Jamal Banton and forward Manue Quiroz.

Banton sprung the dangerous Quiroz early in the seventh minute, but Quiroz swerved a shot from the left side of the box wide of the right post. The pair would combine for only two shots, neither on goal, the rest of the way and a frustrated Quiroz was one of three Wildkits to pick up yellow cards.

Evanston finished with only seven shots and Elk Grove goalie Frankie Ortiz had to make just three saves. The senior wasn’t tested until 12:40 remained in the second half when he stopped a hard 18-yard shot from Daniel Lev. Ortiz also did well to cut off a pair of corner kicks in the final 10 minutes before Cesar Rodriguez headed home a Jordan corner kick to finish the scoring with 4:27 remaining.

“We’ll give those [shots] up a little bit [from] outside the box and we trust Frankie,” Bush said. “Frankie had that one nice save on a corner kick, which is great. We’re just happy to get a shutout.

“The three seniors in the back, Rafal Borys and the two Ginters, they’ve been together for a couple years now, which is nice. They kind of read each other and know when to come over as a second defender.”

The defense could prove to be a strength for the Grens, who will need to be sharp in the always rugged Mid-Suburban League. After a trip to Leyden on Friday, Elk Grove opens league play by hosting Hersey next Monday.

“It’s all about communication in the back, having the good formation,” Mike Ginter said. “Since we all know each other and have been playing together throughout our whole high school careers, we know what we’re doing. We know our jobs.”

But maybe the Grens don’t know their own strength.

“I was surprised we scored those first two goals but it feels awesome coming out with a win,” Ginter said. “We haven’t been doing that great these past few years so it was a good way to kick off the season.

“We could [make some noise]. We have a lot of talent, a lot of skill, we’ve got a good bench. We’ve still got to work on some things, but we’ll progress and we’ll get better.”