Mistakes prove costly for Blackhawks in DVC opener

By Darryl Mellema

It wasn't the first time this season that West Aurora coach Joe Sustersic saw him team pay the price when they didn't execute well.

The latest telling of that tale came Tuesday, after the Blackhawks made mistakes at all the wrong times and that conspired to help Naperville Central to a 2-1 DuPage Valley Conference victory in Aurora.

"I don't know what stats are for shots on goal or shots on frame – but when we had our chances, we weren't finishing," Sustersic said.

"And when they had their chances, they did finish. And when we gave them opportunities like we did, we helped make them look good."

The frustrating thing for Sustersic was that, for large portions of the match, the Blackhawks (4-3-1, 0-1 DVC) were on the same playing level as Naperville Central (8-1, 1-0).

But from the third minute of the match, the hosts trailed after a poor goalkeeping clearance was sent straight back into the net by A.J. Seaman.

At almost the midpoint of the match, West Aurora reached a higher gear and forced Naperville Central to react.

And just after the Blackhawks' play improved – the Redhawks got their second goal.

This time, an innocuous Naperville Central attack was about to end with West Aurora's goalie picking up the ball.

Just before he did, a defender tapped the ball to him – and now when the ball was picked up, the play violated the back pass rule.

Naperville Central received a free kick 17 yards from goal and Seaman tapped the ball to Peter Beasley, who shot into the net.

"They had two opportunities and we made them look good on both of them," Sustersic said. "They finished. They scored on our two mistakes."

The rest of the first half saw West Aurora struggle to maintain that dominance and the second half turned into a "blood and guts" all-out match that typifies DVC contests.

"I think, in the first half, the kids were shell-shocked after we gave up that first goal," Sustersic said.

"I don't know if some of the kids were saying 'here it comes again' – because we have given up some bad goals against Naperville Central. But we played much better in the second half."

West Aurora's second half revival resulted in a goal when Oliver Dasilveira headed Emmanuel Ochoa's right wing cross into the net. With 21 minutes left, the Blackhawks had life – and plenty of time.

But Naperville Central's defense tightened in the final quarter of the match.

Mario Alvarez had a sharp shot saved with five minutes to play and, moments later, Cesar Garcia shot just wide and the Blackahawks rally fell just short.

"We played well enough to win but we didn't do enough to get that win," Sustersic said. "I was happy with how we played the second half. We didn't give up. We kept fighting.

"A play here or a play there – we might have gotten it to 2-2 and then played into overtime for a chance to win. But we didn't put the ball into the back of the net."