Trojans head into poststeason on a high note
By Matt Le Cren

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Downers Grove North gave all of its seniors a chance to shine Thursday night and they took advantage of it.

The Trojans started 10 seniors on Senior Night and that lineup produced all of the offense in a 3-1 victory over Hinsdale South in the regular season finale at Cartsens Field in Downers Grove.

“We saw a good effort level today,” Downers Grove North coach Brian Gervase said. “We have a lot of seniors and I always tell people that’s the key for the playoffs – have a good, talented senior class, which we do. They care a little bit more at the end of the season. If we get that effort out of them the whole time we’ll be good.”

Downers North (9-9-2), which snapped a three-game losing streak, started senior backup Connor Swan in goal and also deployed seniors Austin Walker, Reid Melton, Cullen Cummings, Anthony Nix, Byron Perez, Mike Raines, Emilis Bytautus, Josh Triechel, Tyler Boese and Ryan Ford and Kevin Mitchell during the non-conference contest.

They made their final home game a memorable one, as Triechel scored twice and Cummings once. Perez added an assist in his first game back since breaking his arm in the first game of the season.

“Obviously, losing four games before playoffs isn’t good, so it was a big victory,” Triechel said. “It’s just a really good feeling because this is the last time I’ll play here and all the seniors are going to play here, so it was nice to go out with two goals. And my friend Cullen, I’ve played with him since I was five years old. He got a goal too. It was a really good feeling.”

The game featured plenty of offense and a lot of shaky defense. A calculator would have been useful to tally up all of the scoring chances – the squads combined for 37 shots and 16 saves – and strange give-aways in the back.

But the game remained scoreless until Perez hooked up with Triechel with 14:39 left. Perez sent a long lead pass up the left wing to Triechel, whose open shot in the box was knocked up into the air by Hinsdale South goalie Grant Morford. The ball came down behind Morford and Triechel alertly beat him to it and finished.

But the Trojans didn’t break the game open until early in the second half when Cummings and Triechel connected from distance just 2:18 apart. Cummings’ goal was a 25-yard cracker that rocketed just under the crossbar with 32:54 to play, while Triechel’s came from the same distance on the right wing and beat the diving Morford inside the left post.

Morford, who had a great game in making nine saves, didn’t have a chance on either ball.

“There wasn’t anything you could do with [Cummings’ shot],” Hinsdale South coach James VanDenburgh said. “I was telling [assistant coach] Jen [Belmonte], I hardly had time to turn my head and put my eyes on it before it was in.”

The goals were a relief to Triechel, who earlier missed on three good scoring chances and later had another stopped from point-blank range by Morford, and added a new dimension to Downers North’s offense.

“Honestly, this season we haven’t had the greatest shooting, so now we’re starting to shoot more and that’s a good thing for our team because a lot of our goals have been good plays that result in a tap-in,” Triechel said. “Now that we start shooting [from distance], that’s just one more thing to our team’s game and we can be really good with it. It was just nice because now we have confidence for scoring goals.”

“It was a good effort offensively,” Gervase said. “Triechel was really working hard today. Cullen was working it and we didn’t have to play Reid too many minutes because he’s on a fourth yellow card and we didn’t want him to get another.”

Cummings nearly got another goal with 12:03 left when he fired another rocket off the top of the crossbar. But the Trojans weren’t the only ones putting some zingers on frame.

Hinsdale South senior co-captain John Kotsiantos put the Hornets (4-14-1) on the board when he blasted home an 18-yard free kick from the top of the box with 17:56 left. That ended a frustrating stretch for the Hornets, who had shots from Javier Solis and George Carioscia cleared off the goal line by Downers North defender Jake Maurer in the first half.

“First of all, those were two beautiful goals that [the Trojans] scored [in the second half]; unstoppable,” said Kotsiantos, who had a shot knocked around the post by Swan in the sixth minute. “I think the fact that I scored showed that we didn’t give up second half even though we were down 3-0. It’s always good to score. It’s fun and you never want to get shut out.”

Kotsiantos, who now has four goals to trail team leader Jeremy Leganski by one, wasn’t satisfied with just the one goal. He had a look at a second with 6:10 go after breaking free in the box but junior goalie Raymond Greco, who relieved Swan at halftime, stopped him with a leaping save.

The Hornets kept Greco on his toes, forcing him to make five saves in the last six minutes, including three on Carioscia. The first came on a diving effort with 5:20 remaining and the others were back-to-back on the left post.

“We had opportunities earlier in the game but I would definitely say we had more opportunities in that flurry at the end,” VanDenburgh said. “Not getting blanked is a key, but I feel sometimes we’re getting down by two or three goals and we’re like, ‘oh, yeah, there’s 16 minutes to play, let’s start playing.’ It’s a little too late sometimes. But I thought we did some good things.”

Both sides think they can pull a surprise or two in the playoffs.

Downers North is the seventh seed at the Class 3A Argo Sectional and will face No. 10 seed Fenwick (11-6-1), the Chicago Catholic League co-champs, in a regional semifinal at Hinsdale South on Tuesday. A win would mean a likely regional final date with No. 2 Lyons (16-3-1), which edged the Trojans 2-1 on Sept. 18.

Gervase expects his squad to contend, especially if Perez can play.

“He’s going to keep working out this week and we’ll see,” Gervase said. “He’s good for at least one playoff goal for us. He’s that kind of goal-scorer.

“I expect us to win our regional. I think we’re good enough to beat all the teams in that sectional. We’re expecting to make a little run. I think we’re better than our record.”

Kotsiantos thinks the same thing of the Hornets, who are the No. 14 seed and will host No. 18 Kenwood in a play-in game at 1 p.m. Saturday. A victory would set up a semifinal clash with Lyons on Tuesday.

“I honestly don’t think our record shows how well we’ve played,” Kotsiantos said. “Some games we have played really bad. Some games, like against Addison Trail, against Leyden, against other teams we’ve played really well against tough opposition. So that’s the way we keep our heads up. We look forward to the playoffs.”

Hinsdale South, which has not won a regional title since 1998, hasn’t had much postseason success lately. The Hornets have won only one playoff game since 2006, but it came on home soil when they edged Fenwick 2-1 on penalty kicks in 2010 before losing in the regional final to Downers North.

“[Saturday’s game] will be huge,” Kotsiantos said. “Of course we have to win, but we really want to win by making a statement that we are a good team, we can contend and send a message to the other teams in the playoffs that, hey, Hinsdale South is a force to be reckoned with.”