Early goals doom Wildcats in SCE title loss to hosts

By Curt Herron

 

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After allowing a pair of goals within the first dozen minutes of the St. Charles East Tournament finals, Plainfield Central was on the verge of getting blown out.

The host Saints seemed well-positioned to continue their high-scoring ways and to deliver a quick knockout punch to the Wildcats on a cold and blustery Saturday.

But Central had other ideas and not only avoided a big loss, it hung tough throughout most of the rest of the match before dropping a 3-1 decision in St. Charles.

After pulling to within a goal when Mo Rashid converted a penalty shortly before the break, the Wildcats had chances to find the equalizer but couldn't connect.

Although St. Charles finally ended the drama with about a dozen minutes remaining, Central was able to walk away with some positives from its title match defeat.

The Saints (10-2-1) entered the contest with an impressive total of 59 goals scored while the Wildcats (6-7-1) had recorded shutouts in their last two matches.

But Central's hopes to complete a 4-0 run through the eight-team invite were dealt a serious blow when St. Charles moved ahead for good in the second minute.

"We watched them play the other night and knew that they were fast and good," Wildcat coach Kevin Fitzgerald said. "We played alright but just can't give up the goals that we gave up and we have to finish better when we don't get many chances.

"I think that we got better this week and it should serve us better for next week. But will it? We'll find that out. I thought that a lot of guys played hard for us and a lot of guys played well during this tournament.

"Tyler (Badertscher) was outstanding in the net, Miguel (Sanchez) and Mo (Rashid) played well up top and guys like John (Hurley) and Nick (Castellucci) always play hard and we don't have to worry about the effort of our guys."

The Wildcats had their resolve tested right away when Andrew Shone got past defenders and put in a goal from close range to give the hosts the early advantage.

Tyler Badertscher responded to the quick deficit by making a series of key stops which kept the Saints from immediately adding a few more goals to their total.

Brandon Villanueva and Shone were denied on tries while the Wildcat keeper also punched away a long liner from Brad Corirossi and a free kick by Jordan Moore.

But there was little that he could do to halt a liner from Moore that found the opposite side of the net in the 12th minute that suddenly made it a 2-0 contest.

Shortly before the half's midway mark, Badertscher halted a liner from Jacob Sterling before Miguel Sanchez was wide on one of the Wildcats' first good chances.

With about a quarter of an hour left in the half, Billy Ballentine cleared a Villanueva shot and then the 'Cat keeper made a kick save on a try by Zach Manibog.

PHS finally caught a break when John Hurley forced a corner kick from Ozzie Gutierrez, which was stopped by Saints keeper Chris Lucatorto in the 34th minute.

But the Saints were called for a foul in the box on Dan Rosenbaum on the play, which resulted in the PK opportunity, and Rashid fired in a liner for the score.

Down the stretch, Nick Belom chipped an attempt which the Saint keeper grabbed before Badertscher came out to stop TC Hull and then halted a liner from Moore.

"In the past couple of games we haven't come out as quickly as we needed to and they capitalized on our mistakes," Badertscher said. "We were just 12 minutes in and they already had two goals and that's definitely hard to come back from.

"When we got our goal, I thought that we gained momentum and then kept it for most of the game before the third goal shut us down. Even though we had a lot of opportunities and all did our best, things just didn't work out our way.4

"This shows how we can actually play and with our next conference game on Monday, this will benefit us. We started out a little rocky this season but we've definitely started to turn things around."

After the break, the Wildcats threatened first when Miguel Sanchez got free but sent a try over the net. The Saints answered with shots from Moore and Manibog.

Just past the halfway mark of the half, new Saints keeper Mike Novotny had to be carried off the field following a collision, returning Lucatorto to the net.

PHS challenged him again a bit later when a Belom throw-in led to a header by Sanchez which went to Hurley, whose try was deflected and resulted in a corner.

Hurley's subsequent corner kick went to Sanchez, who had another header deflected away and Sam Espinal's ensuing corner was promptly lined to the Saint keeper.

St. Charles got some breathing room in the 69th minute when Hull sent a cross to Manibog, who put in a short attempt to round out the scoring for the match.

Both sides had some good chances after that, beginning with a Sanchez free kick to Ballentine, who sent a shot wide and then a Corirossi liner that was denied.

Miguel Duran was thwarted a short time later by Lucatorto, who also hauled in a liner from Hurley with just over a minute left as the Wildcats hoped to rally.

"It's pretty hard to come back when you give up a goal early in the game like we did," sanchez said. "But we knew that we just had to keep going, play as hard as we could and don't stop. We were looking for one more goal but it didn't happen.

"St. Charles is a great team and we had a nice match against them and both teams battled. We've got some games that are coming up that will be just like this one so we have to keep going."

The Wildcats have a busy week ahead, beginning with Southwest Prairie Conference road matches at Plainfield North on Monday and then at Minooka on Wednesday.

Following a nonconference home date against Waubonsie Valley on Thursday, PHS entertains Romeoville in another SPC contest on Saturday to conclude matters.