Warriors drop home game to Glenbard South
By Dave Owen

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The absence of standout sweeper Tito Cabral put Willowbrook on the defensive Saturday against Glenbard South.

With Cabral sidelined after drawing a red card for a hard foul  against Glenbard East on Thursday, the Warriors’ revamped defensive lineup nevertheless stood tall in a scoreless first half before the Raiders would finish two chances in the box in the second half for a 2-0 win.

“We were weaker in back (without Cabral),” Willowbrook senior Ben Draus said, “so we didn’t have as much possession and we couldn’t work it out (of the defensive zone) as well. We sacrificed a lot of possession, and we had to play guys back there who could have helped us on offense.”

The vital player shifted to sweeper to fill the void Saturday was Eric Lukitsh.

“I thought Eric did a great job at the sweeper position, where he doesn’t normally play,” Willowbrook coach Peter Ginter said. “In the first half he was phenomenal back there. And I thought John Karcz played pretty well at defensive mid, then we had him at sweeper at the end.”

But the Warriors (3-11-1) paid the price upfield, as the offensive struggles continued for a team that has scored just two goals during their current six-game losing streak.
“If we have key players out of the lineup, our lineup is fragile,” Ginter said. “And it really shows up in a game.

“When you’re missing a key guy like Tito, now I had to play Eric in the back. And Eric usually gives us more possession in the midfield. Even as a stopper he can hold the ball and distribute it well. Now we had to play him at sweeper and we take that away from Eric’s play.”

Lukitsh still was able to make an impact offensively on restarts, most notably in the 34th minute of play.

After a strong Randy Dziak drive up the right side generated a corner kick, Lukitsh sent his nice corner to Karcz deep in the box. But Karcz was denied when his 8-yard shot was blocked on a great one-handed save reaching to his right by Glenbard South goalkeeper Kyle Kocinski.

Another Lukitsh corner kick 1:05 before halftime resulted in a Draus header on goal, and with 8:05 left in the match, Lukitsh’s 40-yard free kick ignited another great chance. But consecutive headers by Arturo Herrera and Kristian Johansen (the latter  wide of the right post) produced a threat but no score.

Draus has been the Warriors’ offensive star all season, but even his best efforts couldn’t produce a breakthrough. With 25 minutes left and his team down 1-0, Draus tipped a nice 30-yard drive to the crease by Karcz just wide of the post. Later, Draus’ cross to Lukitsh ended in a 20-yard shot over the net.

“We’re trying to get Ben the ball, but we didn’t get him good quality scoring chances,” Ginter said. “Teams know him and they double team him, but that also means somebody else is open. So we’re telling Ben ‘don’t hang on to the ball too long, somebody else is open so we need to distribute the ball quicker.’ He’s doing a better job with it.

“He’s looking to send it down the wing more often, and I’m very happy with that. He’s starting to understand that he can’t do it all himself, that he has to get his teammates involved. I know it’s frustrating for him sometimes. He’ll send the ball to a teammate and they don’t get there, or they didn’t quite read the play like he did. And that’s a communication thing that we’re trying to work out.”

Draus has provided offensive spark for a Willowbrook team that has tripled its 2011 win total.

“It’s my last year so I figured I’d go out with a bang,” Draus said. “I try to give it everything I’ve got in every game.”

Before Saturday, Willowbrook’s previous five losses were all by one goal.

“It’s almost more frustrating (than last year) because we are so close,” Draus said. “We can’t get over that hump. But it definitely feels better to put more goals in and not allow as many as last year.”

Ginter is now looking towards getting Draus more help on the offensive end.
“We’re just not getting the production from our forwards and we can’t let this continue,” Ginter said. “We are going to be moving some players around. We might be sacrificing a little bit on defense, but we need to learn how to score goals.

“We were very positive in the first half because we had played against the wind and we had it 0-0. I thought, ‘now we’ve got them’ because we had the wind at our backs. The wind kind of died, but we still should have put some away in the second half.”

Instead it was Glenbard South finishing its post-halftime chances. The Raiders struck for the go ahead goal with 36:45 left in the game when Krystian Gebis blasted a high 20-yard shot off a cross just under the crossbar. Then with 15:02 to play, a Matt Patterson corner kick was headed in by Jonny Gutierrez racing into the crease to up the lead to 2-0.

Willowbrook goalkeeper Luke Ruszkowski  made nice saves on two other threats in the second half, including a kick save of a point-blank shot on a cross into the crease with 6:30 to go.

The Warriors will look to bounce back Tuesday at Proviso East, trying to stay positive during a rough September stretch.

“We just need to keep our heads in the game,” Draus said, “focus on our possession and make sure that we want it more than the other team.”