Rams fall short at Downers Grove South
By Matt Le Cren

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After losing three straight games, Downers Grove South was in desperate need of a victory.

Getting one was easier said than done on a night in which wet weather and an opponent packing defenders into its own penalty area sorely tested the Mustangs’ patience.

But the patience eventually paid off as Jack Freko and Andrew Grabavoy scored second-half goals to propel Downers Grove South to a 2-0 victory over Glenbard East Thursday in Downers Grove.

“They had a lot of numbers behind the ball, made it difficult to find space to play into,” Downers South coach Jon Stapleton said. “I thought our guys were patient moving the ball side to side and both goals were nice assists by Eric Diaz. We needed a win, so it was a positive result and we’ll keep going from here.”

With a steady rain falling throughout, both squads struggled to get traction on the slick turf and consequently there weren’t a whole lot of scoring chances in the scoreless first half. The visiting Rams (2-8) managed only one shot, a 25-yarder by Samir Ghiasi that was tipped over the crossbar by Mustangs goalie Nick Tannenbaum, while the hosts came closest to drawing first blood when Grabavoy fired a 39-yard free kick off the top of the bar with 4:55 left.

With Glenbard East in a defensive-minded posture, the Mustangs needed a strategy to break through and came up with one during the halftime break.

“I guess there’s a balance between being patient and having a sense of urgency in front of the box, trying to find that tempo,” Stapleton said. “You can’t play the first ball in otherwise they’re just going to clear it out, so you had to look side-to-side, you had to get moving and then when the opportunity presented itself we had to recognize it and be able to slot it through.”

Diaz and Freko did just that when they hooked up on the game-winner with 28:59 to go in the second half. The Mustangs (6-5) calmly built up the pressure with short passes and Diaz sent a quick feed up the middle to Freko, who penetrated the box and took a nice touch to his right to elude charging Rams goalie Seth Quam before scoring into the empty net.

“[Diaz] really is [a good playmaker],” Freko said. “He’s a good addition to the team this year and he really makes us better.

“Me and him have some good chemistry so we kind of know what we’re going to do with the ball. I kind of made some eye contact and made the run through.”

It was the second goal of the season for Freko and illustrated what needed to be done against the tenacious Glenbard East defense.

“We just knew in this weather that we had to keep the ball on the ground and just possess because through balls weren’t going to work; they were skipping,” Freko said. “We had some good buildups and finally we got one through.”

The Mustangs got a second one 12 minutes later with Diaz again being the instigator. This time his target was Grabavoy, who slid a 15-yard shot under the hand of a diving Quam for his fifth tally this fall, making it 2-0.

“I thought we tested the keeper more from distance in the first half and I think we were looking more to slot balls through to feet and Jack’s and Andrew’s goals were both situations like that,” Stapleton said. “There was a little buildup to it which was nice.”

For Grabavoy it marked the end of a frustrating effort in which he was stopped several times from long range by Quam, who made a great kick save on a hard shot by Grabavoy with 27:10 remaining.

Quam, as he has done so often this season, kept his team in it by making nine saves in the slippery conditions. But that wasn’t enough for the Rams, who eventually wore down from chasing the Mustangs all over the field.

“For 50 minutes we played good,” Glenbard East coach Josh Adler said. “Our midfield lost their energy out there. The urgency that we had in the first 50 minutes wasn’t there in that last 30 minutes.

“I thought we just got kind of impatient, didn’t do a good job of linking through the midfield. We didn’t have a purpose with a lot of our play going forward and we just kind of panicked in situations and it leads to things.”

Like the goal by Freko, which seemed to take the wind out of the Rams’ sails.

“On a wet night, a ball takes a skip off one of my guy’s foot and leads to that first goal and you gotta try to reenergize and regroup and I didn’t think we regrouped real well,” Adler said. “We were real deflated at that point in time.”

Ironically, it could have been the Mustangs in that position had Carlos Urbina converted on a partial breakaway at the 35:45 mark of the second half. But Tannenbaum, who made two saves in recording his fourth shutout, rushed out to deflect Urbina’s shot, which was then cleared by defender Scott Holakovsky.

Aside from a Fredy Ibarra shot that missed wide right 30 seconds after Freko scored, the Rams created nothing more the rest of the way.

“I was ecstatic with our first 40 minutes and then that first 10 minutes of the second half,” Adler said. “I thought we pressed hard early in that second half and felt good about it and then we just lost it. So it’s unfortunate because we’ve been playing really well this week and it was kind of a disappointing end to the night on a wet night.”

While the Rams were denied in their bid for their first two-game winning streak of the year, the Mustangs got a boost as the second half of the campaign gets underway.

“All these games coming up are really big games for us because we’re at .500,” Freko said. “The [playoff] seeding [meeting] is coming up soon so it’s important to get some wins against good teams.”