Goehring's late goal tops Huntley 2-1
By Mike Garofola

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Metea Valley finished its stay in the Pepsi Showdown tournament on a high note - albeit, not without some very late heroics from Jake Goehring.

After striking what appeared to be the game-winner in the 67th minute, Goehring would rescue his mates from a sure draw with a stunning back-post goal to life the Mustangs to a thrilling 2-1 victory over Huntley (9-2-0) Saturday afternoon at West Field in LaGrange.

The Mustangs would conclude play at the 9th annual Pepsi Showdown with three victories in 4 matches to raise their overall record for the season thus far to 5-4-2.

"Chris just gave me a perfect ball, and I went up and put it in," said Goehring, whose simple explanation illuminated what Huntley coach Kris Grabner saw as a major defensive breakdown on the play.

"I don't know how we don't mark their biggest guy at the back post, but I am not surprised that he was able to go up and head a ball like that in for the winner," said Grabner, whose side is chasing another league trophy in the Fox Valley Conference this year.

"I thought we came out and established ourselves with some nice possession, playing through our midfield, and finding our best guy in Lucas Baker up top, but after we were unable to get into the back of the net in that first half, our play kind of fell off after the break, and you have to give some of that to (Metea) who changed things up, and played a lot harder in the second half,” Grabner said.

"We were just atrocious in that first half," admitted Goehring. “I don't know what was up with us. We have several nagging injuries, and it’s been a busy week of games, but even if we were suffering heavy legs, there just wasn't any excuse for the way we played in that opening half."

The Mustangs' inability to connect, build from the back. and bypass the Huntley trio of Hubert Celinski, Dakota Rowsey and Nathan Donovan in the middle of the park, put enormous pressure on the Metea backline, who did its best 'bend don't break' stand.

Huntley’s Eduardo Gonzales put Baker through in the 6th minute, forcing Mustangs keeper Gabe Gongora-Falla to save. Moments later, the center official took away advantage with Baker racing into the Metea end for a potential one-vee-one opportunity.

After the restart, another quality stop from Gongora-Falla resulted in a corner, but Huntley’s Jakub Rys headed over the bar after reaching a Christian Ramos inward swinger.

The warning signs continued to be there for the Mustangs who would lean heavily on the back four of Chris DeMarco, Jack Staton, Andrew Shin and Tim Howard during a 15-minute stretch when it was all one-way traffic for the Red Raiders.
Despite Huntley’s dominance in possession in the first half, the best chance of the half would come to the Mustangs at 24 minutes.

A freekick taken by Metea’s Chris Freeman down the right side from 30 yards would yield a rebound off Huntley keeper Tommy Helm. The ball spun out to the Mustangs’ Michael Adams, whose return volley veered over the bar.

Gongora-Falla would pull a nicely hit corner from Baker out of the air in the 27th minute, and Baker sent a freekick smash from 25 yards over the woodwork 3 minutes later.

Play would become chippy in the final 10 minutes before intermission as the frustration built for the Red Raiders, and fatigue slowly caught up for the Mustangs, which defended for the entire half.

A well-timed tackle by Staton on Baker would end the senior’s attempt to get to the endline, resulting in one last corner from Huntley as the first period neared its end.

Metea Valley regrouped and came out with more offensive purpose after the break.

"Our second half of play wasn't anything like the first," offered Goehring. "There was a lot more 1-2 touch, and we held onto the ball and tried to play through the middle as much as we could. We looked so much better in the second half."

The Mustangs were on the front foot immediately after the center official whistled the second period open.

After DiMarco was brought down from the freekick, Freeman unloaded a guided missile that insured the Huntley keeper would remember the sting in his gloves after stopping the wicked smash.

Rowsey nearly beat Helm to a 50-50 ball from out of the back and moments later, a long punt from new keeper Ian Jindrich was flicked nicely forward by Celinski, and nearly onto the foot of the onrushing Freeman.

The 180-degree shift in play by the Mustangs brought some much-needed confidence into the match for Metea, while Huntley struggled with each forward venture by Metea.

"We couldn't find the ball for much of the second half, and (Metea) showed a lot more speed and possession, which we didn't see from them in the first half," Grabner said.

Jindrich would save nicely when a Huntley corner would swing all the way to the far post at 61 minutes - then a clever idea to chip Helm when he ventured far off his line nearly led to a goal from Michael Adams two minutes later.

With Huntley offering little in the way of attacking football, it was only a matter of time before the Mustangs would strike, and Goehring would do so in the 67th minute.

"Freeman and Gabe did all of the work, and I just kind of spun out, ran through the middle, and got the ball onto my foot," said Goehring, after waiting just long enough to go past Helm, who came off his line with the hope of persuading Goehrings' close range shot.

"Tommy (Helm) did a fine job today, and to be honest, I don't think anyone could have stopped either one of their goals," said Grabner.

Within a space of three minutes, Shin would be called upon to tackle Baker before the Red Raiders striker got in on Jindrich. Moments later, Gongora-Falla would send a troublesome corner into the 6-yard box, where Helm would punch it into the underside of the bar and to an awaiting James Kisiel, whose point-blank drive was stopped with a reaction save from Helm.

Back on the other end, disaster would strike after Jindrichs' initial save on David Langford would yield a rebound to the far left of the back post, where Baker's angled blast would find the far inside netting to bring this match even in the 78th minute.

"We had planned if it ended in a draw to go straight to PK's to give both sides some experience with that and prepare the boys for a playoff type atmosphere," began Grabner, "but we didn't keep our end of the bargain by giving up a poor goal right at the end."

Goehring would stun the Huntley faithful with 12 seconds left in regulation to help give the Mustangs the perfect tournament send-off.

"We didn't have a very strong start to the season," Metea head coach Josh Robinson would say before the match. "There's a lot of new faces, and things we continue to need to sort out. But it's slowly coming together for us, including those four straight wins, one coming against Wheaton-Warrenville South, and a very good effort against Larkin the other day, even in defeat."

The Mustangs' will travel to Neuqua Valley on Thursday in its only match of the week, then host Bartlett on Tuesday, September 25.