Mustangs bring the effort in win at Leyden
By Dave Owen

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Thanks to team unity and a formation change, Downers Grove South’s roller coaster season is back on the rise.

Entering Thursday’s game at Leyden in the midst of a streak of three straight shutout losses, the Mustangs (10-8) struck for a pair of second half goals on nice combination plays to defeat the Eagles 2-1.

“I think the key for us was our focus and mentality coming into the match,” Downers South coach Jon Stapleton said. “With the schedule we’ve played in the last couple of games and some of the defeats we had, like Tuesday night (at defending state champion Morton) I don’t think we came with the energy necessary to compete against those teams. Tonight we did. 

“As a group we’ve been up and down at times this year. We’ve had a three game losing streak, a four game winning streak, a three game losing streak. This group has battled through some adversity.”

Two factors at Wednesday’s practice sparked the Mustangs’ latest upturn.

“We had a group of seniors that came forward and brought this team together yesterday before practice, and just tried to sort out some issues,” Stapleton said. “I give them a lot of credit for doing that. And we tried a couple of different things formationally yesterday in practice and put that in today.

“We put Ryan Koniecko in (at defender) who played excellent tonight, and Nick Gruic slid into more of a holding center midfield position and that allowed him to still be defensive minded but maybe get him to distribute a little more. We kind of stuck with that formation in the second half. That’s what we worked on yesterday, the kids liked it in practice and felt comfortable with it tonight so that was a nice change for us.

“And quite honestly it was scoring first,” Stapleton added. “We settle in much better when we do that.”

That critical first goal came with 37:00 left in the game. Off a pass from Andrew Grabavoy, Downers South’s Tom Wendt had his first 12-yard shot stopped by charging Leyden goalkeeper Konrad Dziedzic. But Wendt pounced on the rebound and scored into an open net to put the Mustangs up 1-0.

“That was a great goal,” Stapleton said. “Their keeper made a great save, but Tommy did an excellent job of staying with it. That’s the determination Tommy has shown all season. He’s the type of player that won’t give up on anything.”

A key insurance goal followed on another nice play with 9:41 to go. Eric Diaz sent an initial pass up the right side to Chris Mendez, whose  cross from the end line was headed into the net by an open Sam LaLonde in front to up the lead to 2-0.

“That was an excellent service,” Stapleton said. “Chris attacked the end line well, turned his hips, served it into the box and Sam on the weak side had made a great run and finished it.”

The well-executed goals weren’t as pretty to Leyden coach Mark Valintis.

“I thought we gave a pretty good effort,” Valintis said, “but Downers matched us and at times overmatched us with their effort. And we didn’t respond very well.

“Those were effort goals,” Valintis said. “On the first one the guy (Wendt) made a good move, our goalie made a nice save and he followed it while we stood and watched. On the second goal their guy comes down the end line and sends a great cross in, but we had three guys watch the ball as their guy runs through and buries it in the back of the net. They outworked us.  A credit to them, and the scoreboard showed that.”

But after Wendt’s 8-yard shot on an athletic burst between three defenders was denied by a nice Dziedzic save 25 seconds after the second goal, the Eagles (12-5-1) soared until the final horn.

Leyden was granted a penalty kick when Juan Recendez was tripped in the box on a nice 60-yard free kick by Ricky Pimentel. Recendez left the game briefly with a leg injury, while Pimentel hammered home the ensuing PK to halve the deficit to 2-1 with 7:36 to play.

The Leyden pressure intensified with a corner kick (3:20 left) and a 15-yard shot by Christian Sosnowski  (2:55) that was stopped by Downers South goalkeeper Nick Tannenbaum. Then with just 35 seconds left, the Eagles’ Christian Hernandez sprung free on a partial breakaway off a missed header attempt, but sent a shot inches wide of the left post.

Leyden pressured to the wire, as a 48-yard free kick by Dziedzic with 15 seconds left was batted out by Tannenbaum charging off his line to wrap up the Downers South win.

“It’s a shame it took two goals before we gave a better effort,” Valintis said. “But Juan Recendez I thought played outstanding. He’ll have a bruise (from the foul), but he got back out there after he got it taped up.

“He played well, and Anyer Gonzalez our left back played well.  I thought our right back Moi (Merlos) played pretty well, and everyone else played well in spurts. We just couldn’t put it together consistently. At times we looked very sharp playing one and two touch, and other times we held the ball way too long and they took it from us. We just didn’t play quick enough.”

Keeping the Eagles from finding their stride was a Downers South defense led by Koniecko, David Drews, Nick Rossi, Scott Holakovsky and Patrick Gurdiel  that shut out Leyden for the first 82 minutes of play.

“I think the key was communicating in the back and knowing where each other were at all times,” Koniecko said. “And we were able to get the head balls back upfield. We won most of them in the air and that really helped us.”

The 6-foot-4 Drews nicely headed a Leyden corner kick out of danger with 36:10 left in the game, one of his many strong plays in the air. Koniecko made several nice defensive plays late, including a midfield steal and a block out of bounds of a close-in Leyden shot.

“We dropped back, gave more depth to each other and were always sure we knew where each other were,” Koniecko said.

Downers South put relentless pressure on Leyden goalkeepers Oscar Puga (first half) and Dziedzic throughout the first 83 minutes. Puga’s best moment came in the 24th minute, when Jordan Pawlicki’s low 20-yard blast off a LaLonde cross was denied on a flying save by Puga.

“They’re both pretty good keepers,” Valintis said of the usual shared playing time in net. “Oscar made some outstanding saves in the early half, and Konrad has made just as many good saves too. The problem is I think that Oscar had a little bit more defensive help in the first half, and Konrad didn’t.”

The Mustangs had a 5-1 edge in first half corner kicks (7-5 overall) in breaking out of their recent offensive slump.

“As far as adjustments there wasn’t anything big, but I did like that we were a little more attack minded,”  Stapleton said. “I think we’ve been settling for shots from 30 yards away, and tonight they got to end lines and attacked people 1-on-1.  We just got more dangerous in the final third and we haven’t shown that in every game. Tonight we did.
“I thought collectively we played well. Eric Diaz wasn’t somebody tonight we got a goal or an assist, but he held down the middle pretty well.”

As the season winds down, Downers South seems to be dialing their level of play back up for a strong finish.

“It kind of feels like we’re starting again,” Koniecko said. “We just have to keep our team chemistry together. It’s a team, not individuals.”

“I’m proud of our kids,” Stapleton said. “Even though it’s October it’s still a work in progress. We’ve always talked about being the best team we can be by playoffs, so we have two more games to do that. Tonight was a big step for us.”