Huskies cap comeback with Verhagen's OT goal
By Matt Le Cren

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There was a time in the not too distance past when Oak Park and River Forest would not have been able to come back from a two-goal second-half deficit.

Just a month ago, in fact, the Huskies lost three consecutive games under such circumstances.

But things were different Thursday night. Dampened by pouring rain and chilled by an abrupt 20-degree temperature drop, OPRF nevertheless found a way to erase a 2-0 deficit to knock off host Downers Grove North 3-2 in overtime in West Suburban Conference Silver Division action at Carstens Field.

The win was the eighth in the past nine games for the Huskies (10-6-1, 3-2), who assured themselves of finishing no lower than fourth in the WSC Silver standings. They can tie for third place by beating Lyons Township on the road Tuesday.

In contrast, Downers North has struggled since beating crosstown rival Downers Grove South a week ago. The Trojans (8-9-2, 2-4) have lost three straight since then and this loss was particularly galling as four different players received yellow cards after halftime for arguing with the referee.

“The big thing that I told these guys is that it spoke a lot about their character where we were down two goals when we felt like we were really dominating the first 20 minutes,” OPRF coach Paul Wright said. “Several games ago, we were the team getting yellow cards, losing composure and we saw what it did to [the Trojans].

“We were that team literally five or seven games ago. It speaks volumes that they’ve grown from that and we’ve stuck together a lot more. We just played our game and we battled and got through, so it’s great to see that.”

Senior midfielder Okker Verhagen finished off the rally for the Huskies when he scored on a breakaway with 5:20 left in overtime. Pat Callahan fed him the ball up the right wing and Verhagen beat charging Downers North keeper Raymond Greco before scoring into the empty net.

The Trojans thought the Huskies were offsides on the play, but their argument with the officials fell on deaf ears.

“One of our players was debatably on or offsides but he had nothing to do with the play,” Verhagen said. “I realized that so I ran in behind.”

Verhagen’s goal ended the contest three hours after it was supposed to have begun on a day when everyone was behind. The match started 45 minutes late because the officials were given an incorrect start time and then a storm caused the game to be halted for over 30 minutes with 9:06 left in the first half.

Before the rains came, the Huskies missed two excellent scoring chances. Greco dove to knock a Gianluca Lo Casto free kick around the post in the 11th minute and 90 seconds later Noe Espinoza had a breakaway but rolled his attempt wide of the left post.

The Trojans then seized control by scoring twice in a 53-second span. Reid Melton’s penalty kick at the 15:13 mark broke the ice and then sophomore Mike Malloy made it 2-0 when he scored his first career varsity goal with 14:20 remaining.

Melton had a hand, or rather a head, in that play as he got the assist by heading a 35-yard free kick from Cullen Cummings up into the air behind OPRF goalie Sam Lisak. Malloy, playing in just his third varsity match, leaped into a crowd of players near the right post and nodded the ball home.

“It was great for him to get that,” Downers North coach Brian Gervase said. “As he was going in [assistant] coach [Matt] Maletich was like, ‘get in there and mix it up a little bit.’ That’s what we needed.

“I don’t think half our guys would have even gone in to try and get that ball. He threw himself right in the mix and got one. It’s good to see. He’s a sophomore and he’s one of the kids who should be one of our building blocks for the future.”

Though he was beaten on that play, Lisak is one of the Huskies’ future building blocks. The sophomore, who was called up to the varsity two weeks ago and making his second appearance, made four of his five saves after that to keep his team in the game.

“We just kind of kept calm and stayed cool and worked together,” Lisak said. “It’s a big confidence booster. I was pretty nervous going into these past couple games but it’s nice to win.”

“Sam came up with some good saves so that helped us out, definitely, but mainly it was about not losing our heads, staying focused,” Verhagen said. “[We weren’t] panicking because it was 2-0, but just stayed in the game.”

That started during the weather delay, which allowed the Huskies to regroup.

“We were just talking about staying with our game plan and not getting down on yourselves,” Wright said. “We reminded them of some success points that we had during the first half of getting the ball out wide and having a little more pressure up top, and the kids really came alive.”

That included the reserves, who spent the rest of the contest standing in unison and loudly cheering on their teammates.

That seemed to light a spark under the Huskies, who started to pressure the Downers North defense. Verhagen narrowly missed getting OPRF on the board in the first half, seeing a 20-yard free kick saved around the left post by Greco, who was solid in making eight saves, and a quick 20-yard blast sail just over the crossbar with 1:50 to go.

The Trojans had one chance to extend the lead after intermission, but Lisak made an easy save on a 35-yard free kick by Cummings. Verhagen had the Huskies’ first shot of the second period, hitting the inside of the left post at the 26:15 mark.

That proved to be a good omen as just 29 seconds later the visitors broke through for the first of two goals in span of 1:22.

First, Harry Engoren scored on a rebound after Greco made a diving save of a tough shot from the right wing and then Lo Casto tied it with 24:22 left when he made a great run into the right side of the box, got a slight step on a defender and launched a 15-yard shot from a sharp angle that the lunging Greco got a hand on but couldn’t stop.

Downers North’s frustrations showed after that, with Gervase benching two starters after they picked up yellow cards. The Trojans fought hard down the stretch but managed only one shot, a 17-yarder from the left side of the box by Cummings that missed the right post with 2:45 to go.

“Discipline is what we’ve been talking about lately,” Gervase said. “There are guys that don’t understand the largeness of the team and put themselves ahead of it.

“We had a really intense group of 11 guys out there at the end and there were only three starters out there. We had eight starters sitting on the bench. It’s some injuries, some ineligibles. It’s just guys not being responsible for their own thing, whether it’s being disciplined in the classroom [or] being disciplined in practice and it comes back to bite you.

“It’s disappointing. You don’t want to have these kinds of issues at this point of the year. You’d like to be on a nice run, you’d liked to have built on that Downers South match. Instead we’ve kind of gone down.”