Jovancevic's PK gives Central its 9th win
By Dave Owen

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Crazy endings are becoming normal when Hinsdale Central faces Oak Park.

In last year’s sectional semifinal, thunderstorms as the second half was about to begin caused the Red Devils-Huskies match to end prematurely as a 1-0 Oak Park win.

Instead of the hand of God, Tuesday’s rematch had another hand playing a big role in the Red Devils’ 2-1 win that kept them alone atop the WSC Silver standings.

In a prolonged scramble in the box with 4:16 left in a 1-1 tie, a hand ball ruling against the Huskies gave Hinsdale Central’s Stefan Jovancevic a penalty kick.

The senior forward didn’t miss, blasting a shot into the right corner of the net to continue a hot streak for the Red Devils (9-3-2, 4-0 in conference) and end a five-game win streak for the Huskies (7-6-1, 1-2).

“His arm was close to the side, it wasn’t like it was extended out,” OPRF coach Paul Wright said of the key hand ball ruling. “But did it change the path of the ball?  Yes it did. It’s a tough call to make, I understand it. But it’s harsh.

“It’s hard to walk away from this, but you can’t feel too bad because it could have gone either way. But I felt like we at least deserved overtime.”

Jovancevic kept his cool to make sure overtime wasn’t needed.

“It’s nerve wracking in a situation like that,” he said, “knowing it’s a game-winning situation where if you miss it you probably go to overtime and play another 20 minutes. You make it and you win, so you just have to stay confident as you hit it and hope for the best.”

After an 0-2-1 start, the Red Devils have been at their best ever since. And even with star forward Christian Meyer (who had two goals in Saturday’s big 3-2 win over Lyons Township) sidelined Tuesday, Hinsdale Central kept rolling.

“Christian’s a great player,” Red Devils’ sophomore Evan Floersch said, “but I think we have people that can step up to the challenge. We’re a good all-around team who can fill in when we need them.”

Wiggins reinforced that message of depth and versatility on the Red Devils’ roster.

“Obviously he has transitioned to that position as an upfront player and done really well, so we’re excited for him,” Wiggins said of Meyer, who is expected back for Hinsdale Central’s next game. “But really the effect is that (Tuesday) we had an opportunity to get guys more time.

 “It’s an adjustment,” Wiggins added, “but we have a lot of confidence in every last player on our roster. The strength of our team really lends itself to how well all of our guys perform when they’re asked to step in.”

“We ask a lot of our guys, to play a lot of different positions and slot into spots where they can help us. And tonight they did really well.”

The Red Devils needed everyone ready Tuesday to answer Oak Park’s fast start.
Jovancevic angled a nice 15-yard shot off the far post in the 18th minute, followed six minutes later by Huskies' goalkeeper Liam Sorensen's diving save on a Phillip Gutman shot. But Oak Park’s offense soon responded in full force.

The Huskies stormed the net twice in three minutes. The first (a cross from Mavin Gill) resulted in a collision between Gianluca Lo Casto and Red Devil goalkeeper Harley Pranger racing for a loose ball in the box. Hinsdale Central’s Connor Oleferchik and Pranger combined to contain the rebound.

Then 15 minutes before halftime, Oak Park’s Noah Fluharty raced to catch up to a Lo Casto chip pass into the box, but had his shot attempt snuffed out by Pranger coming off his line.

A nice third threat by the Huskies would pay off. With 9:30 left until halftime, Noe Espinoza was free in front and headed a perfect Lo Casto cross from the left side into the net for a 1-0 lead.

“Noe Espinoza started off the season slow, but in the last few games he’s put up a goal or an assist in every game,” Wright said. “You talk about plus and minus, and when he’s on the field we’re scoring more goals now and improving our opportunities.”

But an opportunity seemingly out of nowhere dulled the Huskies’ momentum.

Hinsdale Central’s Floersch launched a 40-yard free kick from the left sideline 3:22 before halftime, which skipped through a maze of players in front and into the far corner of the net to tie the score 1-1.

“I thought going into the second half we had a lot more to work with (after that goal),” Floersch said. “Instead of being down 1-0 we had a clean slate, and I thought we could just play our own game instead of trying to force too many plays in the final third.”

The Red Devils stayed on the offensive three minutes into the second half when a Michael Mayer corner kick led to a Mike Krohn header that Sorensen denied with a diving save.

“I thought we won the first half,” Wright said. “In the second half they seemed to be coming at us more, but I thought we played a quality 80 minutes.”

The Huskies have allowed just eight goals in their last eight games, helped by the defensive unit of Max Menzies, Ryan Ebersole, Erik Arsovski and Gill.

“Max Menzies is phenomenal in back,” Wright said. “He does a great job clearing the ball and is a leader in the back. But we just have to keep our composure a little more.”
Hinsdale Central stayed on an even keel during a pivotal four-day stretch of WSC Silver play.

“It’s been a good feeling this whole week,” Floersch said. “It’s been crazy, beating LT and then winning this one in a close game.”

And memories of the last game against the Huskies remained fresh.

“Getting up for an Oak Park game is never a problem for our guys,” Wiggins said. “We have a lot of respect for them, and that was a tough one last year. That obviously was a part of the talk before the game - they really wanted to do it for last year’s seniors that didn’t get a chance to finish out the last 40 minutes of that game.

“We had former players chiming in with best wishes to ‘win one for us that didn’t get to finish.’ That was inspiring, and I thought we did well. Stefan stepping up and hitting that PK was obviously big. Evan hit a nice ball on a restart that got us going. All in all I liked how we fought back for the two goals after going down 1-0.”

At goalkeeper in the second half, Mitchell Meyer wrapped up the win with his catch of a 45-yard direct kick by Ebersole with 50 seconds left.

TJ Schmidt, Ryan Schwarz, Jack Niestrom, Louis St. John, Max Krohn and Ryan Melloni were also strong in defender or midfield roles for the Red Devils in their shutout second half.

For Oak Park, the bus ride back from Hinsdale wasn’t as enjoyable as last October. But the Huskies have continued to build strength throughout September.

“We changed our formation,” Wright said. “Instead of trying to make giant leaps, we’ve focused on small steps and improvements in certain areas and focusing on certain elements in the game. It’s helped a lot. Today you saw a little more high pressure out of us and diagonal runs we’re trying to make.

“Here’s a team (Hinsdale Central) that knocked off Lyons and we’re right there with them. So we can walk away from this feeling pretty good.”