Blackhawks claim historic victory over Huskies

By Darryl Mellema

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“Funny old game, football” is a phrase made famous by 1960s English star Jimmy Greaves, who became a TV pundit when his playing days were over.

One of the game’s oddities is that dominance on the field means absolutely nothing – sometimes – to the scoreboard.

Take West Aurora’s famous victory at Naperville North on Tuesday night – the first by Blackhawks coach Joe Sustersic in 16 tries against the Huskies.

The visiting Blackhawks took the lead with 11 minutes left in the first half when Geovanni Martinez hit a long-range shot that went off the Naperville North keeper’s hands and into the net.

Then Naperville North surged and created every chance in the match through the last 10 minutes of the first half and the opening 20 of the second half. That pressure culminated in Joe Sullivan’s blistering free kick goal with 20:26 to play.

Surely the hosts would push on and win the DuPage Valley Conference match, right?

Wrong. With three minutes left, Danny Rotolo took a long free kick for West Aurora. The ball came into the middle of the penalty area, West Aurora’s Juan Cerda got a head on the ball, the ball deflected off a Naperville North defender and went into the back of the net.

Funny old game, football.

“We’ve lost a lot of games this year weirdly,” Sustersic said. “We’ve lost a lot of games 1-0. We’ve lost games where we outplayed the other team. Today, we have a game where we know the other team outplayed us and we got a fortunate bounce on both of our goals.”

West Aurora (5-6-2, 2-2) has played close soccer matches all season. Eight of the team’s 13 matches have been decided by a single goal, and then there are the two ties.

“Unfortunately, we’ve been on the opposite end most of the times, but it feels nice to win one,” Sustersic said. “The kids’ effort today was terrific. We deserved a good result. We started the game with 16 kids and two got injured in the game. We had a lot of people playing different positions.”

Those injuries did not appear to be minor ones either. Ibo Kibarov left the match with a suspected dislocated shoulder five minutes into the second half and spent the rest of the match being attended to by Naperville North’s training staff.

“When we moved Ibo to playing defense, that made us being a better team,” Sustersic said. “At the same time, we moved Geovanni Martinez from a sweeper back to the forward line, (Martinez) had to play sweeper again for us today.”

Miguel Moreno spent much of the second half on the bench with a knee injury. Sustersic said the status of each would be determined after consultations with the West Aurora’s trainers later this week.

“Noel Chavira, who normally plays 15 minutes as one of our defenders, played 78 today,” Sustersic said. “Chris Koulos had to step it up today. Last year, he maybe got a couple hundred minutes of play and today he was our best defender.”

Throughout the match, Alex Guillen made save after save in goal for the Blackhawks. Even in the final 30 seconds, he was called into action to preserve the victory.

Sustersic also said he was pleased for seniors such as Rotolo and Danny Talancon, who have lost to Naperville North throughout their varsity careers, get the victory.

Since joining the DVC, no matter the sport, beating schools hailing from Naperville – North or Central – has been a challenge for West Aurora’s athletes.

“Any team that starts with an ‘N’ sometimes scares us,” Sustersic said. “To do this with a team that’s less than full force.

The defeat ended a six-match winning streak for Naperville North (9-3-0, 3-1) and marked Jim Konrad’s first loss to a Blackhawks squad.

“Soccer’s a cruel game,” Konrad said. “They had maybe one shot on goal. One bounced off our keeper’s hands and the other went off our head. Those are the two chances.”

Against that, the Huskies spent considerable time in their attack half of play – especially in the opening 20 minutes of the second half, which was literally one-way traffic as the hosts chased an equalizing goal.

“I thought we created a lot of chances,” Konrad said. “I was happy with the way the boys responded to adversity. It was just one of those nights where it wasn’t going to work for us.

“Soccer’s a cruel game and some nights it works in your favor and some nights it doesn’t – and tonight was one of those nights where it didn’t.”

Sullivan was again the dominant offensive player of the match. Not only did he score his team’s goal, he created a variety of chances – some from corner kicks and some from open play.

Some of those were long-range shots he took himself – one dipping effort landed on the roof of the net having missed dipping under the crossbar. Other times, Sullivan found teammates with passes.

“He was the man who was trying to put us on his back and trying to win the game,” Konrad said. “I thought he played great.”

Another Naperville North player who performed well was Brett Johnson.

“Chris Ensign, who has been starting all year for us, has mono, so (Johnson) has been playing about half the game,” Konrad said. “Tonight he played real well. I thought he did a nice job holding the ball at midfield and switching fields. I think he did a real nice job.”

Both squads return to action this weekend. The Blackhawks compete at the Rock Island tournament while the Huskies host Downers Grove South on Saturday.