Mustangs finally break through against Warriors
By Dave Owen

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With defending state champion Morton and the talent-rich Midwest Classic in Indianapolis on the schedule, the week already presented plenty of challenges for Downers Grove South.

Then Willowbrook’s Luke Ruszkowski provided another wall to overcome.

The senior goalkeeper withstood a Downers South shots advantage of 31-5 on the night (and 17-1 in the second half) to maintain a scoreless tie until just 4:35 remained in the match. 

That’s when the Mustangs' Jack Freko finally broke in on right wing and tipped an Eric Diaz pass past a charging Ruszkowski to end Downers South’s frustration in an eventual 2-0 win.

“I just saw an opening and Eric (Diaz) played a great ball,” Freko said. “I saw the keeper coming out, so I knew I had to take a quick touch and I knew it had to be a one-touch.”
Three minutes later, Freko assisted on Andrew Grabavoy’s goal to finish the scoring for Downers South (4-2) and drop upset-minded Willowbrook to 2-5-1.

“He (Ruszkowski) was cutting everything off, but we were definitely too direct today,” Freko said. “We need to possess more at the center of the field, but we just kept going at it and finally got one. We would have liked to play better throughout the game. We had a lot of chances and hit the post I think four or five times. I guess it just wasn’t our day, but we got the win.”

Downers South coach Jon Stapleton summed up his team’s emotions after the WSC Gold opener.

“Honestly how do I feel?  Relieved,” Stapleton said. “There are nights when no matter how you dominate in possession and shots, it’s just not your night. It had that feel tonight. So it’s a credit to our guys to find a way to get it done.

“Ultimately Jack had a nice finish when we needed it, and I think Eric (Diaz) kind of took over the game in the middle. I thought he was the catalyst in the second half in getting us dangerous and finding a way to score.”

Before that, Ruszkowski produced a highlight film of saves.

“He was tremendous,” Stapleton said. “He gave up some rebound chances that his teammates were able to clear out, but he covered the goal very well in both halves.”

Ruszkowski began with a leaping one handed stop on Diaz’s sliding 12-yard shot off a nice Sam LaLonde pass in the 18th minute.

LaLonde himself would have had a hat trick with better luck and mortal goalkeeping. The senior hit the crossbar with a tough angle shot from just left of the net 11:20 before halftime, then had a nice 25-yard shot tipped just over the crossbar by a leaping Ruszkowski two minutes later.

In the second half, LaLonde was denied at 36:30 (a reaching Ruszkowski catch high over his head), 26:05 (missed an 8-yarder wide off a pass from Diaz), 18:00 (a 10-yard save by Ruszkowski), 15:50 (a catch at the right post off a point blank shot) and yet again with 8:15 left (a diving stop by Ruszkowski of a 12-yard blast).

LaLonde had plenty of near-miss company.

Ruszkowski made two saves on a Mustang flurry in the 36th minute of play (including a brilliant one-handed reach to deny Scott Holakovsky point blank), Grabavoy hit the crossbar with a 15-yard laser 2:55 before halftime and quality shots in the opening 11 minutes of the second half by Jordan Pawlicki and Nick Rossi were stopped by the Willowbrook keeper.

“Luke had the best game I’ve ever seen him play,” Willowbrook coach Peter Ginter said. “Every game over the last three games he’s stepped up his game and played better every time. He’s taking  charge of his box, he’s making some awesome saves, making good decisions on coming out and cutting down angles, and his positioning has improved quite a bit. He’s playing terrific right now and we’re so happy that he is. He was very key for us just to hang in this game.”

“This was probably one of my best games,” Ruszkowski said. “I had some saves I didn’t think I was going to get. 

“They’re a really good team and had some really good shots, but my defense made their shots hard. They stepped up really well.”

Tito Cabral (two blocked shots), Ivan Galicia, Arturo Herrera, Daniel Torres and Eric Lukitsh were tested often as defenders in front of Ruszkowski.

“Eric Lukitsh is always very solid for us in the middle defense,” Willowbrook coach Peter Ginter said. “He’s one of the few guys who can distribute the ball really well for us, and Ben Draus gives us a lot of strength up the middle. They double teamed him today because they knew he was our leading scorer. They marked him real close, but that opens up opportunities for other players. We just didn’t pick up on that.”

Draus headed a Randy Dziak corner kick just wide in the 23rd minute for one of the Warriors’ few offensive chances. 

The best Willowbrook threat came just 2:30 into the game, when Downers South goalkeeper Nick Tannenbaum partially stopped a Mike Rogalski shot and Mustang defender Ryan Morrissey raced to the end line to clear the ball out of bounds.

Outside of those plays, it was Willowbrook on the defensive most of the night.

“I thought overall our defense played well,” Ginter said. “We didn’t give them a lot of quality shots for most of the game, and whatever good shots they had Luke was able to snuff out.

“The one thing we know we need to improve on is our possession game. Transitioning from defense to offense we need to have better possession and find our target players right away instead of giving the ball right back to them.”

A 2-1 loss to Morton on penalty kicks preceded the Mustangs’ unexpected battle Tuesday.

“I think the longer the match went the more confidence Willowbrook got and we started pressing things a little bit,” Stapleton said. “We come off of Morton and face Willowbrook with a tradition maybe not as strong as Morton. We really try to stress to our kids not to take anybody for granted, and tonight is just another good learning experience. Hopefully we take it and continue to grow.”

The next test of that growth comes this weekend in Indianapolis.

“We need to step up our game,” Freko said. “We made it to the championship last year, but if we play like we did tonight I don’t know how it’s going to go. But I think we’ll be pumped up for the atmosphere there. “

The return of Patrick Gurdiel and offensive-minded play from defenders Rossi and Holakovsky provided positives from Tuesday’s win.

“We like to get our outside backs forward if we can, both Nick and Scott,” Stapleton said. “And Patrick came back (from injury) and got some good minutes tonight. If we’re possessing and confident in that, we like to get those guys forward in the attack.

“Nick had a great service early, and those are the kinds of balls we’re looking for him to play. So the more we can possess the more they can move forward and become part of the attack. That was something we tried to do.”

Willowbrook goes forward with growing confidence, after a close game against one of the WSC Gold’s best teams.

“The key component is possession,” Ruszkowski said. “I feel we kick the ball up the field too much, but we definitely have the potential to improve that part of our game.”

“The team feels much better about playing soccer this year,” Ginter said. “We’re having a lot more success on the field, and I think they’re enjoying the game more because of that. We’re getting strength off our bench – we had four sophomores in there today (Rogalski, Herrera, Kristian Johansen and Anthony Pieroni), and they had to play a lot of minutes today against a team like Downers South. That’s really going to make them better players down the road.”