Mustangs come back strong after layoff
By Bill Stone

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After playing its first six games over 11 days and scoring just four goals, the Metea Valley soccer team went an entire week without a contest before playing host to South Elgin Thursday night.

“It was nice to go back to training a little bit. We were worn out, had some injuries,” Metea Valley coach Josh Robinson said. “We emphasized just taking chances and going to the goal.”

Unfortunately for the Mustangs, something else had changed since defeating Plainfield Central 2-1 Aug. 30. Starting senior central defender Evan Cudone, who was injured in the game, was on crutches Thursday with a cast over his right foot.

Senior Jack Staton took Cudone’s place on the defensive line.

“I’m (usually) a midfielder. I can go left, center. I’m all around the place,” Staton said. “It kind of does hurt us because (Cudone) does have more of a leadership role on this team. He’s likes to get us together, but we’ve been coping well with that.”

The Mustangs still didn’t just win their second game in a row but they also posted a shutout with a 2-0 victory over the Storm in Upstate Eight Conference Valley Division action.

Staton scored the first goal off a corner kick by junior Chris Freeman in the first half, and Freeman scored just 70 seconds into the second half. Senior goalies Gabriel Gongora-Falla and Ian Jindrich each played one half as the Mustangs (2-3-2, 1-2 in UEC Valley) earned their first shutout since a scoreless tie with Hinsdale Central in the Aug. 20 season opener.

“That’s the best we’ve played so far this year, just knocked the ball around, stayed composed, looked dangerous throughout the game,” Robinson said.

“We hope to keep our momentum going forward because we’re looking to get the third (win in a row),” Staton said. “It’s always good to win, especially with a shutout. We worked hard together as a team. They did have a couple of chances, but we ended up keeping our heads, cleared the ball and got right back up the field.”

South Elgin (4-4-1, 1-2) had hoped to continue its strong play from Tuesday in a 1-0 home loss to Lake Park, but had trouble getting quality chances. The Storm now has lost three in a row and are winless in their last four contests.

“There’s a few things that didn’t look good today,” South Elgin coach John Uveges said. “We did not possess the ball. You’re looking at 50-50s where we’re just a little shy. One of the things we work on, and kind of pride ourselves on, is to be able to keep the ball. We weren’t on the sides (of the field). There was just nothing open for us. It was just not a good game for us.”

Freeman now has five of Metea’s six goals this year and caused havoc numerous times in the attacking zone with his shooting and passing. On Metea’s first goal off a corner kick this season, Freeman put the ball from the right corner into the upper-middle part of the box to Staton, who headed it home into upper-right corner of the goal.

“I saw (Staton), he was wide open so there was no option but to play him and he had a nice header,” Freeman said.

“First goal (this season) in that center back (position),” added Staton with a laugh. “That’s really exciting. I’m hoping to get a lot more, though I’ve stepped in the back. I’m looking to get forward a lot.”

During his time in the back, Staton aided a defensive line with senior Max Gierczak also in the center and junior Patrick Regal and seniors Premal Desai and Andrew Shin splitting time on the outsides.

“Evan’s tough to replace. He’s been amazing this year,” Robinson said. “Jack’s played amazing all year and we’ve thrown him in four or five different spots. It’s a testament to how quality of a player he is.”

Another recent strategic change has been going to three forwards with Freeman, senior Jake Goehring and freshman Michael Adams the primary threats in the rotations.

Freeman made it 2-0 with 38:50 left after Adams controlled the ball to the left of the box under pressure from multiple defenders. The ball deflected to Freeman, who zipped around a defender and put a diagonal shot that was deflected into the upper right corner.

“I tried to place it, but it hit a defender and went in so I got lucky on that one,” Freeman said.

Metea is lucky as well regarding Freeman. He played on the varsity as a freshman but moved to North Carolina last year. He also played varsity soccer there but is excited to return to the Mustangs.

“Since I moved to North Carolina, I’ve been thinking about Metea a lot. The soccer over there is actually different from here so I couldn’t wait to get back, and once I got back, I was happy,” Freeman said. “I didn’t really like North Carolina a lot. The soccer program was all right, but I just wanted to come to Metea because it’s better over here.”

Freeman had six of the Mustangs’ 21 shots, but he often possessed the ball in open space. Metea did a good job of transitioning into an attacking mode and then received strong support in the attacking third near the 30-yard line from midfielders such as senior Franco Cattani and junior Nathan Donovan.

“Our forwards have really stepped up and worked a little harder to put pressure on defenders,” Robinson said. “For a while, we would possess the ball 65-to-70 percent of the game sometimes and end up with one shot. Now guys a little bit more committed to going into the attack and guys are willing to commit themselves.”

Metea could have easily had more goals if not for some strong play by the Storm’s defense, especially senior sweeper Daniel Hopkins and goalie Michael Cortes, who replaced Tyler Shipon at halftime.

Cortes made diving saves of open blasts around the 25 by Staton and Cattani. With 15 minutes left, the Storm blocked a shot by Brandon Espino on the right post off Enrique Rodriguez’s corner kick before a foul was called. In the final seconds, Metea almost scored on its sixth corner kick of the half, but Donovan’s shot went off the crossbar.

“On set plays, our defense is coming along. What we didn’t do was we let (Freeman) have the ball,” Uveges said. “He had way too much space and that really cost us on that second goal. Other than that, the defense did come through for us.”

Senior Spencer Scott, who started the game at stopper, proved to be the Storm’s top offensive weapon when he moved up top.

With 25 minutes left in the first half, Scott sprinted to open space in the upper-right corner of the box after Tyler Piszczek’s through ball was pushed along by Quinn Uveges, but Scott’s blast on a charging Gongora-Falla sailed just over the crossbar. Two minutes earlier, Isaac Perez gave Phil Saccameno a strong lead pass down left wing, but the shot went wide of the net.

With 20 minutes to play, Uveges took a free kick on the far left side from 13 yards out. The ball found Scott on the far post, but the header was too high.

“If anybody’s faster than (Scott) anywhere in soccer, I’d be really surprised,” John Uveges said. “His vertical (jump) is absolutely incredible. He’ll beat anybody for a headball so we do like him up front and he does create offense for us.”

Metea gets to play again right away, opening Pepsi Showdown action Saturday at 8:30 a.m. against Kelly at Lyons Township’s La Grange soccer complex.

Now it’s South Elgin’s turn to wait on the schedule. The Storm do not play again until Sept. 18 at Neuqua Valley.

“(Our players) know practice tomorrow is going to be a real tough one for them. We’re going to run,” John Uveges said. “It’s not a punishment. It’s something that we say we didn’t play well enough. We’re going to do this for the team. We’re going to do a lot of conditioning so we’ll find those spaces, heels will be on the sidelines and we will win possession.

“It’s going to be like a track team so by the time we come out (playing again), we’re going to be running well.”