Mustangs battle Morton in Cup title game
By Dave Owen

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Conference play hasn’t even started, but Downers Grove South has a pretty good idea where it stands.

The Mustangs (3-2) matched defending state champion Morton shot for shot in Saturday’s title match of the Hinsdale Central Red Devil Cup, eventually falling just shy of the championship in a 2-1 loss when Morton won the penalty kick session 4-2.

“Getting to PK’s in a championship match, it’s a great experience in a tournament atmosphere,” Downers South coach Jon Stapleton said. “Hopefully that’s going to pay dividends in the conference schedule or the state playoffs.

“We shouldn’t hang our heads down. Obviously the kids wanted to win this one pretty bad, especially against a conference opponent and last year’s state champions. But it’s a good measuring stick for us and I think we rose to the challenge. If we play with that intensity and focus against everybody, we’ll be a tough team to beat.”

Downers South had the majority of the first half chances, and made one of those count with 11:52 to go until halftime.

Jack Freko angled a 20-yard free kick from right of the goal to the far post, where sophomore Eric Diaz streaked in to perfectly time a sliding shot into the corner of the net and put the Mustangs up 1-0.

Defensively in the first half, Nick Rossi headed away a Morton corner kick, Nick Gruic had two nice plays at the top of the box (including a blocked shot) and David Drews also blocked a Morton shot attempt to help Downers South go into the break with the lead.

“We practiced one-on-one defending yesterday,” Drews said, “and mostly winning it out of the air and being first to the ball and second to the ball so we can keep the ball with composure. We wanted to just be able to shut them down when they dribble, and not let them get too far.”

“We emphasized yesterday Morton’s creativity on the ball, and trying to maintain pressure and good technique defensively,” Stapleton said. “And for the most part the guys did that. It showed up collectively as a group.”

The only relative lapse defensively came in a furious first few minutes of the rainy second half.

Downers South goalkeeper Nick Tannenbaum made a great diving save to his right on a 20-yard shot with 39 minutes to play. Then off a Morton corner kick 2:20 into the half, Tannenbaum leaped to tip a nicely placed header just over the crossbar and force another corner kick.

But no acrobatics could repel Morton’s subsequent corner kick. Off a scramble in the box, Abel Guzman blasted a shot into the right corner of the net to tie the game 1-1 with 37 minutes left.

“We’d like to have that corner kick back,” Stapleton said. “The problem is that there were two other corners prior to that. That’s the unfortunate piece, that we had two other opportunities on corners to clear it out, and then that chance isn’t there.

“But I’m proud of our kids. I thought our guys played with a lot of energy today. Obviously there are spurts in a match where you don’t possess the ball as well as you’d like to, but you’re playing against a good team. I thought we were dangerous, and maybe a few of our set pieces we could have executed a little better on and been more dangerous with those. But I liked the fact we were taking people on and getting those opportunities. We’ll continue to improve and go from there.”

Andrew Grabavoy put Downers South back on the attack with 24:30 left, lining a 30-yard direct kick that required a nice save at the far post by Morton’s goalkeeper. Four minutes later, a Diaz shot off a Sam LaLonde center was deflected wide of the Morton net.

Downers South’s defense was also back in top form until the final horn.
With 18:30 left, Drews and Scott Holakovsky each had nice headers in succession to repel a Morton threat with Tannenbaum tangled up in traffic near the top of the box.

Rossi later blocked a close-in crossing attempt with his back at the 13-minute mark, and Tannenbaum punctuated his strong game by making nice saves with 5:55 left (at the right post on a 10-yard shot by Guzman) and 3:15 to go (coming off his line to punch out a 25-yard shot).

“We kept our composure well back there I thought,” Drews said. “The one goal was one fluke in the game. They never really had much of another chance. They had a couple of good shots, but our keeper (Tannenbaum) is strong back there. So I think the composure, depth and teamwork we had together back there (on defense) just helped us stay in that game and almost helped us come out on top.”

Downers South was denied victory in PK’s, when LaLonde and Tom Wendt connected but Rossi and Gruic were stopped on great diving saves. Morton shooters Joel Leon, Guzman, Abdon Delgado and Mario Romero all scored in the session.

The narrow loss could be just an early season preview of bigger things to follow: Downers South travels to Morton on Oct. 2 for what could be a key WSC Gold match.

“We need more one-on-one defending, and we need to shut them down when they dribble,” Drews said of Downers South’s goals for the rematch. “They dribbled so much today, and we just need to be able to shut them down quicker than letting them get so much time. We need to be faster to the ball and the first ones to the ball.”

“I think there’s a mutual respect between the two programs,” Stapleton said. “We like coming out and competing against each other. Today they got the better of it, but we’ll see what happens (in October). Maybe we can find a way in the conference schedule to repay the favor.”

To Stapleton, better consistency is the biggest issue to continued improvement.

“We just want to keep continuing to grow and get better as a group,” he said. “We’re an experienced group, but you add Eric (Diaz) into the mix and we have players playing alongside each other that need to mesh and understand their movements together, especially up top.

“It’s going to take some time, but it’s a great way to start the year. It puts you in high pressure situations, and I think we’re starting to see some character of this group start to emerge. Today was good evidence of that.”