Vikings edged by Redhawks in Best of the West

By Eddie Burns

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The fans might have enjoyed Tuesday’s match between Fremd and Naperville Central, but it was not as easy for coaches Steve Keller and Troy Adams to watch and observe.

It was a back and forth match before the Redhawks eventually pulled out 2-1 victory in an opening-round contest of the Best of the West Tournament, played at Central’s Memorial Stadium.

The Redhawks also won both matches last season between the two schools, including a 4-3 victory in the Class 3A state semifinals.

“There were lots of miscues and lots of technical errors that you don’t want to see as a coach, but is kind of what you would expect to see in an August soccer match,” Adams said.

“You want to play teams that will push you and make you see deficiencies rather than playing teams that will allow you to think you are great.”

Both teams emphasized that last year was in the past, but this match certainly didn’t lack for intensity. The action really heated up in the second half after the match was scoreless at intermission.

Central (3-0) struck first in the 43rd minute when Sam Reskala, Jack Patrick and Mike West connected on a series of passes that resulted in a West goal.

Fremd (0-2) came right back and pulled even in the 52nd minute when Michael Debellis scored off a Jeremy Kosacz throw-in when Debellis managed to get a foot on the ball amidst a skirmish before the Central goal area.

The Vikings almost went ahead moments later when Tyler Sell’s attempt off a cross was stopped at point-blank range by Central goalie Mike Pavliga, who came up with several critical saves.

“You’ve really got to give (Pavliga) credit,” Fremd’s Eric Scott said. “He made some great saves and kept them in the game.”

Pavliga is the anchor along Central’s backline as the Redhawks are shuffling in a new group of defenders. As expected, the transition has had a few rough patches, but so far, Pavliga has responded to the challenge.

“They caught our defense off guard a few times,” Pavliga said, “but we just have this thing where I have my teammates’ backs and they have mine. If they mess up a little bit, I got them. If I come up off my line and I miss the ball, they got me.”

Pavliga’s efforts don’t go unnoticed.

“He saves us more than enough times that he has to,” Central senior forward Pat Flynn said. “He really came up clutch for us.”

Fremd goalie Steven Soltykiewicz also made several key saves and received some assistance from his teammates as well.

With the match still tied at 1-1, Flynn had beaten Soltykiewicz, but Fremd’s Spencer Janes was able to clear the ball off the line before it crossed.

Moments later, West played a ball through to Flynn in the penalty area and Flynn managed to somehow get the ball into the net for the winning score with 5:42 remaining.

“West played a great ball into me and I had two defenders on my back,” said Flynn, who already has five goals this season. “We got tripped and tangled up and eventually the ball found its way into the net.”

The Vikings continued to attack and almost pulled even again in the 76th minute, but Pavliga struck again when he managed to stop a diving header from Fremd’s Michael Eschbach, who had received a service from teammate Jon Magnusson.

“There was one (Fremd attempt) where I was like, ‘That’s a goal,’” Adams said. “Then Mike stuck his arm out and tipped it wide.

“I told him that we’re going to have to rely heavily on him early on this season. He is doing a great job of accepting the leadership role -- as he is becoming much more than just a goalie.”

Fremd coach Steve Keller applauded the play of both goalies, but said the Vikings struggle with having too many breakdowns, which has been a bug-a-boo for them early on this season.

“We have definitely have found a way to beat ourselves in two games that we’ve played,” Keller said. “We need to learn how to win and how to take care of cleaning up the mistakes.

“That second goal can’t happen. We’re making too many mental mistakes defensively. Today we did get a much better effort and created several scoring chances.”

The Vikings were dangerous in the offensive third, but they aren’t finishing consistently enough.

“Once we get our rhythm going, we’ll be a good team,” Fremd’s Nathan Dolan said. “One of the positives about this match was the way we bounced back once they scored. We know we have room to improve.”

For Adams, it was good win to secure, but he hopes his side learned from it as well.

“I told the guys that I was glad that they were able to find a way to win because that is something that good teams do,” Adams said. “But what we did today will not get us where we want to be come October and November and I think that is thing we want to remember.

“We don’t want to think we can just miraculously turn it on in November again and we’re going to get a lot of the lucky breaks that we got last year – there were a lot of them. This year the goal is to not rely on a lot of lucky breaks to get to the postseason.”