Chicagoland Soccer

Porters beat Spartans, get rematch with Steelmen in regional

By Curt Herron

The soccer complex at Lockport Township has the well-deserved reputation as being the coldest and windiest site in the historic old canal town.

That was again made clear in Saturday's regional quarterfinal when the host Porters met up with Romeoville in a match at their wind-swept field.

As fans braved the uncomfortable conditions, both squads attempted to piece together some semblance of the game as winds roared across the pitch.

On most Saturday mornings throughout the season whether that was accomplished wouldn't have mattered much, but the stakes were higher on this day.

A trip to Tuesday's 4:30 p.m. Class 3A Joliet West Regional to face Joliet Central awaited the winner of the second LTHS-RHS match of the season.

The squads had met on a Saturday four weeks earlier on the other side of the Des Plaines River valley, with things ending in a mundane 1-1 draw.

But things have changed dramatically for coach Chris Beal's side since that time, reflected by their 8-3 run since getting off to a 1-7-2 start.

And while the Spartans put up the good fight that you'd expect to see whenever the old district rivals meet up, the day belonged to the Porters.

Robert Zieba scored a goal in each half and keeper Sebastian Matoniak turned away everything that came his way to help LTHS claim a 2-0 victory.

As a result, the Porters (9-10-2) get a rematch with a Steelmen squad that posted a 4-1 win over them when the teams met up back on October 7th.

"Earlier in the year, the guys were struggling and had their heads down and weren't being positive," Beal said. "Now they have their confidence back and also have the mentality of what it takes in order to get the job done.

"When things are going bad, you doubt yourself and the guys who are around you but when things are going well, you have confidence in yourself and with the players who are around you since you know they can get the job done.

"I told the boys to play everything on the floor as much as they possibly could due to the wind. We struggled with that a little in the first half but once we relaxed and got our composure, we did better in the second half."

One of the keys for the Porters has been their play defensively. This was their second straight shutout and their fifth clean sheet in 10 matches.

During their recent run of success they've gone with Jeff Milas, Louis Halper, Luke Harnik, T.J. Buckley and Nick Bergamini in front of Matoniak.

"It was really windy and we hadn't played in any games this season like that," Bergamini said. "So that was a big factor in the game. The wind made it hard since you have to play the ball on the ground. But I thought that we did a good job of that and moving the ball from the back to the front.

"The first time we played them, it was at their field, so it helped playing on our field.We had some people out in that first game but since then we've come together and we've improved a lot. Our trip to St. Louis, where we took second place, helped us a lot.

"Our improvement this season says a lot about our program and it also says a lot about our coaches, since they put in our heads that we had to come together as a team."

The tone was set early on offensively for the Porters when Louis Piccione smacked a shot off the crossbar during the opening 30 seconds of play.

About 10 minutes after that, Piccione got free for a short attempt but that effort was turned away by Spartans keeper Luis Castillo.

LTHS finally moved in front for good in the 19th minute when Zieba fired in a liner, which proved to be the only score for much of the match.

Shortly before the break, Piccione had another good chance but his shot also was deflected away and the hosts settled for a 1-0 halftime lead.

The Porters had more success stringing things together during the final 40 minutes, though it took them a little while to find the net again.

Piccione and Zieba both had attempts thwarted during the opening 20 minutes of the final half, which allowed the Spartans to still have a chance.

LTHS got a much-needed boost in the 67th minute when Piccione sent a pass toward Zieba, who fired in a short attempt to make it a 2-0 advantage.

It was a good thing that the Porters got that score since Romeoville kept the pressure on and nearly connected during the final 10 minutes.

On the first instance, Josh Ickes had a shot deflected away and a subsequent attempt by the Spartans had to be cleared away by Halper.

Not long after that, a wind-aided try went off of Matoniak's hands but the visitors unable to connect on the second-effort, sending it just wide.

"The defense did a great job of reading the ball with the wind and that helped me to get a clean sheet, which felt amazing," Matoniak said. "It was really hard to adjust because of the wind, but the defense put the team on our backs.

"Luke read the ball well, dropped when he had to and also used his speed. TJ used his left foot, Jeff crossed it in and went up and down the field and Louis also did a heck of a job.

"Our chemistry has gotten better in the back and we started acting more as a family. After we got the second place finish in St. Louis, we started bonding as a team and taking things more seriously and we started rolling from there."