Warriors can't find the net in regional defeat to Grens

 

 

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By Curt Herron

After going six weeks without collecting a win, a lot of teams would have been ready to toss in the towel on their season.

Although it faced that scenario on Saturday, it was quite clear that Elk Grove was determined to play a little while longer.

Facing elimination in a regional quarterfinal match, the Grenadiers ended their drought with a 4-0 home win over Willowbrook.

Coach Joe Bush's squad didn't look like a team that had posted an 0-8-4 mark since opening its season with a 2-2-1 record.

Quick goals in each half provided the spark to advance the Grenadiers to the next round of their own regional tournament.

With the win, the Grens (3-10-5) advance to Tuesday's 4:30 p.m. semifinals, where they'll meet St. Charles North (11-4-3).

Geneva and Glenbard North face off in the other semifinal match at 7:00 p.m. The finals are set for Saturday at 3:00 p.m.

The four-goal outburst equaled the squad's previous-best offensive effort, which came in a 4-4 draw with Rolling Meadows.

Zach Solorio scored a pair of goals to lead the Grens on Saturday while Miguel Rodriguez and Jesus Lara also found the net.

"After losing so many games, we got a little down," Solorio said. "But we tied Hoffman Estates in the (Mid Suburban League) crossover and that gave us some momentum as we started practicing for this game.

"Our outside mids, Gio (Garcia) and Jesus did a good job and with Justin (Gavros) and Trevor (Cwiok) controlling things in the middle, we were able to push things forward to Miguel and me and that worked out good.

"We're getting better as a team and trusting each other more. Hopefully we can play like this again when we see St. Charles North on Tuesday."

The Grens had a strong wind at their backs in the opening half and were able to score twice and stay largely in Willowbrook's end.

Knowing that his team could have had a bigger lead than 2-0 at the break, Bush was concerned about how the final half might start.

But those fears faded quickly when the hosts connected less than a minute into the half and then continued to dominate the play.

"We kind of went back to basics and worked on a lot of touch-stuff and overlapping runs in practice this week and it showed today," Bush said. "Our touch was great and I knew that we needed that today.

"With the wind, it was important to score early, which we did. I thought that if we could put some early pressure on them, we might be successful today, and we were able to do that.

"At halftime, I told the guys that 2-0 is a very dangerous lead because you feel like you're in control but with one mistake, it's a close game again. Then we scored in the first minute of the second half.

Elk Grove experienced some bad luck during its winless steak, dropping three one-goal decisions and settling for four draws.

But many of those results came against quality opponents, giving their coach hope that they could win in the playoff opener.

"While we've been close in a lot of games, to Willowbrook's credit, they worked hard throughout the match," Bush said. "But that's what you expect since it's the playoffs.

"Last week in practice our guys decided that they were going to work hard and listen to the game plan and I thought they followed it well and I'm pleased with how we played."

Grens keeper Mike Ragano didn't face any threats in the opening 40 minutes and stopped a handful of shots in the final half.

That assured Elk Grove of its fourth shutout, with two of those coming early in the year and the other one four weeks ago.

"We made some changes in the back," Bush said. "We moved Conor Murphy back from forward and had Eddie Rodriguez on the outside and moved Manny Pillado back to sweeper.

"And I thought that they did a nice job today. The biggest thing was that when one defender was kind of checking to the ball, another guy got behind him, which was nice."

The Grens got the only goal they would need in the fifth minute when Lara sent a pass to Miguel Rodriguez, who connected.

Elk Grove moved ahead 2-0 in the 15th minute when Garcia found Solorio, who got past defenders and put in a short shot.

During the last part of the opening half, the hosts had plenty of chances, but most were stopped by keeper Eddson Garcia.

After Solorio and David Bahena were each wide of the mark, Murphy created a corner kick, which Gavros lined to the keeper.

After Garcia hauled in tries from Lara and Murphy, Gio Garcia was just wide of the mark to keep the score 2-0 at halftime.

It didn't remain that way for long, however, as the hosts kept the heat on the Warriors (1-22-2) early in the final half.

Elk Grove missed connecting right after the break when Gavros sent a pass to Miguel Rodriguez, whose short try was halted.

Before the 41st minute was over, Solorio lined a shot off the crossbar and Lara promptly put in the loose ball for a score.

After facing a 2-0 deficit at the break, Warriors coach Brian Frank realized that the quick third score sealed the outcome.

Willowbrook went 0-10-1 down the stretch after it captured its only victory of the campaign over St. Rita four weeks ago.

"Obviously giving up the first goal put us on our heels and for some reason we never really recovered from that," Frank said. "Then they came out fast in the second half and kind of put things away.

"This is kind of how things have gone all season. We had too few seniors and way too many injuries. Basically what we're going through now is what we should have been going through in early September.

"We went with quite a few juniors this season and also had three sophomores who saw significant playing time, so that should benefit us for next year."

After taking a 3-0 lead, Elk Grove looked for more as Gavros, Lara and Cwiok were all denied during the next few minutes.

The warriors finally had their first good attempt in the 49th minute when Rogelio Fuentes sent a header that Ragano stopped.

Solorio closed the scoring in the 55th minute when he lined an attempt off of the crossbar that fell into the net for a goal.

In the final 20 minutes of the second half, Ragano grabbed a long shot from Dylan Jones and Gavros was denied on a free kick.

Warrior Ben Draus was just wide on a header off of a free kick from Eric Lukitsh and then Murphy saw his free kick hauled in.

Willowbrook had one more late chance to try to break up the shutout, which followed a long free kick from Brian Dornacher.

Tito Cabral flicked an attempt toward the net and after Ragano deflected it, Lukitsh had a chance that also was thwarted.

"I'm really happy that we finally got the result that we were looking for," Lara said. "We just have to keep playing like this and be consistent like we were today.

"It's been hard for us to put the ball into the back of the net this year. Our team felt relieved to get a victory today and you could see that on everyones' face."