East Aurora's second half dooms Storm

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By Steve Nemeth

South Elgin coach John Uveges hopes his squad can utilize the “silver lining” within a cloudy second half that allowed East Aurora to pull off a 2-1 come-from-behind win Thursday.

After a stellar opening 40 minutes in which all parties agreed the visiting Storm was the dominant team, South Elgin lost momentum, then lost the lead, and ultimately lost its first Upstate Eight Conference Valley Division match.

The latter is more frustrating in the context that last year’s Valley Division featured not one, but two unbeaten squads. While Neuqua Valley finished 4-0-2, East Aurora claimed its first-ever conference title by going 5-0-1; which is why a 2-0-2 mark would have kept South Elgin in this year’s title hunt.

Instead, the Storm had a four-match unbeaten (2-0-2) string interrupted with a one-goal loss that dipped the overall mark to 5-4-3 and the league ledger to 1-1-2. East Aurora – just outside the Top 10 in both Chicago newspaper polls --- improved to 9-3-1 and 3-0-0.

The contest was just under four minutes in when South Elgin’s Tyler Piszczek had a solid opportunity from six yards out on the left side saved by East Aurora keeper Osvaldo Mata. But with 10:45 gone, Piszczek wouldn’t be denied. Danny Fry’s assist pass found the Storm junior open for a 14-yarder from the middle for his third goal of the season.

“I saw Tyler in position and just crossed it to him, but we missed too many other chances in the beginning which in itself, kind of gave them some momentum for the second half and once they got going, we just lost it,” admitted Fry, who recorded his fifth assist. “We put our heads down a little bit and in the second half, we sat back and played more defensive, which meant they could take even more chances.”

The Storm had several chances to add to the lead including the mid-point of the half when Mike Kozielek brought the ball in just off the end line and the tough angle forced him to try for a curve inside the far post. Instead the ball rolled through the East Aurora goal box just begging for a South Elgin foot to redirect it.

“We have got to play better in the final third of the field. Unfortunately in the second half, we just stopped pressing the attack,” Fry said.

South Elgin coach John Uveges had to agree with that the match was a tale of two halves.

“Momentum shifted their way and we could not get it back in any way,” Uveges lamented. “They're clearly the best team we've played to date, but we lost our composure and abandoned our possession game. Regrettably, that’s been a problem for us. We play great, but then don’t sustain it.

“If anything good can come from this, it’s the reality that we can play with a team this good, but we have to stay focused. The good news is that we still believe in ourselves and I know they don’t want to stop just with a regional trophy,” Uveges added. “So the key is for us to regroup and refocus. Thankfully Fry and (Alberto) Bustamante have had consistently stellar games for us. Also Bret (Hildebrandt) has been an incredible leader. He even brings us offense as a defender. He’s such a perfectionist, he’ll be depressed until our next match and until we get things right for a win.”

Unfortunately for South Elgin, it was East Aurora that got things right in the second half.

“Not only did we come out real flat, but we have a target on our backs now and South Elgin was the aggressor from the start. They were all over the place and we were lucky to be behind 1-0,” East coach Jason Rollins admitted. “They missed some opportunities, so I basically told our guys they had to take the breath out of them. I'm proud of the way we responded.”

Having turned up the offensive pressure, the Tomcats got the equalizer at 54:51 when Danny Miranda found Angel Diaz open for a nine-yarder from the right wing.

“I tried to give Danny a good through ball and then decided to make a run and he gave me a good pass, so I decided just to shoot hard on frame,” explained Diaz, who tallied his third goal of the year despite being primarily a defender. “We pride ourselves on being a team that never gives up.”

A minute later East Aurora was knocking at the door again as David Reynoso had a 1-v-1 with Storm goalie Jarod Schieler, whose rush may have caused the Tomcat junior to fire wide into the side netting. But with 17:26 left in the contest, the hosts followed the equalizer with a match-winner as a scramble led to a loose ball in front of the South Elgin net and that's where Abraham Kanneh went airborne, executing a half bicycle volley for his team-best eighth goal.

“Coach was pretty mad at us being down 1-0 at halftime and after he told us everything we were doing wrong, we had to start to change things,” Kanneh explained. “In the first half we ran too straight up the middle, he told us to start checking to each other, take it outside and cross it in, and be more aggressive.”

That approach is something both teams hope to use on Saturday when both are in action. South Elgin hosts Waubonsie Valley in a high noon UEC Valley showdown while East Aurora has a 10 am non-conference visit to Oswego before a Tuesday road date with the Warriors.