Wildcats lose on late, late goal to Benet

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By Gary Larsen

It was one mighty fluke of a goal, but Benet will certainly take it.

A game seemingly destined to end in a 1-1 draw screeched to a halt and reversed course with little more than a minute left in regulation, when Benet’s Brendon Gesior launched a serve from 50 yards out at the right sideline.

Gesior’s boot bounced high in West Chicago’s box, the Wildcats’ keeper slipped on the artificial turf while coming out to get it, and the ball calmly bounced into the goal.

All you can do is shrug after a finish like that, and coaches from both teams did just that.

“They made things dangerous in the first half, we made things dangerous in the second, and leading into the game’s last five minutes I thought 1-1 was about right,” Benet coach Sean Wesley said.

“I don’t know that we deserved that second goal but we’ve talked about putting it in the box, making things dangerous and serving balls to give yourself a chance, and that’s what (Gesior) did.”

 “Just one of those things,” Wildcats coach Steve Brugmann said of Gesior’s unlikely game-winning shot. “Sometimes those things happen.”

For 40 minutes, West Chicago (8-5-2) just about played keepaway from Benet (6-3-1).  “We haven’t seen a team that’s held the ball for that long, just working it back and forth,” Benet senior Hunter Miller said. “They just kept possession really well and in the first half it was hard to adjust to that, because we were playing with one up top.”

The Wildcats’ early possession and ability to find gaps culminated in a Jesus Duran goal at 12 minutes. Duran ran onto a ball sent ahead on the left side and won a race for it to the near post, with two defenders and a goalkeeper converging on him.

The junior’s shot went untouched into the netting inside the far post.

Where West Chicago is concerned, you can almost always point to Duran, Diego Munoz, Richard Paret, Esteban Fernandez, Jenaro Terrazas, and a few more players vital to the attack, but the truth is that the Wildcats have players spread out all over the park who have touch and attacking abilities.

If center mid Munoz isn’t on anyone’s radar screen yet, then everyone needs a new radar system. The junior’s foot skills and creative abilities were a sight to behold on Monday.

“You can rocket a ball at his foot and he kills it dead,” Brugmann said. “He’s really been such a strong player for us and such a positive force – he doesn’t get down or frustrated, he just keeps playing.”

Down 1-0 at halftime, Benet needed a change. Wesley added a second forward to the attack and urged his boys to turn up the heat.

“I thought instead of pressuring as a team in the first half, we were pressuring as individuals,” Wesley said. “They’re talented and they just worked the ball around us. We had eight guys sitting behind the ball and waiting, and two guys running around looking silly.

“In the second half we wanted to pressure as a unit and I thought it worked. It gave up some chances in the back in the second half because they’re fast and talented up top, but when we did win it we were already in their half and we were able to make things dangerous. Hunter was finding space and it got (West Chicago) out of their comfort zone a little.”

Benet knotted the score at 57 minutes when Miller sent a corner kick to the near post and Benjamin Kucera stepped onto it and absolutely hammered a head shot to the back netting.

“We obviously had height in the box, and me and (Kucera) have a system of finding out where the open space is in the box,” Miller said. “I just called for near post, he made the run and did a great job finishing on that ball.”

West Chicago central defenders Daniel Hernandez and Gilberto Villa led a fine effort to keep Benet from getting behind their defense, while on the other end of the field the Redwings’ Kyle DalSanto shut the door on the Wildcats.

Benet’s junior keeper made a diving stop at 55 minutes and charged off his line far and wide in getting there first to West Chicago through-balls.

“That was probably his best game this year in terms of how he reads the game, and sees the field,” Wesley said. “Kyle cut things off and never allowed them to get too deep.”

“It’s not the shot-stopping, it’s the organizing so that they don’t get those opportunities – that’s the hardest part,” DalSanto said. “But they teach you that from the time you’re ten years old.”

Brugmann was pleased with the way his defense handled Benet’s increased pressure in the second half.

“So many games early on we gave up free kicks just from being impatient defensively, and we didn’t do it much today,” Brugmann said. “I’m a lot happier with the patience our defense is showing.”

“Gilberto Villa made some mistakes early on this year but he has really cleaned those up, and he’s a presence in the middle for us, and Danny (Hernandez) in the back is really quick, tough, and he reads the ball really well. Between the two of them, they’re commanding the back line for us.”

After Kucera’s goal, the two teams traded scoring chances until Gesior’s game-winner. Wesley got typically strong play from his captains on Monday and solid contributions from other sources as well.

“Robert Tomecek fractured a finger and we didn’t start him, but he came into the game and he was a stud today,” Wesley said. “And Joey Chiarello came in off the bench and I just left him on. He’s a kid who normally plays a role and I give him 20 minutes and take him off, but he earned the right to stay on the field today, which nice to see.”

Benet is now 4-0-1 in its last five games and is playing with the energy and intensity it always takes to play good soccer.

“I felt it today and it was a lot better than it’s been in previous games,” DalSanto said. “It resonates from one person to another and we showed it in the second half. The chemistry has been building really nicely and we may not be the biggest team, but we play like it.”

Meanwhile the moral victories have piled up for West Chicago, and the Wildcats have had just about enough of them.

Over the last 11 days the Wildcats have lost games 2-1 to Morton, Naperville North, and now Benet. But West Chicago remains confident that they can compete with any team in Illinois.

“Today was important for the sectional (seeding) and we had to win, but unfortunately we didn’t,” West Chicago senior Esteban Fernandez said. “We just have to finish our chances. It’s disappointing but tomorrow is a conference game (vs. WW South) so we just have to get ready for that.

“We’ve lost games and won games against good teams. We gave them all a challenge and I think that’s the point, is that we know we’re capable of competing with anybody.”

His coach agrees.

“I think we continue to know we can play with anyone, and even after a loss like tonight I think we’ll bounce back and play hard against Wheaton South tomorrow,” Brugmann said. “We’ll be all right.”