Bulldogs edged by Huskies in clash of titans at Morton Invite

 

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By Curt Herron

It was hardly the setting that one would envision for a matchup of two squads that are nationally-ranked.

On a poorly-lit field field whose surface was far from ideal, a pair of the state's best clashed on Friday before a sparse crowd on a cool night in Central Illinois.

While a meeting between unbeatens Naperville North and Batavia would have been a big event in Chicagoland, in downstate Morton it was even upstaged by another match.

With the host Potters facing Urbana at the main facility at McClallen Park, the Huskies and Bulldogs met up a side field on opening night in the Morton Invitational.

But as traffic zipped by on nearby I-74 and things were buzzing downtown at the annual Pumpkin Festival, an interesting match unfolded in this quiet, rural setting.

North and Batavia battled fiercely throughout the entire 80 minutes, as would be expected from two quality sides who had something to prove going up against one another.

Although the Huskies enjoyed most of the quality chances and more of the possession, the Bulldogs fought through adversity and extended the drama until the final whistle.

The difference between the two squads came in the 55th minute when North was finally able to capitalize on one of its frequent sequences of threatening restarts.

From just outside of the box, Evan Trychta sent a perfect free kick in front of the net to Kyle Lindberg, who put in a short try for the lone score of the night.

The Huskies' 1-0 win over the Bulldogs advances them to Saturday morning's tournament semifinals against Morton, which recorded a 4-1 victory over the Tigers.

On the other side of the eight-team bracket, West Aurora and Edwardsville moved on to the semifinals. Coach Joe Sustersic's Blackhawks won 1-0 over Rochester.

While the tournament championship is scheduled for this afternoon, it's difficult to believe that Friday's North-Batavia matchup wasn't the actual title match.

One individual who obviously would like to hear some more details about the evening's events is North coach Jim Konrad, who wasn't able to be at Friday's contest.

In his new role as North's athletic director, Konrad had to be in Naperville on Friday to see the Huskies football team knock off Wheaton Warrenville South.

But after being ably-served by his assistants on Friday, Konrad was heading down to Morton after the football game to oversee things for Saturday's two matches.

"I thought the boys left everything on the field," Huskies assistant coach Steve Goletz said. "Batavia is a very fast and physical team and I thought we matched them, even though we haven't played a team as fast or as strong as they were.

"Obviously with the field being what it was, it was hard to play soccer in terms of connecting passes. Our guys made the right decisions in getting the ball up quickly to Evan and Kyle and they did a great job of holding the ball and taking the pressure off.

"On our goal, Evan is on the ball and he's our playmaker and he and Kyle saw the opportunity that was open near post and they made the right play and it worked out. I give all of the credit today to the boys because their effort was outstanding.

"A big part of it was that our boys kept their composure and I was proud of the way that they did that. And our backline and center midfield were both phenomenal today. We limited very good players to very limited chances."

The Huskies (9-0-1) won their eighth straight match and recorded their sixth shutout after becoming the first team this year to blank the Bulldogs (7-1-1).

Kevin Anderson didn't have to face many threats from the Bulldogs thanks to the efforts of defenders Matt Vogel, Lee Grander, Zach Fischmann and Neil Wiaranowski.

"Neil, Lee, Zach and Matt have been outstanding for us in the back," Goletz said. "Things were a little bit shaky against West Chicago so we went back to the basics in the last two days of practice and I thought tonight was their best performance.

"Matt and Lee have been around while Zach and Neil are starting on varsity for the first time this year and have been phenomenal for us. And Kevin is so rock-solid in the back and we have great confidence that he'll to get anything that does get through.

"We tell our boys that we need to get better each day as a group and I felt that we were better than we were against West Chicago. It was good to have an experience like this, a physical game on a small field after taking a three-hour bus ride to get here."

Lindberg knew that he and his teammates faced their biggest challenge so far and that they would have to work harder than usual in order to get a win.

"Both teams were nationally ranked so obviously we knew that it was going to be a tough match," Lindberg said. "It was a great game and both teams worked really hard but we finally found a way to put one in.

"That's our play, even though I don't think that we'd scored on it before. This was a good time to score on it, though. The field and the conditions weren't the best so we knew that we just had to work hard.

"Coach Goletz said that this was the hardest team that we've played against so far and it was definitely true. It wasn't a perfect performance by any means but it's definitely a step in the right direction."

Although he saw his squad fall for the first time, Bulldogs coach Mark Gianfrancesco preferred to look at the positives for the evening, which outweighed the negatives.

Batavia got a bit rattled after some calls went against it and the frustrations grew after the Bulldogs were issued far more yellow cards than were the Huskies.

They suffered a significant loss about half an hour into the match when Anthony Torres received his second yellow, sending him to the bench for the rest of the night.

While things easily could have gone south for the Bulldogs, their coach was pleased with the way that his players rose to the occasion under the circumstances.

"I wish we would have been a little more composed at times, but I thought the officiating played into that as well, and then things just snowballed on us," Gianfrancesco said. "But I thought the group I had in there in the second half played very well.

"We were playing feet and responded very well after the goal. And that was great to see since we were probably sitting four or five starters at that point. The guys we had out there stuck with it and had some nice combinations and opportunities in the box.

"This was a learning experience and hopefully we can be a little more composed and smarter next time when things don't go our way. We knew they were good on set plays and we talked about that before the game but we still fouled them way too much."

Gianfrancesco liked the efforts that he received from seniors Cody Balogh, Cody Witkowski and Lalo Cuautle, who all rose to the occasion as the match unfolded.

He also liked the performances that he received some unheralded players, who had to step in for others due to the cards, especially individuals on defense.

"Since both of my center backs had yellow cards, I had to play two new guys back there in Brendan Allen and Ryan Milligan and those guys held it together against a pretty good group of guys. And we combined up top and did a good job of moving up.

"Is the season over? No. If this makes us smarter and more composed, than it's a good thing. Plus we got to see some good competition, which is awesome. So we're going to move forward and Saturday's just another day and we have two more games."

One of North's best first-half chances came about 20 minutes in when Trychta lined a free from just outside of the box that was hauled in by keeper Ben Steskal.

Shortly after that, Nanad Komljenovic got free and had a short attempt, which was deflected by Steskal, who later punched away a long free kick from Lee Grander.

The final half featured a steady dose of free kicks from Trychta, with new keeper Michael Rueffer halting nearly everything that came in his direction.

Right after the half began, Trychta got open in front but his try bounced off the post. He followed up on that with a pair of threatening free kicks.

Cuautle responded with a pair of long free kicks that were hauled in by Kevin Anderson that book ended a short shot by Lindberg that was denied.

After North moved in front, Trychta sent in a pair of free kicks to Rueffer, who got cleated on the goal and exited about midway through the last half.

Both teams had good chances down the stretch but Anderson kicked away a Bulldog threat and Steskal punched a long try by Lindberg a short time later.

"This wasn't the greatest field but one value that our coaches always try to instill in us is hard work and I thought that's what this game was about," Huskies senior Sam Darwan said.

"I'm proud of all my teammates since we kept our composure and we all just played our game. This was a fun game and we needed to have a game like this against an extremely good team.

"As we're getting into the middle of the season, our team is finally starting to come together and we're working well and that's what we need since we need to work together as a team."