Cougars defeat Bengals to improve to 2-0 in SPC play

 

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By Ken Ryan

Senior midfielder Colton Gallt wants more than anything to help Plainfield South's program make history this season.

“We’ve never won conference before so that’s our main goal,” Gallt said. “I really think we have a good shot at winning it this year. That’s what we’re all trying to do.”

Gallt certainly did his part Tuesday to help the 10th-year program remain on track for its milestone achievement.

He scored both goals in a 2-1 Southwest Prairie Conference victory over visiting Plainfield East that improved South’s league record to 2-0.

“This was a big win for us,” said senior defender Grant Dziuda, who is a captain along with Gallt, Jeff Bond and Adam Rodriguez said.

“This game is a big rivalry because it’s against another Plainfield school. It’s really exciting to win two games in conference because we’re really hoping to do good things in conference this year.”

South (7-2-1) jumped ahead 1-0 with 18:16 remaining in the opening half when Gallt headed in a perfectly-placed free kick from 30 yards out by Bond.

East (4-5, 1-1) caught a break to even the score at 1-1 just more than 10 minutes into the second half.

The Bengals’ Reid Mitchell crossed a ball in front of the goal and a South defender accidently tapped the ball into the back of the net for an own goal.

“For some reason we came out with zero energy today,” South coach Dave Brown said.

“We talked at halftime about this being a conference match and if we want to do anything in the conference, which a lot of them talk like they want to, we have to show it on the field.

"I think getting scored on almost benefited us today and woke us up a little bit. It put a fire in our bellies to kind of respond and come back.”

Plainfield South quickly overcame the adversity when Gallt notched his second goal of the contest just 37 seconds after Plainfield East tied the score.

Anthony Skrip kept the pressure on the defense off a corner kick scramble when he headed the ball to Gallt, who again headed the ball into the back of the net for what turned out to be the game-winning goal.

“The first goal I had a really good service from Jeff Bond. He put it in perfectly, so I expected to score,” Gallt said. “The second goal was getting knocked around in the box and Anthony Skrip headed it back to me and I was wide open and it was another easy goal. Last year I scored a lot on headers. I know I’m not the biggest guy on the field, but if you’re in the right spot anything can happen.”

South has allowed just four goals all season, so Dziuda certainly isn’t going to let the own goal bother him too much.

“It was pretty disappointing, but it happens,” Dziuida said. “One mistake is not going to get to us. It was really big to get the second goal because we were fired up after giving up the own goal.

"It put some fire under us. Our defense has been good. We’ve been working well together. We were all together last year, too, so that really helps.”

Senior goalkeeper Eric Hoar needed to make just three saves in the victory, thanks to strong defensive play from Dziuda, Jake Fitzgerald, Miguel Rodriguez and Erik Valencia.

East’s goal was the first one the Cougars have allowed in six home games this season.

“We’re a defensive team this year,” said Brown, whose team has six shutouts already. “Last year we could put goals on the board with most teams and then we lost our two main goal scorers.

"Our back line is all back this year, so we rely heavily on them. Between Eric and Tyler (Olsen) in goal, we’ve given up four goals in 10 games. We’ve been doing pretty well back there.”

While Brown is pleased with his team’s performance so far this season, he knows there’s plenty of work ahead after pulling out Tuesday’s victory.

“Our team is led by a ton of seniors,” Brown said. “We have four captains this year and we start eight seniors most days. They’ve been around the block and know what it takes to win conference games.

"We know East is going to play scrappy and play physical, that’s what they try to do. Today, we were just one play better than them. It was a pretty even game overall.”

South will now play in the semifinals of the Lincoln-Way Invitational Thursday.

The Cougars finished second in their pool with a 1-1-1 record, beating Reavis 1-0 Sept. 10, tying Lincoln-Way North 1-1 Sept. 8 and losing to Marian Catholic 1-0 Sept. 6.