Mobley the marquee name as
Downers South tops Downers North
DGS wins 3rd straight, DGN sharp but skid continues
By Matt Le Cren
DOWNERS GROVE – Downers Grove North and Downers Grove South usually put on a good show and that makes their annual crosstown clash a must-watch game for local fans.
So it was again Thursday night, so much so that if the game was a motion picture, it would be generating Oscar buzz.
The game produced nearly a thrill-a-minute, with end-to-end action keeping everyone on the edge of their seats and both squads in top form.
In the end, it was the host Mustangs that came up with 3-of-the-4 fantastic finishes, and Dylan Mobley bagging two goals to lead them to a 3-1 victory.
It was Mobley’s first two-goal game and gave Downers Grove South (8-4-2) a three-game winning streak. Downers Grove North (10-7) now has lost six in a row.
“It was a very good game all-around,” Downers Grove North coach Mike Schmitt said. “From start to finish I thought it was a top-notch game both sides of the ball.
“The loss is obviously disappointing because we did play really well tonight. I personally thought we had the better run of play tonight.
“I thought we controlled the majority of the game. We just weren’t opportunistic on the chances that we created, and they were. And when it comes down to it, that’s going to win the game.”
Mobley, who now has eight goals, partially agreed with that assessment.
“I think we put a lot of pressure on them all throughout the match,” Mobley said. “They may have had a few streaks of possession, but I really think that we kept the pressure up on them, kept them on their toes the entire match, and we had a few decent finishes.
“They had a lot of good strikes that could have been goals. Ronaldo’s that hit the crossbar was exceptional, but we put away our chances and that made the difference.”
Mobley referred to Ronaldo Perez, the North midfielder whom Schmitt tabbed as the best player on the field. Perez assisted on the Trojans’ lone goal and saw a nifty 20-yard cutback shot from the left wing skim the top of the crossbar with 5:50 remaining in the second half.
Had that gone in, things would have gotten a little hairy for the Mustangs in the closing minutes. But Downers Grove South was comfortably ahead at that point thanks to Mobley, who scored his second goal of the evening with 13:01 remaining when he met a cross from Garrett Burns and blasted a one-timer past Downers Grove North goalkeeper Christopher Bull to make it 3-1.
Mobley had given the Mustangs a 2-0 lead at the 34:28 mark. Peter Becht was the instigator of that play. He launched a 55-yard free kick which Bull did well to tip over the crossbar.
Burns sent the ensuing corner kick into traffic in front of the net, where it pinballed around before Mobley hacked it free and scored on a 10-yard roller inside the left post.
“(Scoring twice) is really cool, and I can’t credit it to me at all,” Mobley said. “I credit it to my teammates. They gave me great passes.
“One of my goals was just a bounce-around, and one of them was a great pass across the middle. It’s not a one-man show. I’m not the best player in Illinois, but it’s my team that’s really good.”
The Mustangs needed to be, because the Trojans didn’t look like a team mired in a losing streak.
They got on the board less than three minutes after Mobley’s first score, cutting the gap to 2-1 on a goal by sophomore Jokubas Baranauskas.
Perez took the ball into the right side of the penalty area and fed a pass to Baranauskas, who was tightly marked with his back to the goal just outside the six-yard box.
Baranauskas backheeled the ball onto his left foot as he turned the defender to his right, then slipped a short shot past Downers Grove South goalie Sam Dumford.
But other than Perez’s near-miss, the Trojans failed to muster any more solid scoring chances. They actually could have lost by a bigger margin if not for Bull, a sophomore who made three saves and came 30 yards off his line to stop Mobley’s bid for a hat trick with 3 minutes to go.
“We possessed the ball a little bit more,” Perez said. “We just couldn’t get the chances off on goal, but (the Mustangs) were able to finish. To be honest, I think we deserved to win more, but it’s not always like that.”
Indeed, the Trojans haven’t played that poorly despite losing seven of their last eight games. They’ve been in all but one of them and figure to be a tough out in the playoffs if they can figure things out.
“I think we let the wins get to us a little bit too much, so once we started losing we couldn’t get back up,” Perez said. “We just need to get the focus back.
“I think we just need to put the intensity up at practice more, just keep focused and don’t let the losses get to us. Once we get back on track, you won’t be able to stop us.”
That opinion is a popular one.
“North played very, very well tonight,” Downers Grove South coach Jon Stapleton said. “I’m sure they had a couple opportunities they would have liked to put away and maybe we put ours away and they didn’t. That’s the nature of the game.
“I know they had the hot start, and they’re trying to work things right now, but it wouldn’t surprise me if coach Schmitt gets them back on track because there were times tonight where they looked really, really good.”
The key for the Trojans is to not let the losing streak take on a life of its own.
“We’ve got to make sure they keep their heads up because, again, we played really well tonight,” Schmitt said. “Up until today we had a couple bad games and it was a very good response, how we came out and played tonight against a really good team.
“We’ve just got to keep plugging away. We’re getting back on track where we’re playing some good soccer and we’ve just got to make sure that we concentrate on that.”
Speaking of concentrating, Downers Grove South junior Nick Rohl is focusing his on being more of a facilitator rather than a mere finisher.
The speedy striker tallied 10 goals as a sophomore, but he had been in a scoring slump the past couple weeks before breaking through against the Trojans.
Rohl gave the Mustangs a 1-0 lead on a brilliant effort with 6:37 left in the first half, the result of a blistering counterattack with Mobley.
Mobley aggressively attacked up the middle of the penalty area but was pressured and gave the ball up to Rohl, who was just ahead of him.
Rohl sidestepped a defender and moved right-to-left to get around another before sliding a left-footed shot inside the right post.
“We’ve been practicing all year to just get to the near post, make the near post run, maybe you freeze the goalie,” Rohl said. “Our job is not to get the ball on the first run; it’s to open up space for someone else, so I made my run, Dylan was coming in; I see he’s got a defender on his side so I just take it off him.
“I turn around, I see two guys in front of me, and I am confident enough to cut it back to my left foot now and I buried it. Right away when it left my foot I knew it was going in.”
Rohl’s scoring has not been as prolific as it was last season, but he’s not concerned.
“It’s always nice to score, but I care more about the wins,” Rohl said. “Last year I had a lot of goals just running down the field and getting the ball and now our team has changed a lot from then.
“Instead of just throwing a ball over the top and running it down and finishing, my job is not just to score anymore; it’s to create space for other players, because I draw a lot of defenders to me. So when I go to space I draw attention and open up a huge gap, and we find a lot more success.”
That success lately has been a team effort, with Mobley noting that the Mustangs are more than the sum of their parts.
“I think we’re playing really great,” Mobley said. “Our offense is doing well, our defense is moving the ball really well, the midfield is doing fantastic winning balls in the air. You can’t point out one specific spot. I think everyone is very, very good but no one stands out.”
Starting lineups
Downers Grove North
G Christopher Bull
D Ruairi Conaghan
D Carter Tome
D Adam Kukielski
D Sam Crowley
M Liam Budnik
M Jack Richards
M Ronaldo Perez
M Jokubas Baranauskas
M Alex Pecheco
F Ethan Akkawi
Downers Grove South
G Sam Dumford
D Griffin Overbeck
D Peter Carr
D Ryan Strelau
D Anthony Masello
M Peter Becht
M Andrew Pierropoulos
F Garrett Burns
F Dylan Mobley
F Ian Wisniewski
F Nick Rohl
Man of the Match – Dylan Mobley, F, Downers Grove South.
Downers South tops Downers North
DGS wins 3rd straight, DGN sharp but skid continues
By Matt Le Cren
DOWNERS GROVE – Downers Grove North and Downers Grove South usually put on a good show and that makes their annual crosstown clash a must-watch game for local fans.
So it was again Thursday night, so much so that if the game was a motion picture, it would be generating Oscar buzz.
The game produced nearly a thrill-a-minute, with end-to-end action keeping everyone on the edge of their seats and both squads in top form.
In the end, it was the host Mustangs that came up with 3-of-the-4 fantastic finishes, and Dylan Mobley bagging two goals to lead them to a 3-1 victory.
It was Mobley’s first two-goal game and gave Downers Grove South (8-4-2) a three-game winning streak. Downers Grove North (10-7) now has lost six in a row.
“It was a very good game all-around,” Downers Grove North coach Mike Schmitt said. “From start to finish I thought it was a top-notch game both sides of the ball.
“The loss is obviously disappointing because we did play really well tonight. I personally thought we had the better run of play tonight.
“I thought we controlled the majority of the game. We just weren’t opportunistic on the chances that we created, and they were. And when it comes down to it, that’s going to win the game.”
Mobley, who now has eight goals, partially agreed with that assessment.
“I think we put a lot of pressure on them all throughout the match,” Mobley said. “They may have had a few streaks of possession, but I really think that we kept the pressure up on them, kept them on their toes the entire match, and we had a few decent finishes.
“They had a lot of good strikes that could have been goals. Ronaldo’s that hit the crossbar was exceptional, but we put away our chances and that made the difference.”
Mobley referred to Ronaldo Perez, the North midfielder whom Schmitt tabbed as the best player on the field. Perez assisted on the Trojans’ lone goal and saw a nifty 20-yard cutback shot from the left wing skim the top of the crossbar with 5:50 remaining in the second half.
Had that gone in, things would have gotten a little hairy for the Mustangs in the closing minutes. But Downers Grove South was comfortably ahead at that point thanks to Mobley, who scored his second goal of the evening with 13:01 remaining when he met a cross from Garrett Burns and blasted a one-timer past Downers Grove North goalkeeper Christopher Bull to make it 3-1.
Mobley had given the Mustangs a 2-0 lead at the 34:28 mark. Peter Becht was the instigator of that play. He launched a 55-yard free kick which Bull did well to tip over the crossbar.
Burns sent the ensuing corner kick into traffic in front of the net, where it pinballed around before Mobley hacked it free and scored on a 10-yard roller inside the left post.
“(Scoring twice) is really cool, and I can’t credit it to me at all,” Mobley said. “I credit it to my teammates. They gave me great passes.
“One of my goals was just a bounce-around, and one of them was a great pass across the middle. It’s not a one-man show. I’m not the best player in Illinois, but it’s my team that’s really good.”
The Mustangs needed to be, because the Trojans didn’t look like a team mired in a losing streak.
They got on the board less than three minutes after Mobley’s first score, cutting the gap to 2-1 on a goal by sophomore Jokubas Baranauskas.
Perez took the ball into the right side of the penalty area and fed a pass to Baranauskas, who was tightly marked with his back to the goal just outside the six-yard box.
Baranauskas backheeled the ball onto his left foot as he turned the defender to his right, then slipped a short shot past Downers Grove South goalie Sam Dumford.
But other than Perez’s near-miss, the Trojans failed to muster any more solid scoring chances. They actually could have lost by a bigger margin if not for Bull, a sophomore who made three saves and came 30 yards off his line to stop Mobley’s bid for a hat trick with 3 minutes to go.
“We possessed the ball a little bit more,” Perez said. “We just couldn’t get the chances off on goal, but (the Mustangs) were able to finish. To be honest, I think we deserved to win more, but it’s not always like that.”
Indeed, the Trojans haven’t played that poorly despite losing seven of their last eight games. They’ve been in all but one of them and figure to be a tough out in the playoffs if they can figure things out.
“I think we let the wins get to us a little bit too much, so once we started losing we couldn’t get back up,” Perez said. “We just need to get the focus back.
“I think we just need to put the intensity up at practice more, just keep focused and don’t let the losses get to us. Once we get back on track, you won’t be able to stop us.”
That opinion is a popular one.
“North played very, very well tonight,” Downers Grove South coach Jon Stapleton said. “I’m sure they had a couple opportunities they would have liked to put away and maybe we put ours away and they didn’t. That’s the nature of the game.
“I know they had the hot start, and they’re trying to work things right now, but it wouldn’t surprise me if coach Schmitt gets them back on track because there were times tonight where they looked really, really good.”
The key for the Trojans is to not let the losing streak take on a life of its own.
“We’ve got to make sure they keep their heads up because, again, we played really well tonight,” Schmitt said. “Up until today we had a couple bad games and it was a very good response, how we came out and played tonight against a really good team.
“We’ve just got to keep plugging away. We’re getting back on track where we’re playing some good soccer and we’ve just got to make sure that we concentrate on that.”
Speaking of concentrating, Downers Grove South junior Nick Rohl is focusing his on being more of a facilitator rather than a mere finisher.
The speedy striker tallied 10 goals as a sophomore, but he had been in a scoring slump the past couple weeks before breaking through against the Trojans.
Rohl gave the Mustangs a 1-0 lead on a brilliant effort with 6:37 left in the first half, the result of a blistering counterattack with Mobley.
Mobley aggressively attacked up the middle of the penalty area but was pressured and gave the ball up to Rohl, who was just ahead of him.
Rohl sidestepped a defender and moved right-to-left to get around another before sliding a left-footed shot inside the right post.
“We’ve been practicing all year to just get to the near post, make the near post run, maybe you freeze the goalie,” Rohl said. “Our job is not to get the ball on the first run; it’s to open up space for someone else, so I made my run, Dylan was coming in; I see he’s got a defender on his side so I just take it off him.
“I turn around, I see two guys in front of me, and I am confident enough to cut it back to my left foot now and I buried it. Right away when it left my foot I knew it was going in.”
Rohl’s scoring has not been as prolific as it was last season, but he’s not concerned.
“It’s always nice to score, but I care more about the wins,” Rohl said. “Last year I had a lot of goals just running down the field and getting the ball and now our team has changed a lot from then.
“Instead of just throwing a ball over the top and running it down and finishing, my job is not just to score anymore; it’s to create space for other players, because I draw a lot of defenders to me. So when I go to space I draw attention and open up a huge gap, and we find a lot more success.”
That success lately has been a team effort, with Mobley noting that the Mustangs are more than the sum of their parts.
“I think we’re playing really great,” Mobley said. “Our offense is doing well, our defense is moving the ball really well, the midfield is doing fantastic winning balls in the air. You can’t point out one specific spot. I think everyone is very, very good but no one stands out.”
Starting lineups
Downers Grove North
G Christopher Bull
D Ruairi Conaghan
D Carter Tome
D Adam Kukielski
D Sam Crowley
M Liam Budnik
M Jack Richards
M Ronaldo Perez
M Jokubas Baranauskas
M Alex Pecheco
F Ethan Akkawi
Downers Grove South
G Sam Dumford
D Griffin Overbeck
D Peter Carr
D Ryan Strelau
D Anthony Masello
M Peter Becht
M Andrew Pierropoulos
F Garrett Burns
F Dylan Mobley
F Ian Wisniewski
F Nick Rohl
Man of the Match – Dylan Mobley, F, Downers Grove South.